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By Kent Gray
It was an outstanding intro to golf’s feel-good story of 2021.

Immortalising Richard Bland’s breakthrough DP World Tour victory at the British Masters in digital ink last May, Golf Digest’s John Huggan summed up the Belfry moment – an epic 487 tour starts in the making – with a witty sense of occasion. 

“No one beats Richard Bland more than 477 times in a row.”

There have been few more popular wins in the history of the former European Tour with English compatriot Malcolm MacKenzie the only player to have needed more starts – 509 –  before claiming his first win on the tour.

Just a month after becoming the oldest first-time champion on tour at 48, Bland went on to sensationally lead the 121st U.S. Open at Torrey Pines through 36 holes. He fell away over the weekend to an eventual share for 50th but his cult status was already assured.

Fast-forward to the 33rd Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic and Bland has the chance to double his DP World Tour title count and enhance his legend a little more.

Scores of 69-68 sees the world No. 80 at seven under, just four behind overnight leader Justin Harding. As easy as he’s made it look thus far, don’t be fooled. Nothing in golf it seems is ever simple for Bland who closed out 2021 by going under the knife to sort a knee problem. 

Then, just as he was getting back into the swing of things, the pandemic had another victim.

“I was due to fly out here the 3rd of January but I got COVID, kind of cleared that up then pulled an intercostal muscle trying to take the Christmas tree down,” said Bland. “Yeah, wasn’t the best start to the year.

“The Saturday before Abu Dhabi, I didn’t think I was going to be playing. It was that bad. But it kind of got better a lot quicker, so I made the trip out. I probably should have made the cut last week with no preparation.”

It has been easy to forget Abu Dhabi courtesy of his play in Dubai where Bland has mixed nine birdies and an eagle with just four dropped shots.

“I got to see Tim [coach Tim Barter] on Monday, and yeah, we did a little work. We’ve just worked on the same stuff for so long that it’s never going to get that far out; the foundations are always there. I was a little bit ragged in places today but the nice thing is I’m never that far away. I’m always kind of in there. So hopefully I can just tidy that up for the weekend.”

Belief is a beautiful thing in golf. Even closing rounds of 77-78 at Torrey Pines in just his second major championship start haven’t diminished that.

“When I have my game that I know I can play, it stacks up against the best in the world and I proved that, okay, not over 72 [holes], but sometimes you don’t need to do it over the four rounds to get that belief.”

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