Adam

Bland

Bland, who plies his trade locally, has plenty of experience at this week’s venue, Lake Karrinyup, and has cashed the last two times it’s staged the European Tour’s Perth International. The best of those was T34 in 2013. Before his second place last Sunday, Bland had posted T15 in the Asian Tour’s Myanmar Open. Looking back at his form on Australian soil shows seven top 10s from his last 12 starts although this is a much tougher field than he’s used to. His game is in good shape though so he could emerge as one of the best home players.

This completes an impressive two weeks for the 34-year-old, who arrived in Western Australia on the back of finishing runner-up at the Victoria Open. After taking T2 in the 54-hole stroke play section on Saturday, Bland will have felt he deserved to go deep into the match play portion and so it proved. After receiving a bye into the last 16 courtesy of his top eight seeding, Bland won his final hole against Thomas Detry before completing the job at the second Shootout Hole. A first-hole birdie and five pars were enough to beat fellow Aussie Adam Blyth in the last eight and he then stunned tournament favorite Louis Oosthuizen in the quarters after pulling all square after 5 and sinking the South African at the 3rd Shoothout Hole. Hopes of a first European Tour win were ended with a 1 hole defeat to eventual winner Brett Rumford in the semis but he boosted his final pay cheque by beating Scrivener in the 3/4 playoff match.

Liang is beaming at the top with a convincing title at Shishido Hills today, so Bland is the fortunate runner-up. The 32-year-old Aussie netted over 96 percent of his earnings to date (31,192,000 yen) with a victory at the Japan PGA Championship three weeks ago, but he missed the cut in his last two starts, including by seven shots at the JGT Championship. He’s 0-for-3 on the PGA TOUR with one start at The Open (2006). Liang will be making his third appearance in the season’s third major, but his first since missing the cut at Turnberry in 2009.

The 35-year-old Aussie cracks the field from his placing in last year’s Australasian Tour Order of Merit. Bland picked up seven worldwide top 10s last year but since the calendar flipped to 2018 he is 1-for-5 with nothing better than a T73. Bland’s history on the PGA TOUR doesn’t bode well for his chances this week. He is 0-for-5 on the big stage, and finished solo 77th back at the 2011 WGC-HSBC Champions, when it was an unofficial event. With poor form and poor history on the big stage, gamers should safely swerve the Aussie in all but the deepest of fantasy formats.

Bland opened the season finishing T3 in the Australian PGA Championship but since then has missed five of seven cuts although he was T18 in the WGC Mexico Championship. He qualified T39 on level-par to Cullen’s 5-under 137 yet the tables turned on Saturday as Bland ticked 3, 4, 6, 8 and 9; Cullen’s two birdies and one bogey were no match. He will play another Aussie, Josh Geary (whose 1-under defeated Anders Hansen), in round two of the knockout stage. Notable winners in the round of 64 included strokeplay leader Jorge Campillo, Nicolas Colsaerts, Soren Kjeldsen, Mike Lorenzo Vera, Adrian Otaegui and Robert Karlsson. Among the losers were host Thomas Pieters, Joost Luiten, Lucas Herbert, Thomas Detry and the unlucky Richie Ramsay whose 2-under would have won many ties.

The Aussie’s second 67 of the week and he’ll rue that it could have been so much better given that he twice recorded a bogey-6, at the eighth and 18th holes. But he will also have to admit that he made up for it by claiming an eagle-2 at the 267-yard par-4 12th hole. Otherwise he made a birdie at the 11th on the back nine (his first) and three par breakers on the front nine (at the second, third and fifth). He also dropped a shot at the first. He is 109th on the Race to Dubai, in a tight fight to retain his playing rights and he’s living more than a little off T3 in the Australian PGA Championship (the first start of the year) and T19 in the WGC Mexico Championship.

The Aussie was sparkling on Saturday, equalling the low round of the day. There were four quick par-breakers at 1, 3, 4 and 6, then on the back nine he was at it again with ticks at 10 and 11. He parred his way home to join the eight-way log jam in third. Those chasing will have hopes that Korhonen will be nervous as he chases his first win. 82nd on this year’s Race to Dubai, courtesy largely of T3 in the Australian PGA Championship and another three top 30s Bland has the chance to further strengthen his card retention quest on Sunday.

However, it’s still good enough for third spot and he has a three-shot lead over fourth place so Bland only has to pick off a couple of players to get his hands on the trophy. Today, he stalled somewhat in a lap at Royal Pines which featured just three birdies against two bogeys. A first red number at 4 could have been a spark but he followed it with a run of six pars and a bogey at 8. He finally got going again with circles at 12 and 13 but another dropped shot at 14 stopped the momentum and he closed with four pars to register a 71, five higher than the 66s he shot on days one and two. Bland ranks 15th for GIR so far and 3rd for Putts Per Round.

The local pair have a one-shot advantage over Sergio Garcia, Marc Leishman, Peter Senior, Daniel Nisbet and Michael Wright. Bland is a Japan Tour regular and recently posted top 25s in two of its best-known events, the Taiheiyo Masters and Dunlop Phoenix Tournament. Also T37 in last week’s Australian Open, the World No. 263 was T22 at Royal Pines in 2013, one of just two appearances he’s made at this week’s venue. After four opening pars today, he launched himself up the leaderboard by connecting four circles from Nos. 5-8 and, following a par at 9, added two more red numbers at 10 and 11. He hit 7-under with another gain at 16 but swallowed a walk-off bogey at 18. Joint-leader Zunic made eagle there so the pair arrived at -6 in very different ways. Bland was third in the European Tour’s World Super 6 Perth and T5 in the Fiji International earlier this year so deserves respect in these co-sanctioned events.