LIV Golf’s Richard Bland Wins U.S. Senior Open for Second Major Title of 2024

The best 50-and-over golfer in the world might be the Englishman who plays on LIV Golf.

Richard Bland is 2-for-2 in senior majors in 2024. / Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports

Richard Bland’s remarkable late-career surge in golf can now be called historic.

The Englishman won the weather-delayed U.S. Senior Open on Monday at Newport (R.I.) Country Club, finishing off a final-round 66 in the morning and then defeating Hiroyuki Fujita on the second sudden-death playoff hole to claim the most prestigious 50-and-over title in golf.

He also won in May at the Senior PGA Championship. Bland, 51, is the first player to win his first two senior starts and both be major titles.

“I’m just thrilled beyond words,” Bland said on the 18th green at Newport CC after outlasting Fujita.

The Japanese player had led all week after an opening-round 63 but was caught by Bland in the final round, shooting 66 to Fujita’s 71. That forced a two-hole aggregate playoff, where both players parred the 10th and 18th holes.

That meant sudden-death golf at the tough 466-yard par-4 18th for as long as necessary. The players tied with bogeys on the first go-round, then on the second trip through the 18th Bland nearly holed out from a greenside bunker, hitting the flagstick. It was his first par save from a bunker all week.

WHAT A SHOT! 😱

Richard Bland's clutch bunker shot en route to victory! pic.twitter.com/G3sbdg6jXJ

— USGA (@USGA) July 1, 2024

Fujita failed to get up-and-down for par from short of the green, and Bland was a major champion for a second time.

“I was just thankful to get into the playoff,” Bland said. “The trap shot was one of those you could be really aggressive with. I was trying to get inside (of Fujita’s shot), put the pressure back on him.”

Bland won for the first time on the DP World Tour at age 48—in his 478th start—and signed with LIV Golf for its inaugural 2022 season. In 2023 he registered to compete in the Senior British Open, for which he had an exemption as a former DP World Tour winner being 50 years old, but was denied the chance to compete due to outstanding fines relating to his departure for LIV.

He accepted an exemption from the PGA of America to this year’s Senior PGA Championship, and in winning became eligible for the U.S. Senior Open.

He’s not eligible to play on the PGA Tour Champions as a LIV Golf member, though his two major wins count as Champions wins and makes for interesting social media posts from the Tour, especially with Bland wearing his Cleeks GC hat from LIV Golf.

Richard Bland has won the U.S. Senior Open 🏆

He’s now won back-to-back Senior majors. pic.twitter.com/2yHUVkkES5

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) July 1, 2024

The U.S. Senior Open was championship No. 1,001 for the United States Golf Association. Its 1,000th was in June at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, which was also won by a LIV player, Bryson DeChambeau.