Golfer John Bland: His Biggest Wins and Career Profile
Full name: John Louis Bland
Date of birth: September 22, 1945
Place of birth: Johannesburg, South Africa
Date and place of death: May 9, 2023, in George, South Africa
Nickname: Blandie or, less frequently, "the Old Fox"
His Biggest Wins
European Tour (2)
- 1983 Benson & Hedges International Open
- 1986 Suze Open
Senior PGA Tour (Champions Tour) (5)
- 1995 Ralphs Senior Classic
- 1996 Senior Tournament of Champions
- 1996 Bruno's Memorial Classic
- 1996 Northville Long Island Classic
- 1996 The Transamerica
In the Majors
The only one of the four professional majors Bland ever played was The Open Championship. He played it every year from 1977 through 1991, and missed the cut most of those years. He did have one Top 20 finish, tied for 16th in the 1980 British Open.
More About John Bland
John Bland tended to be easy to spot in a tournament field, since he usually played in a Panama hat. His short, flat swing was also noticeable, and effective. But it was his smooth putting stroke and a strong overall short game that powered much of his success over a career that stretched from the late 1960s into the 2010s. He was also a very accurate driver of the ball, three times leading the Senior PGA Tour in driving accuracy.Bland's tournament success started on his native South African Tour in the mid-1970s. He won three times on the tour in 1977 and wound up as the season-ending Order of Merit leader. The first of those victories was in the South African PGA Championship, where he beat runner-up Gary Player by two strokes.
In 1981, Bland won twice on the South African Tour, but the 1981 South Africa Open was not one of those. In that one, Bland finished in a 3-way tie and went into an 18-hole playoff. After those 18 playoff holes, Bland and Player were still tied. So they continued playing sudden-death holes. And Player got him on the first such hole, the 19th overall playoff hole.
After his successes in South Africa in 1977, though, when he was into his 30s, Bland began playing more often on the European Tour. From 1977-87, Bland ranked no lower than 49th on European Tour money list, with a best ranking of 13th in 1980. (He had one more Top 20 money list finish in Europe in the 1990s.)
Bland won twice on the European Tour, both times with tour legends as the runners-up. His first victory was in the 1983 Benson & Hedges International Open, one stroke in front of Bernhard Langer. Win No. 2 on the European Tour was in the 1986 Suze Open (later known as the Cannes Open), by four over Seve Ballesteros.
Bland finished in the Top 20 on the European Tour money list six times: in 1978 (20th), 1980 (13th), 1982 (20th), 1983 (18th), 1986 (18th), and 1990 (16th).
All the while he continue playing and winning in South Africa. He had multiple, multiple-win seasons on the South African Tour, in additions to the ones mentioned above: two wins each in 1983 and 1988; three wins each in 1990 and 1991. Bland topped the South African Tour's Order of Merit four times — 1977–78, 1987–88, 1989–90 and 1990–91.
Bland was into his mid-to-late 40s when the 1990s dawned and he recorded his last "regular" tour (as opposed to senior tour) wins. He last played on the European Tour in 1995. For his career on that circuit, Bland made 234 starts, had two wins, seven seconds, seven thirds, and 65 total Top 10 finishes.
Bland turned 50 in 1995 and just nine days later he had his first senior-tour win. It was in the London Seniors Masters, a tournament on the European Seniors Tour. Since he had earlier won on the European Tour and on the Challenge Tour (the feeder tour for the European Tour), that victory made Bland just the second golfer (after Antonio Garrido) to record wins at all three levels of European Tour golf circuits.
Bland had never before made an attempt at playing in the United States, but now he was ready to take a shot at the Senior PGA Tour (Champions Tour). He entered the Monday qualifier for the 1995 Ralphs Senior Classic and shot 68 to get into the tournament.
And then all he did was win it. He played the Ralphs without any bogeys for the entire tournament, and made six birdies in the final round to edge Jim Colbert by one stroke. Bland was just the fourth golfer to win on the Senior PGA Tour after getting into the event through Monday qualifying. And the victory gave him full status on the high-profile American circuit.
He made the most of that status in 1996, when he won four times on the Champions Tour and finished third on the money list. One of those wins was the Tournament of Champions where he again beat Colbert by one shot (Colbert was runner-up to Bland in four of his five victories). In the 1996 Bruno's Memorial Classic, Bland won a playoff against John Paul Cain and Kermit Zarley.
Bland never won again on the Senior PGA Tour after 1996. But in 1997 he was sixth on the money list with three second-place finishes and two thirds. Two of those runner-up showings were in senior majors. Bland was second by one stroke to Graham Marsh in the 1997 U.S. Senior Open. And in the 1997 Senior British Open, he lost a sudden-death playoff to his old friend and rival from South Africa, Gary Player.
Bland played a full schedule on the Senior PGA Tour from 1996-2007, with his last appearance coming in 2009. For his Champions Tour career, Bland made 306 total starts. In addition to his five victories, he finished second six times and third seven times, and had 77 total Top 10 finishes.
But he wasn't done winning senior tournaments. Bland returned to the European Seniors Tour and won twice, once each in 2009 and 2010, when he was 63 and 64 years old, respectively. At the time of that second victory, Bland was the second-oldest winner in that tour's history.
He last played on the European Seniors Tour in 2012. For his career on that tour, Bland played a total of 63 tournaments with three wins, three seconds, one third, and 21 total Top 10 finishes.
Bland was 77 years old when he died of cancer in 2023. The Sunshine Tour's statement on his passing noted that he died "with his family and his bulldog Handsome by his side."
Additional Tournament Wins for John Bland
In addition to the European Tour and Champions Tour wins listed above, Bland also had these victories:
South African Tour (19)
- 1977 Lexington PGA Championship
- 1977 Victoria Falls Classic
- 1977 Holiday Inns Invitational
- 1979 Holiday Inns Open
- 1981 Sigma Series 2
- 1981 Sigma Series 3
- 1983 Holiday Inns Pro-Am
- 1983 Kodak Golf Classic
- 1984 Goodyear Classic
- 1987 Goodyear Classic
- 1988 Tournament of Champions
- 1988 South African Masters
- 1989 Dewar's White Label Trophy
- 1990 Dewar's White Label Trophy
- 1990 Minolta Copiers Match Play
- 1990 Bloemfontein Classic
- 1991 Palabora Classic
- 1991 Bell's Cup
- 1991 Tournament of Champions
European Seniors Tour (3)
- 1995 London Masters
- 2009 Bad Ragaz PGA Seniors Open
- 2010 Ryder Cup Wales Seniors Open
Photo credit: Pvt pauline, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sources:
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf (affiliate link), 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Champions Tour. Official 2008 Guide, Player Biographies, John Bland.
European Tour. "John Bland: 1945 - 2023," May 9, 2023, https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/news/articles/detail/john-bland-1945-2023/.
EuropeanTour.com. Players, John Bland, Legends Tour, Career Record Details, https://www.europeantour.com/players/16/career-record.
EuropeanTour.com. Players, John Bland, Overview, https://www.europeantour.com/players/16/.
PGA Tour. "John Bland, five-time PGA TOUR Champions winner, dies at 77," May 9, 2023, https://www.pgatour.com/pgatour-champions/article/news/latest/2023/05/09/five-time-pga-tour-champions-winner-john-bland-dies-at-77.
PGATour.com. Players, John Bland, Career Results, https://www.pgatour.com/player/11695/john-bland/results.
Sunshine Tour. "Statement on the passing of John Bland," September 5, 2023, https://sunshinetour.com/statement-on-the-passing-of-john-bland.
USGA.org. Championships, U.S Senior Open Results, https://championships.usga.org/ussenioropen/u-s--senior-open-champions.html.