Fresh off the back of winning the US Senior Open - his second over-50s Major in two starts - Richard Bland believes he is "the best player I've ever been."
The 51-year-old triumphed in a playoff over Hiroyuki Fujita at Newport Country Club on Monday, following up his Senior PGA Championship victory earlier this year.
Bland's number of wins in senior Majors is already higher than the number of victories he managed in 20 years on the European Tour (one), although his OWGR spot has taken a significant dip after his move to the LIV Golf League in 2022.
At the time, Bland had not long been as high as 48th in the world. But the man from Burton Upon Trent in England insists he is now "a way better golfer than I was back then" due to competing against serial Major winners such as Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, and Brooks Koepka on a weekly basis.
In his first two years with the 54-hole circuit, Bland has maintained his spot in the competition for the following season by ending the campaign inside the 'Lock Zone' - the top-24 players.
Ultimately crediting what he believes to be unprecedented levels of play - three years on from leading the US Open at Torrey Pines before falling away at the weekend - to his decision in 2022, Bland heaped all possible praise on his move to LIV.
He said: "Yeah, I’m a way better golfer than I was back then, but I think that’s the caliber of players that I’m playing against on LIV. To play against Bryson, who won just the other week at Pinehurst, to play against him, to play against Jon Rahm, Cam Smith, DJ [Dustin Johnson], Brooks [Koepka], they’re the best players in the world.
"I don’t care what the world ranking says. If I’m going to compete with those guys, I have to bring my A game. I have to. I can’t bring my C game, and it won’t stack up against those.
"It just elevates my game, and I think it’s done that unbelievably over the last three years. It’s just made me a better player. You’re not always going to be playing your best golf, but I’m the best player I’ve ever been."
Another motivating factor for the four-time pro winner is to make his brother Heath happy, who has been battling cancer for several years but is due to undergo surgery to remove a tumor from his lung soon.
Bland has often referenced his brother after successes and said Heath is always on his mind somewhere. The 51-year-old said after his latest senior Major victory that the PGA Championship trophy will now belong to Heath while the US Senior Open silverware will be enjoyed at home by Bland and his wife.
"Yeah, he's always there kind of in the back of all of our minds," said Bland. "It's been a tough 15, 16 months for him and the family. Hopefully he's going to have some surgery soon to get rid of the tumor from his lung.
"We had some good news that it's not going to be hugely invasive surgery. It's only going to be keyhole, and it's going to be only an overnight stay. When he had his surgery three, four months ago for his bowel cancer, he was in hospital for nearly six weeks, and it was a 15-hour operation.
"Yeah, we're just praying that hopefully that once this is gone, that's it for him. It's one of those diseases that's just -- you know, we wish we could eradicate. You wouldn't want to wish it on anyone's life. You hear the statistics that it's kind of one in every two people get it, and you always kind of think, you know what, it won't happen to us. When it does, it's like a train wreck. It's an absolute train wreck.
"I was fortunate to win the PGA and obviously win -- I think I get the replica for that this week. I've always said that that's his. He can have that. That was always for him. But this one right here, this one's for me and my wife.
"I'm just looking forward to getting back home and seeing the family. I've been away for four weeks now. Yeah, really looking forward to getting home."
