BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Richard Bland, on a break from his LIV Golf schedule to make his senior main championship debut, made essentially the most of it Thursday with a 7-under 64 to share the lead with Richard Inexperienced of Australia within the Senior PGA Championship.
Inexperienced performed within the morning and posted three birdies and an eagle on the par 5s at Harbor Shores. Bland had an opportunity to move him late within the afternoon till he needed to scramble for par on No. 8 after a uncommon dangerous tee shot, and didn’t birdie the par-5 ninth.
They have been two pictures away from a gaggle that included defending champion Steve Stricker.
Bland wasn’t certain he can be in any of the senior majors. The PGA of America presents a one-time exemption to anybody who has received on the European tour over the past 5 years; Bland turned a first-time winner on the 2021 British Masters at age 48.
The Englishman couldn’t take the exemption final yr as a result of the Senior PGA was the identical week as LIV Golf Bedminster in New Jersey. However he was in a position to make use of it this yr.
“Fully out of the blue. I wasn’t anticipating it,” he mentioned of the one-time exemption. “Sadly I couldn’t play it — clashed with a LIV occasion. After which after I regarded on the schedule this yr, I noticed that it was a free week.”
He mentioned he requested the PGA of America if the invitation was nonetheless good, and he was on his approach.
“I’m very grateful for the invite and hopefully I can do one thing with it,” Bland mentioned.
He is among the three gamers on LIV Golf of their 50s, becoming a member of Lee Westwood and Phil Mickelson. Bland has one prime 10 on LIV this yr and is twenty fourth on the cash listing with just below $1.9 million — almost $700,000 greater than Steven Alker, who leads the Charles Schwab Cup on the PGA Tour Champions.
Bland has the sport for Harbor Shores, primarily his accuracy off the tee, and that helped to maintain bogeys off his card. He didn’t miss a fairway till his seventeenth gap, the par-4 eighth.
“I drove the ball rather well, which is a energy of mine, which you want round right here,” he mentioned.
Inexperienced already was off to a fast begin when he hit hybrid from about 250 yards on the par-5 fifth gap to arrange eagle.
“Hit it simply good and simply formed it in there properly and it was monitoring in direction of the opening,” Inexperienced mentioned. “I feel it ran throughout the sting of the opening and completed about perhaps 7 ft previous the opening. In order that was clearly a kind of distinctive holes on the proper time to get the spherical going rather well.”
He added birdies on three extra par 5s to offset his lone bogey at No. 6.
Stricker had by no means seen Harbor Shores till this week and felt uncomfortable with a few of the sight strains off the tee. He nonetheless managed seven birdies, his spherical slowed by a double bogey on the par-4 sixteenth when he pulled his tee shot right into a hazard.
“We’ve bought a protracted methods to go, nevertheless it was necessary to get off to begin,” he mentioned. “I’m shocked the scores are that low.”
Mike Weir, Okay.J. Choi, Scott Dunlap and membership professional Jeffrey Schmid joined Stricker at 5-under 66. Two-time PGA champion Vijay Singh, who selected to not play at Valhalla final week, and Stewart Cink have been amongst these at 67.
Bernhard Langer, using in a cart as he tries to completely recuperate from a torn Achilles tendon in February, opened with a 74. He was at 1 underneath for his spherical till a double bogey-bogey-bogey end. Langer mentioned he hopes to be again to strolling 18 holes in a number of extra months.
