Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. We come to
Speaker 1: you every Wednesday. This week's guest Richard Bland, playing on
Speaker 1: the Live Tour. Richard longtime European DP World Tour player
Speaker 1: and I can never get used to calling it DP World.
Speaker 1: It's the European Tour. But that's where Richard Blyin spent
Speaker 1: the majority of his career and in his late forties.
Speaker 1: He's now in his fifties. He made the decision to
Speaker 1: go to Live and he talks about outgoing DP World
Speaker 1: Chairman Commissioner Keith Pelly. Keith Pelly told him, listen, if
Speaker 1: I'm you at your age, I take the deal. He
Speaker 1: talks about it, and listen, Richard's not one of those
Speaker 1: guys that got a ton of money. It was just
Speaker 1: a decision to where it was like, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: an opportunity, I'm going to take it. He's on the
Speaker 1: Cliques Martin Kimer's team, and listen, he's playing really, really,
Speaker 1: really good golf at this stage of his career. And
Speaker 1: I can tell you he kind of used my used
Speaker 1: the Floridian where I teach to kind of spend the
Speaker 1: last three weeks. He's coach Tim Barter, who commentates for Sky.
Speaker 1: They came over and I watched this guy grind for
Speaker 1: the last month, and even in his fifties, he's probably
Speaker 1: working harder now than he ever has and he wants
Speaker 1: to continue to play well. And I think he's got
Speaker 1: a very very interesting story. And like I said, he's
Speaker 1: not a superstar. He's not someone that got the live bag,
Speaker 1: got all the money. It was a choice that he made.
Speaker 1: He talks about it. I've known Richard for a long time.
Speaker 1: I've watched his career and this is a really really
Speaker 1: good podcast, some really candid things that he talks about,
Speaker 1: and something I think you all will listen and enjoy.
Speaker 1: So Richard Bland this week on Son of a Butch.
Speaker 1: My guest is a I mean, Richard, you are a
Speaker 1: veteran of professional golf. You turn pro in nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: got onto the European Tour. I think in twenty in
Speaker 1: two thousand and two, if I'd have told you in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four you'd still be playing competitive golf at
Speaker 1: the highest level, would you have believed me?
Speaker 2: Probably not No. But you know, I think it's it's
Speaker 2: every kids stream you know that's growing up playing golf
Speaker 2: that they want to play at the highest level for
Speaker 2: for as long as they can, So you know, it's
Speaker 2: something that I'm proud of that I'm still going at
Speaker 2: nearly fifty one, so I must be doing something right.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it's been uh yeah, it's been a journey.
Speaker 2: There's been some ups and downs, but I wouldn't change
Speaker 2: it for anything.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously it's easy to always look at the
Speaker 1: icons and the superstars of competitive golf, but there are
Speaker 1: certainly more people like yourself than there are of these
Speaker 1: guys that the public see. He's flying around on private
Speaker 1: jets and you know, having this amazing kind of superstar lifestyle,
Speaker 1: both on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, the Challenge Tour,
Speaker 1: the corn Ferry Ladies all over the world. The tours
Speaker 1: are really made up of a lot of people that
Speaker 1: are somewhat the fabric of what those tours are because
Speaker 1: the John Rahm's, the Rory's, the Scotti Scheffler's, they're outliers.
Speaker 1: They are very unique, unique people. But there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people that get into golf, and I think
Speaker 1: it's easy when we look at careers. Blandy, you haven't
Speaker 1: won a major, you haven't won multiple times all over
Speaker 1: the world. It's easy to look at that and go, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: well that isn't a great career. But as Pat Perez said,
Speaker 1: he said this to me many times. People always say, well,
Speaker 1: you only won three or four times, and he always says,
Speaker 1: we'll try and win in once. I don't think the
Speaker 1: great ones, the Ernies, the Tigers, the Greg Normans, the
Speaker 1: Nick Faldos, that of the past generation, and then the
Speaker 1: guy's doing it today, Rory Scotty, Scheffler Brooks. They make
Speaker 1: it look so easy and they make winning look very,
Speaker 1: very difficult. You won your first tournament in twenty what
Speaker 1: was it, twenty twenty one? I mean how many starts?
Speaker 1: It was like almost five hundred to four hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy eight starts. You played some great golf throughout your
Speaker 1: career and didn't win. When you did finally get that
Speaker 1: breakthrough at the British Masters in twenty one at the Belfrey,
Speaker 1: which is an iconic kind of old school kind of
Speaker 1: UK old European tour golf course. They had a bunch
Speaker 1: of tournaments there, They had Ryder Cups there. What do
Speaker 1: you remember about that week and what surprised you about
Speaker 1: that week to get your first win, because I'm always
Speaker 1: fascinated when you do finally break through. And I asked
Speaker 1: this question all the time. Is it different than you
Speaker 1: thought it was going to be? Did you play the
Speaker 1: best you've ever played that week? What was it about
Speaker 1: that week that in the almost four hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: something other weeks tournaments, it wasn't your week?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think one of the things that
Speaker 2: really helped me. That week we were still playing in
Speaker 2: Covid and we'd just come off a five week stretch,
Speaker 2: so there was a there was a six week stretch.
Speaker 2: The last tournament was was the Belfry, So I just
Speaker 2: I'd been away from home for five weeks, not allowed
Speaker 2: out the hotel.
Speaker 1: Because you guys were much more on the European Tour
Speaker 1: the DP World Tour. Now, you guys were much more
Speaker 1: draconian and streaming because we were on tree to country, right,
Speaker 1: you were just going from state to state.
Speaker 2: You know, every country had a different regulation, different testing
Speaker 2: process or whatever. You know, we were getting tested two
Speaker 2: three times a week every week, and we were we
Speaker 2: were coming back on a on a charted playing that
Speaker 2: the tour had charted and it was arriving into Birmingham
Speaker 2: at about two o'clock in the morning, and this and
Speaker 2: the and I remember the Belfry was a Wednesday to
Speaker 2: Saturday start, and the and the flight landed at like
Speaker 2: two o'clock on Monday or say Tuesday morning. And I'd
Speaker 2: played the Belfry before plenty of time, so I kind
Speaker 2: of felt like, you know what, I didn't really need
Speaker 2: a practice round. And I and I'd played okay over
Speaker 2: the five weeks. I hadn't played great, but I think
Speaker 2: I had one top ten and maybe another top twenty
Speaker 2: in the five weeks, so you know, the game was okay.
Speaker 2: And I just I said to my girlfriend at the time,
Speaker 2: who's now my wife, I said, can you come and
Speaker 2: pick me up? I want to go home. I just
Speaker 2: you know, loads of guys were just going straight to
Speaker 2: the hotel and straight into the bubble again. I said,
Speaker 2: I just need I need like twelve to fifteen hours
Speaker 2: out of it. I need a night in my own bed.
Speaker 2: I just need to get back home. And I then
Speaker 2: just traveled up on the Tuesday night and started Wednesday.
Speaker 2: And then I never do that in a tournament, I
Speaker 2: mean you even though I didn't feel I needed the
Speaker 2: preparation because I just played for five weeks. But I
Speaker 2: just needed to be at home for a little bit.
Speaker 2: So I drove up in the afternoon and uh and
Speaker 2: just started Wednesday. But then there was another funny thing
Speaker 2: that happened that week. I was walking down the range
Speaker 2: on the Wednesday and I passed a good friend of
Speaker 2: mine played amateur golf with him, a guy called David
Speaker 2: Howell had Aliev and he said, you can't, he said, blandy,
Speaker 2: he says, I need to stop, he said, He said,
Speaker 2: You're never going to believe this. He said, I had
Speaker 2: a dream last night. He said, you win your first
Speaker 2: golf tournament. He said, don't know when, I don't know
Speaker 2: what tournament was, but you're going to win.
Speaker 1: You're like i'd had that. I've had a dream a
Speaker 1: lot too.
Speaker 2: At some point I've dreamt he said. It was so vivid.
Speaker 2: You win your first golf and four days later there
Speaker 2: I am holding the trophy. So but I just, I
Speaker 2: honestly believe that, just that twelve fifteen hours at home,
Speaker 2: just to unpack the suitcase, sleep in your own bed
Speaker 2: for seven eight hours and just have a cup of
Speaker 2: tea and just beay at home, reset and just reset it.
Speaker 1: Just I don't think the fans and people listening to
Speaker 1: this podcast, if you don't travel as much as that
Speaker 1: we all do, the travel, it wears you down. And
Speaker 1: if you can. I mean one of the things that, yes,
Speaker 1: the private jet travel is on the PGA tour that
Speaker 1: a lot of the superstars are lucky enough to do
Speaker 1: is the ultimate luxury. But it was Greg Norman who
Speaker 1: learned that from Jack Nicholas. Nicholas had his own jet,
Speaker 1: Palmer had his own jet. Greg got his own jet.
Speaker 1: I remember when Tiger was turning pro he my dad
Speaker 1: was still working with Greg and Greg said to Tiger,
Speaker 1: invest in private jet travel, especially in America, because he said,
Speaker 1: will you can get home and if you can get
Speaker 1: a night at home, he said, you'll have a family
Speaker 1: one day. But it's that one night. So I'm lucky
Speaker 1: enough to travel an enormous amount with Brooks and DJ
Speaker 1: and I'm lucky enough we do a lot of it privately.
Speaker 1: But what it does it gets us to and from
Speaker 1: work faster. But there are times to where we're playing
Speaker 1: the following week, but we get home and if you
Speaker 1: can get a night with the family, with your dogs,
Speaker 1: with your kids, with your wife, girlfriend, sleep in your
Speaker 1: own bed, get up, make a cup of coffee in
Speaker 1: your own home. The reset that that can give you
Speaker 1: is enormous, It really is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's huge. Yeah. I've always especially with Europe where yeah, unfortunate,
Speaker 2: I've always sort I live in the south of England,
Speaker 2: so we've always got Heathrow and Gatwick which are fairly
Speaker 2: close to me, so you can pretty much certainly in Europe.
Speaker 2: You know, Heathrow is a huge hub, so you can
Speaker 2: get to pretty much anywhere most times a day. So
Speaker 2: even if we were playing in the even if we
Speaker 2: were playing in the same country, if we had to
Speaker 2: say two tournaments in Italy, I would travel home on
Speaker 2: the Sunday night if I got if I hated being
Speaker 2: at a tournament in Europe on a Monday, I'd hate it.
Speaker 2: I'd be Wednesday, I'd be right, let's go, come on,
Speaker 2: I need to go. You know, Wednesday was just a
Speaker 2: brain dead day. And so many times, you know, if
Speaker 2: I if I okay. During COVID, we kind of had
Speaker 2: to do it and you okay, so mentally you kind
Speaker 2: of got your head around it. That's what you're going
Speaker 2: to have to do. But if you didn't have to
Speaker 2: do it. I hated doing two weeks on the road
Speaker 2: in uh in Europe where I didn't go home. You know,
Speaker 2: it's just that get home, unpack, repack, have that day
Speaker 2: at home, whether you go work on your game or
Speaker 2: you sent your clubs on to the next event. It
Speaker 2: just like you say, you just you draw a line
Speaker 2: under the sand of the last event, press the reset button,
Speaker 2: and then go again. Okay. Mean you're getting up at
Speaker 2: four o'clock on a Tuesday morning, okay, to go and
Speaker 2: get an early flight so then you can go play
Speaker 2: the practice round on the afternoon. You know. And some
Speaker 2: people might say, well, you know, why not just stay
Speaker 2: out and then do it, But for me, it just
Speaker 2: kind of messed the whole week up. You know, I
Speaker 2: was just Wednesday, I was ready to go, and then
Speaker 2: I'd come Thursday. I don't know, I was just kind
Speaker 2: of I just felt like I was out of sync,
Speaker 2: and so many and a few times that I did
Speaker 2: do it. You know, the second week, I've missed a cut.
Speaker 2: I've been playing, maybe played quite well. In the first week,
Speaker 2: I missed a cut just because I was I was
Speaker 2: just out of sync. The whole week so it was
Speaker 2: just right. If I can get home, I'm going home,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. You know, I've been I did it from
Speaker 2: an Emirates flight once we came back from Morocco, and
Speaker 2: the Emirates flight was like four hours later, and I
Speaker 2: just went, I'm going to go home for an hour.
Speaker 2: I just went home for an hour and then just
Speaker 2: went back to the airport just to go. I don't
Speaker 2: want to go from one term or to the other.
Speaker 2: I just went, I'm going to go home for an
Speaker 2: hour and then I'm going to come back.
Speaker 1: So that week at the Belfrey, I mean, you'd played
Speaker 1: so many tournaments, you'd kind of you'd been one of
Speaker 1: those players that, you know, it wasn't necessarily a stigma,
Speaker 1: but you'd had a good career, lost your card a
Speaker 1: couple times, but you'd always made a living playing for PETISCL.
Speaker 1: You've got this idea in your mind, what winning your
Speaker 1: first tournament is going to be like that Sunday? What
Speaker 1: was the Sunday like? Did were you? Were you in
Speaker 1: the lead?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: I was. I think I was tied or one behind
Speaker 2: on Saturday and I shot I think I shot level
Speaker 2: par on Saturday and hold nothing. I played te Degreen.
Speaker 2: Probably the week I played best Tea Degreen I've ever played. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I made one bogie a week and that was I
Speaker 2: Like I say, I missed from about two and a
Speaker 2: half feet for par on one hole. I think on
Speaker 2: the about the eighth, seventh or eighth hole on Saturday,
Speaker 2: and I just missed everything, and and and another thing
Speaker 2: that happened before. Yeah, I've been you know, Tim my coach.
Speaker 2: I've been with him for my whole career on tour
Speaker 2: for twenty two twenty three years now, and he's never
Speaker 2: He's never done this in the whole time I've been
Speaker 2: with him. He texted me on this. So the Friday
Speaker 2: nights we were sady for he said, if you want
Speaker 2: to win this, you got to go and shoot sixty
Speaker 2: six tomorrow. He said, So you have to be better
Speaker 2: on the greens. He said, if you want to win,
Speaker 2: that's the number you've got to go shoot. And I
Speaker 2: shot sixty six on Saturday. Okay, that got me into
Speaker 2: the playoff. But it just just just a couple of
Speaker 2: things that week that the Dave Howe thing and then
Speaker 2: Tim doing that he's never done it. Since he's never
Speaker 2: done it, you know, it went a couple of times.
Speaker 2: I've had a you know, I've had chances since and
Speaker 2: what have you Like, I lost in the playoffs at
Speaker 2: at Dubai the next year. Yeah, you know Victor Hoblin,
Speaker 2: Yeah he never He never texted me the night before saying, look,
Speaker 2: this is what you've got to do tomorrow, Tim. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I think, yeah, I think he's just going to
Speaker 2: leave it at that one. That it was just a
Speaker 2: one hit wonder there. But yeah, you know, I knew,
Speaker 2: you know, I played pretty good on the front nine.
Speaker 2: I think I went out in about three under. I
Speaker 2: made a really good pass save on nine, I hold
Speaker 2: from about fifteen foot for power of nine, which really
Speaker 2: then kind of kept my mementor and I birdied and
Speaker 2: the short hole around the corner and then yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: and and then I kind of I stole on at
Speaker 2: twelve the long pat three. You know we're playing. It's
Speaker 2: it's pretty damp and sort of typical English day, you know,
Speaker 2: sort of drizzle ball, not going very far. I remember
Speaker 2: I hit busted a three iron to about thirty feet
Speaker 2: short of the flag and hold it and uh and
Speaker 2: then yeah, you know I hold you know, I hold
Speaker 2: a beauty on eighteen, Yeah, which I probably thought at
Speaker 2: the time, you know, I hit my te shot which
Speaker 2: only just cleared the waters, but maybe a few people
Speaker 2: just see. And as I was walking around.
Speaker 1: That's a tough finish.
Speaker 2: It was horrible.
Speaker 1: It's a tough finish kind of dog lay, yeah, kind
Speaker 1: of from right to left. There's water off the tee.
Speaker 1: There's water on the second shot, the landing area when
Speaker 1: you're back in that little hollow there. I remember the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cups that the US both lost there. There was
Speaker 1: one year that they lost and it seemed like every
Speaker 1: US play or rinsted in the water going. All the
Speaker 1: matches went down to the last and then in I
Speaker 1: think in the early nineties that's the that's the first
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup over went to Davis love Hold the winning
Speaker 1: pot on the eighteenth l But that eighteenth at the
Speaker 1: belt bring tough driving.
Speaker 2: Well, they've actually put a new tea further even further
Speaker 2: back for that. And I remember when when I teed
Speaker 2: off there, we it was it wasn't very nice, you know,
Speaker 2: it was a bit of like I said, there was
Speaker 2: drizzling yet and I back off the T shirt and
Speaker 2: people had said to me, or what was it your
Speaker 2: nervous and no, I said, the face of the driver.
Speaker 2: I could see the face of the driver was a
Speaker 2: little wet, and we all know that you get a
Speaker 2: little bit of moisture on the face, the book can
Speaker 2: literally go anywhere. I mean absolutely anyway, So it was
Speaker 2: I actually kind of try to dry the face and
Speaker 2: then yeah, you know, so I was walking around the water.
Speaker 2: It's quite a sort of longish walk around the water
Speaker 2: to get to your tee shirt. Thought, fucking just if
Speaker 2: I can, how some make three? I think that's good
Speaker 2: because I was. I think I was leading by one,
Speaker 2: and I thought, if the weather stays like this, it's
Speaker 2: going to be pretty tough to beat. I thought, I
Speaker 2: can't see myself losing. And I hit I think I
Speaker 2: hit a four iron about twenty five feet right of
Speaker 2: the flag on the middle tier. And then yeah, I
Speaker 2: just probably hit the sweetest part of my career. And
Speaker 2: of course, then you know, sometimes the golf and God's
Speaker 2: go against it. It literally probably from doing my interviews
Speaker 2: in my iView. Then the sun comes out and it's
Speaker 2: absolutely you know, I was hitting some balls on the
Speaker 2: range and it's perfect. I've taken everything off, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm practicing in a short sleeved shirt and you know, really,
Speaker 2: you know, no, it's perfect. Yeah, you know, am I
Speaker 2: ever going to you know, come on, give me a break.
Speaker 2: But you know, unfortunately, you know, it worked out.
Speaker 1: You got it done, and was the sense relief? Was
Speaker 1: the sense what was it? Because you've played so long
Speaker 1: and you'd had such a long career at that stage
Speaker 1: and really twenty twenty one after being on the European
Speaker 1: Tour DP world for I still can't get used to
Speaker 1: the damn no mean, but you've been there for almost
Speaker 1: two decades. Was it finally or this is what I was?
Speaker 1: I wonder what that feeling was. I think, you know, validation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think more, you know, as as everything kind
Speaker 2: of sunk in, it was more I think just the satisfaction.
Speaker 2: The satisfaction you know, we all you know, we kind
Speaker 2: of you know, we all know we can do it,
Speaker 2: you know, and yeah, you know, I will be the
Speaker 2: first to admit, you know, there was there was occasions.
Speaker 2: You know, you get in your own way, and when
Speaker 2: you do that and you don't when the next time
Speaker 2: you want it, it's almost like you put too much
Speaker 2: pressure on yourself that even the next time because you
Speaker 2: want it that much more and you know, and and
Speaker 2: it's and it's I think it's a very very hard
Speaker 2: thing to do. It's almost like, yeah, the more you
Speaker 2: care about it, you can try.
Speaker 1: You've got it.
Speaker 2: You've got to care less in that respect. And uh so, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it was just that satisfaction that you finally
Speaker 2: did do it, and and just it's not like a
Speaker 2: cockiness or a brash or all that, but then you
Speaker 2: just have that in a I think it just takes
Speaker 2: your inner confidence to just to another level.
Speaker 1: If you've won a tournament on tour, people look at
Speaker 1: you different. Yeah, I don't care what tour you're playing
Speaker 1: on now. If you were a winner and you have won,
Speaker 1: people look at you differently, You get treated differently, you
Speaker 1: get different pairings, but there is a knowing look for somebody.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure having been on tour for so long
Speaker 1: in Europe, the acceptance and the so many people were
Speaker 1: happy for you for that win. I mean because you'd
Speaker 1: been a part of the tour for so long, so
Speaker 1: the old guard were happy for you, and then the
Speaker 1: young guard were happy for you as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, it was u Yeah, you know, the the
Speaker 2: amount of messages that I got, you know, the next
Speaker 2: sort of week just completely blew me away. I mean,
Speaker 2: and Legends of the Game, you know, Freddie Couples, you know,
Speaker 2: putting it on social media. I think VJ. Singh did it.
Speaker 2: Even Phil, guys I've never even met before. I never
Speaker 2: even met Phil at that point. Of course I'd played
Speaker 2: in majors and seen him, but not someone that I
Speaker 2: would go up to and say hi, you know, he
Speaker 2: would know who I was. So that that was, you know,
Speaker 2: that was that was really nice. But I think I
Speaker 2: think the thing that really got me was the messages
Speaker 2: that I got from people that not not necessarily golfers,
Speaker 2: but whatever walk of life they were in, and they
Speaker 2: were kind of like, I'm going to keep going. You know,
Speaker 2: there's times when I've gone, you know what, am I
Speaker 2: doing the right thing? Am I on the right path?
Speaker 2: And You've now proved to me that I'm going to
Speaker 2: keep going down the path that I'm on? And that
Speaker 2: was that blew me away. Those messag are still on
Speaker 2: my phone now and will remain on there forever. And
Speaker 2: that and it, honestly it took There were thousands, I
Speaker 2: mean literally thousands.
Speaker 1: People you don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my wife. My wife was so understanding because I
Speaker 2: was literally for Yeah, I had a week off straight
Speaker 2: after and probably you know, obviously there was a lot
Speaker 2: of media to do and sky and that kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: and I was just these just hundreds of messages were
Speaker 2: coming through every day and I was reading and I
Speaker 2: read every single one. I didn't reply to all of them.
Speaker 2: You know, I kind of put a message out there
Speaker 2: basically saying thank you to everybody that I couldn't reply
Speaker 2: to every single one. I'd probably still replying now, and
Speaker 2: that that that kind of really meant a lot that,
Speaker 2: you know, that some people, you know, they took that
Speaker 2: they watched and that they were crying, you know, you
Speaker 2: kind of like when you're coming down to stretch and
Speaker 2: you're in that like you and I. Nothing prepared me
Speaker 2: for that. Nothing prepared I wasn't expecting. I'm just a
Speaker 2: guy that's just won a golf tournament, So what really
Speaker 2: in the grand scheme of things, I wasn't prepared for that,
Speaker 2: you know, and some of them quite emotional.
Speaker 1: That twenty twenty one year was your breakout year after
Speaker 1: being on tour for almost two decades. You lead the
Speaker 1: US Open at in San Diego, that John Rahm won
Speaker 1: at Tory Pines. You're forty eight years old, You're leading
Speaker 1: the US Open after two rounds.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Confidence And I say this a lot on the podcast,
Speaker 1: but we talk about it as a lot in the
Speaker 1: professional game, at the elite competitive level. Confidence They always
Speaker 1: it's a cliche. You can't put a price tag on it,
Speaker 1: but it is so true. You get your first win,
Speaker 1: gets you into, You got into, You broke the top
Speaker 1: fifty in the world for the first time in your
Speaker 1: late forties. I mean, that doesn't normally happen like that, right.
Speaker 1: Was it hard blendy over there that you had that
Speaker 1: you didn't have the success that obviously everybody wants. Was
Speaker 1: it hard to not try and make changes? You and
Speaker 1: Tim Barter, your longtime coach, who is a commentator on
Speaker 1: Sky for the American listeners if you watch Golf Channel.
Speaker 1: He's the guy you know at the DP World tournaments
Speaker 1: doing the interviews. You and Tim have been together forevers.
Speaker 1: It was funny. I saw not long after you won,
Speaker 1: Danny Willett, because Danny was the host of the tournament
Speaker 1: at at the Belfry, and I saw Danny and I saw,
Speaker 1: my what an amazing story and he was like, you
Speaker 1: couldn't script it any better, right, I mean, for Blandy
Speaker 1: to win, for Tim Barter, who's his coach, to be
Speaker 1: the guy that interviewed him. You know, they'd been together
Speaker 1: for so long, and then you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: who were walking away, and then as I was walking away,
Speaker 1: Danny shouted out me and he's like, I'm still trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how Tim kept his job for that long.
Speaker 1: The guy's never won in twenty years. But it was
Speaker 1: an amazing story, and it it vaulted you two kind
Speaker 1: of a resurgence in your career. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: at forty eight, you're playing some of the best golf
Speaker 1: of your career. You almost beat Victor Hovlin a couple
Speaker 1: of years later in Dubai in a playoff. Victor is
Speaker 1: one of the best players in the world. What was it?
Speaker 1: Was it the validation that you, all of a sudden
Speaker 1: had this realization Blandy there where you went, Wait a minute.
Speaker 2: Yes, I am good, Yeah, I can do this.
Speaker 1: It is just golf. I am just playing the game
Speaker 1: the way everybody else. They might have different toolboxes. We
Speaker 1: you and I were talking about this privately yesterday You're
Speaker 1: not going to out drive Bryson to Shambeau. You're not
Speaker 1: going to do some things that other players can't. But
Speaker 1: you've got to look at your game and go, Okay,
Speaker 1: these are the things I'm good at. And I think
Speaker 1: it's interesting you said this to me privately yesterday, and
Speaker 1: you just said it earlier when we started. You wouldn't
Speaker 1: change anything, and out of your entire career, most people
Speaker 1: would go, Okay, I would go back and make changes.
Speaker 1: Given the career that you had and the sick that
Speaker 1: you've been lucky enough to have. Why do you say
Speaker 1: looking back that you wouldn't change anything.
Speaker 2: You know, you've got to You've got to love the uh,
Speaker 2: you know, just just just a journey that you're on.
Speaker 2: You know. I I've made some great friends along the way.
Speaker 2: Of course, you know, of course, no professional golfer wants
Speaker 2: to play poorly and lose a card and that kind
Speaker 2: of thing. So yeah, of course I would love to
Speaker 2: be able to change that. I don't have to go
Speaker 2: through there, of course, But and you know, you could
Speaker 2: kind of go like, there's something not necessarily I would change,
Speaker 2: But if you went back your mind, you know what
Speaker 2: I would have maybe started doing that a little bit earlier,
Speaker 2: you know, but like a you know, like I joked
Speaker 2: with you yesterday, you know, you know, my school report
Speaker 2: always just said, yeah, he's a bit of a slow learner,
Speaker 2: that kind of thing, and and I guess I kind
Speaker 2: of brought that into golf. And but you know, like
Speaker 2: we said yesterday, you know, you've seen some you know,
Speaker 2: we've seen some superstars that kind of peak and then
Speaker 2: they're they're not playing anymore, you know. So to have
Speaker 2: maybe my success later in my career, okay, you know
Speaker 2: that that that that's that's that's how it's happened for me,
Speaker 2: and I'm grateful for that. So you know, yeah, of
Speaker 2: course someone saying we'd love to win in our fourth event,
Speaker 2: of course, you know, but I think sometimes that's it.
Speaker 2: It's not always a good thing. You know. We've we've
Speaker 2: talked about players that won early in their career and
Speaker 2: suddenly they've got all this money and and you're a
Speaker 2: young lad, and you're a single lad, and it's very
Speaker 2: very easy to go out and you think everything, Well,
Speaker 2: I'm now just going to go I'm set now for life.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be on tour for the rest of
Speaker 2: my life, and and and they kind of probably feel
Speaker 2: like they don't have to improve anymore, whereas you do.
Speaker 2: You have to try and improve every single day, you know,
Speaker 2: because that's just how good the standard is. And yeah,
Speaker 2: and yeah, I'm just I'm grateful that it did come
Speaker 2: for me later in my career. You know, there are
Speaker 2: players that have played for twenty years, never won, never one,
Speaker 2: you know. And fortunately I'm now not in that bracket.
Speaker 2: But like like you said before, it's so hard to win.
Speaker 2: It is, you know, back probably and I'm not taking
Speaker 2: anything away from the ear of years ago, there's probably
Speaker 2: only maybe ten or fifteen guys.
Speaker 1: You really says that a lot. My dad said when
Speaker 1: he played the tour in the early seventies, you know,
Speaker 1: he was still playing on tour when it was non exempt.
Speaker 1: He always says, Listen, I knew I wasn't as good
Speaker 1: as the best players. We knew we were just making
Speaker 1: up kind of the field. We knew we had no
Speaker 1: chance to win because everybody, the top stars, Jack and
Speaker 1: those boys back then, they were just so much better
Speaker 1: than everybody else now. And you probably and I'd be
Speaker 1: interested to get your perspective on this, because this is
Speaker 1: something I've touched on in the past. Why is it
Speaker 1: do you think this new generation of players come out
Speaker 1: and they are ready and do win early, because when
Speaker 1: you turned pro in the early part of the two thousand,
Speaker 1: you had to be an apprentice. You had to figure
Speaker 1: out it's going to take you two three years to win,
Speaker 1: and there was that mentality that you had to learn
Speaker 1: your craft. Why is it that you see so many
Speaker 1: this Ludwigo Aberg. I mean, this kid looks like he
Speaker 1: can't miss and to do what he's done. I mean
Speaker 1: last year at this time, he's playing college golf and
Speaker 1: now he's played in a Ryder Cup, he's won a tournament,
Speaker 1: and he's never even played in a major. You must
Speaker 1: have seen a shift every single year in the in
Speaker 1: the talent.
Speaker 2: Oh, definitely that's coming out.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like the players have more tools in
Speaker 1: the toolbox now? What is it that you see after
Speaker 1: being on tour for over twenty years that you see
Speaker 1: with this younger generation that just seemed to come out
Speaker 1: with zero fear and they just are not afraid to win.
Speaker 2: Really, I think you know I've said I've said it
Speaker 2: to a lot of young guys that you know, when
Speaker 2: I was playing amateur golf in the early nineties, playing
Speaker 2: for England and that kind of thing. We never had
Speaker 2: fitness coaches or psychologists or anything like that. We didn't
Speaker 2: have TrackMan's or launch monitors.
Speaker 1: Don't get out of the dirt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just you're right, Okay, You've and coaching, you
Speaker 2: know you you and I'm sure you know your dad
Speaker 2: can say the same thing. Coaching has come on that much.
Speaker 2: You have to know an awful lot more than what
Speaker 2: you used to. You don't have to understand how machines work, this,
Speaker 2: that and the other, biomechanics, all this, what have you.
Speaker 2: And I just think I think golfers have just led
Speaker 2: bread differently now. And I mean by that is that
Speaker 2: you look at you look at Tiger's boy Charlie. He's
Speaker 2: probably now he's you know, he's doubled in size in
Speaker 2: the last year. We saw him. At the last father
Speaker 2: son told him. He's probably in the gym with his
Speaker 2: dad every single morning. He's not the average probably as
Speaker 2: a as a bill the fourteen year old kid or
Speaker 2: however old he is. Yeah, he probably takes his shirt off.
Speaker 2: He probably looks like an eighteen year old he does,
Speaker 2: you know, So it's it's that's that's how it is now,
Speaker 2: you know, And I think Tiger changed that. You know
Speaker 2: that that we had this this guy that came along
Speaker 2: that was just better in every single way and off,
Speaker 2: so everybody had to go up, what is he doing?
Speaker 2: And we have to we have to now keep up.
Speaker 1: You're of that generation people forget. They look at Tiger
Speaker 1: now and a lot of people never really saw Tiger play, right,
Speaker 1: They never saw him play golf. They saw it on
Speaker 1: Golf Channel, they've seen it in reruns and stuff. But
Speaker 1: you were part of that generation playing on the European
Speaker 1: Tour when Tiger would come over two or three times
Speaker 1: a year, he'd play in them. He'd obviously play in
Speaker 1: the Open Champi, but he'd come to Dubai and then
Speaker 1: he was on that circuit where he was playing at
Speaker 1: the Deutsche Bank which was in Germany, so he was
Speaker 1: coming over there. There was no YouTube, There really wasn't
Speaker 1: an Internet, so you were seeing him for the first
Speaker 1: time and as a golfers and as an athlete. As
Speaker 1: you mentioned, he was one hundred and eighty freak returned
Speaker 1: from what golfers used to look like. Do you remember
Speaker 1: when you saw Tiger for the first time at a tournament.
Speaker 1: What was the year and what did you think?
Speaker 2: I can't remember the I remember I obviously I saw
Speaker 2: him at the Deutsche Bank. I didn't really see him play,
Speaker 2: but I watched him practice in a playoff one year.
Speaker 2: I watched him practice for about forty five minutes in Dubai.
Speaker 2: I remember I had to I can't remember if you've
Speaker 2: been to the Emirates that there was a workshop, but
Speaker 2: in one of the small mantelists there was always the
Speaker 2: workshop there and I needed a put of gripping, and
Speaker 2: the guys just said, look, we're a bit busy'd come
Speaker 2: back in forty five minutes. I said, yeah, okay, no problem.
Speaker 2: And as I was walking out and come out onto
Speaker 2: the back of the range, literally Tiger just arrived. Steve
Speaker 2: Williams just put the bag down. Tigers and I just
Speaker 2: went like, no one around. I just kind of like okay,
Speaker 2: and I'm probably seven eight yards by and I just
Speaker 2: sit on the grass and beautiful about one o'clock in
Speaker 2: the afternoon, and I just watched the most unbelievable forty
Speaker 2: five minutes of practice I've ever seen. It was it
Speaker 2: was you can't hit you didn't miss a shot. I mean,
Speaker 2: did you not miss a shot?
Speaker 1: We didn't. You didn't see players like that. You didn't
Speaker 1: see players that look like that. You didn't see players
Speaker 1: that had speed like that. And Tiger had this aura
Speaker 1: around him. I don't know if he created that or
Speaker 1: we around him created it, but you felt you were
Speaker 1: in the presence of something different.
Speaker 2: It was crazy, Like you say, he just didn't miss
Speaker 2: a shot for forty five minutes, and I mean draws fade,
Speaker 2: I mean, exactly the same shot every single time. It
Speaker 2: wasn't if he's hitting a drawer. It was a five
Speaker 2: yard draw, and then the next one was a five
Speaker 2: yard drawer. It wasn't oh it hit one dead straight,
Speaker 2: and then one had overdraw a little bit, and then
Speaker 2: one he got perf. It was the same every single time.
Speaker 2: And then he just opened himself up and hit exactly
Speaker 2: the same shot just the other way. Just a five
Speaker 2: yard cut, five yard cut, same flight, same trajectory. I mean,
Speaker 2: do you, as a goalfer, you just standing there going
Speaker 2: like you can't, you can't do that any better? You know,
Speaker 2: I assume it must be like an artist and you're watching, yeah,
Speaker 2: Pocasso paint you know, you go, I can't do that.
Speaker 2: I can't do that. And I remember I walked off,
Speaker 2: and I remember bumping into Tin and I just said,
Speaker 2: we can't win this week. You can't win. You can't
Speaker 2: beat that over seventy two olds. You can't you cannot
Speaker 2: beat that unless he somehow self destructs. You can't beat
Speaker 2: that over seventy times. I'm sorry, you just you can't
Speaker 2: do it. It was just on a level that I didn't
Speaker 2: even think existed. And I assume that was I don't
Speaker 2: know if that was. I think it was whether your
Speaker 2: dad was still with him or gone over to Hank.
Speaker 2: I'm not too shy. I think it was early two
Speaker 2: thy When did when did?
Speaker 1: When have t dub and my dad? Two thousand and two?
Speaker 1: It was the last year they worked again.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, So I assume it was probably maybe later
Speaker 2: than that.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen. Even still, there's an argument to be made.
Speaker 1: There's always this argument about Tiger's golf swing. Who was
Speaker 1: better under my dad or Hank? I mean, obviously in.
Speaker 2: My opinion, And I'm not just saying it because it's
Speaker 2: you know, I'm sat here with you, Tiger in two thousand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, from I mean from an esthetic standpoint, but then
Speaker 1: you look at I mean it's I always think that
Speaker 1: Hank gets Hank gets a bad deal because the winning
Speaker 1: percentage and the golf he played when he was with Hank,
Speaker 1: the win rate was higher. I mean, it just it
Speaker 1: was exceptional as well. But I think Tiger will always
Speaker 1: going to be thought of in that golden era of
Speaker 1: right around two.
Speaker 2: Blue fields away, I mean, blew them away, you know.
Speaker 2: So I guess you know, I'm old school. I'm a purist,
Speaker 2: you know. In two thousand, I love the way that
Speaker 2: Tiger swung the golf club. It was athletic, it was
Speaker 2: just power. And he Yeah, I would say he drove
Speaker 2: the ball better under your Dad than he did with Hanks.
Speaker 2: Way better, I'd take that.
Speaker 1: But he was trying to drive it.
Speaker 2: Pretty but yeah, you know, he just came along and
Speaker 2: he and he just changed the landscape completely of golf.
Speaker 2: And and I've probably got you know, we we've all
Speaker 2: got to be thankful for it. We're all better off
Speaker 2: for it. We're all probably in better shape for it
Speaker 2: because we've we've had to we've had to change the
Speaker 2: way we go about working on our games, working on ourselves,
Speaker 2: you know, and then maybe that's you know, they helped
Speaker 2: me in the longevity that right, Okay, because looking after
Speaker 2: yourself a little bit more has helped you, you know,
Speaker 2: keep keep your career going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, injury prevention, Yeah, that's you know.
Speaker 2: And like I said to you yesterday, now you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to look you know. I know I
Speaker 2: can't compete with Bryson off the tea and DJ and
Speaker 2: that kind of and that's fine, you know, But for
Speaker 2: me it's about staying can I If I can pick
Speaker 2: up a mile or two, that's fine, but it's as
Speaker 2: we all know, as mother nature kind of catches up
Speaker 2: on you is I don't want that drop off. If
Speaker 2: I can keep my ball speed up around one seventy
Speaker 2: one seventy one, which okay, yes is below average, but
Speaker 2: it's it's far enough. It is far enough, you know,
Speaker 2: especially when you play in nice conditions, you can still
Speaker 2: get it out there three hundred and three to ten
Speaker 2: off the tee. So most part fours you're breaking the
Speaker 2: back of Yeah, of course i'd we'd all like to
Speaker 2: hit it three p thirty three. Yeah, of course we do.
Speaker 2: But if you probably look at most old school players
Speaker 2: or guys that have been around for a long time
Speaker 2: don't hit it that far. And Harrington's probably a bit
Speaker 2: of a and Phil still do.
Speaker 1: Ye only maybe because of his size. But but if.
Speaker 2: You look at probably Lee, you look at you know,
Speaker 2: I've played a bit with Lee the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: I've played with Poults the last couple of years, Stens,
Speaker 2: and you know it's about it. Can you as long
Speaker 2: as you can kind of hold that drop off, you know,
Speaker 2: if you can kind of keep that at Bay, then
Speaker 2: you know, I think you know you can. You can
Speaker 2: still compete.
Speaker 1: So much over the last couple of years, the golf
Speaker 1: landscape has changed. You were one of the players that
Speaker 1: made the decision to go to live. Talk me through
Speaker 1: that decision, why you decided to do it, and what
Speaker 1: you've been surprised at over the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: First of all, the decision to go to live, how
Speaker 1: did it come about and why did you make that decision?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was I remember I was playing Lee Westwood
Speaker 2: in the match Player in Texas and we're walking down
Speaker 2: the second and obviously there was rumors of the live thing, and.
Speaker 1: This is Tiger Or post filmmaking all his comments and
Speaker 1: Allen Ship, yes, book and everything this live so now
Speaker 1: Live's got no momentum.
Speaker 2: So this is just whispers about it. It's it's it's
Speaker 2: you know, it's kind of will it won't it kind
Speaker 2: of thing. And Lee said to me, we're going down
Speaker 2: about the second or the third and we're just having
Speaker 2: a chat and he says, have you had any contact
Speaker 2: from from Greg yet? And I said no. I said,
Speaker 2: why would he want to talk to me? He's gone blindy,
Speaker 2: you're you know, you're top fifty five in the world.
Speaker 2: They're going to want to talk to you. And I
Speaker 2: went like really, and okay. So I kind of like
Speaker 2: just got on and played and didn't really think too
Speaker 2: much of it, and then kind of like spoke to
Speaker 2: my manager at the time and just sort of said, look,
Speaker 2: you know, is it worth a trying to get a
Speaker 2: conversation and see And they came back and they said, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, we're you know, we're we would be very interested,
Speaker 2: and you know, and I talked it over with my
Speaker 2: wife and you know, my family, and I said, look,
Speaker 2: there's this opportunity here that you know, you can't turn down.
Speaker 2: At forty nine years old. Yes, I've had a decent
Speaker 2: longevity on on DP world and the last couple of years, yes,
Speaker 2: I'd done some nice money, but it's still not you know,
Speaker 2: all right, that's it. I can completely stop playing and
Speaker 2: never have to do anything else for the rest of
Speaker 2: my life. Not even close. I mean not even close.
Speaker 2: And you know, I and I talked to my wife
Speaker 2: quite a lot about it, and I said to us,
Speaker 2: look are you okay with this? You know, we know
Speaker 2: that the human right, so the side of Saudi is
Speaker 2: not good. And I said, you know, have you got
Speaker 2: a problem with this? She said, Look, at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, you playing golf, no matter where you
Speaker 2: play golf in the world, isn't going to change that.
Speaker 2: He said, So you know, you have to do what
Speaker 2: you think is right and for the best. And as
Speaker 2: soon as she said that, then for me it was
Speaker 2: it was absolutely there was. I was one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: I was It's a no brainer. My age, at my career,
Speaker 2: at that stage of my career, I don't know how
Speaker 2: long I got left. I didn't know, you know, I
Speaker 2: could be I could lose my card the next year,
Speaker 2: and so right, okay, okay, it might be a one
Speaker 2: year thing. It might be I never signed a contract
Speaker 2: will Live. The first contract I signed with them was
Speaker 2: at the start of twenty twenty three. Yeah, I've never
Speaker 2: signed for a dollar. Does everybody think I had any
Speaker 2: money from?
Speaker 1: Everyone thinks that everybody that went to Live got the
Speaker 1: bag right, they made all this money. Yeah, there are
Speaker 1: guys that did that, but there were also people like
Speaker 1: yourself that made the decision at the age you were
Speaker 1: at to go. Were you and have you been surprised
Speaker 1: at the backlash?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: I kind of yeah. We all knew it wasn't going
Speaker 2: to sit very well, you know, as soon as you
Speaker 2: start kind of upsetting the apple cart as such. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know it's going to put some noses out, and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I think looking back to London the first event,
Speaker 2: I think some of the questions that the media put
Speaker 2: across to some of the players. Fortunately I wasn't one
Speaker 2: of them. Ye know, I mean they were they were shocking,
Speaker 2: they were dreadful, they were disgusting questions to be asked.
Speaker 2: And you know, when you know, if there's a World
Speaker 2: Cup in Saudi Arabria in a few years or whatever, though,
Speaker 2: those journalists will be out there, one of them, you
Speaker 2: know that they'll just be doing their jobs exactly you know,
Speaker 2: and exactly what we're doing. You know, we're just doing
Speaker 2: our job. There's an opportunity there to do your job
Speaker 2: for more money. Like you say, it's not everybody's decision,
Speaker 2: and that's that's entirely up to them. But all you
Speaker 2: can do is you have to make the best decision
Speaker 2: for you and your family going forward. Whether that agrees
Speaker 2: with you know, some people, that's them, you know. I
Speaker 2: got I got some stick on social media and I
Speaker 2: remember replying to one guy. It was just rubbing me
Speaker 2: up the wrong way one day, and I just said,
Speaker 2: I said, if I turn up to your house with
Speaker 2: a briefcase with five million dollars in that briefcase, and
Speaker 2: I tell you, right, this is where the money's come from.
Speaker 2: I said, there it is tax free, it's yours, but
Speaker 2: that's where it's come from. The briefcase would be on
Speaker 2: the other side of the door, on my hand, and
Speaker 2: be still being the door because they're not in that situation.
Speaker 2: It's not there in front of them. It's very very
Speaker 2: easy to take the moral high ground. It is. We've
Speaker 2: all done it, probably, but you know, when that situation
Speaker 2: is actually gone right, I've got the chance here to
Speaker 2: make my life, my wife's life, and my family's life
Speaker 2: very very comfortable for the next however, however long at
Speaker 2: forty nine years.
Speaker 3: Old, i'd need locking away really if I didn't take it,
Speaker 3: you know, And I would, and I will say, it's
Speaker 3: the best decision I've ever made.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've absolutely loved it, and I've loved the innovation
Speaker 2: of Live and how it is trying to you know,
Speaker 2: make golf call again, you know, and I and when
Speaker 2: we played in London, I felt like a rookie again
Speaker 2: at forty nine. I did. I felt like it, and
Speaker 2: I really do thank them. It's made me a better
Speaker 2: player because I'm playing against Bryson, I'm playing against DJ
Speaker 2: and playing against Brooks, playing against Cam. I'm playing against
Speaker 2: them fifteen times a year. It's made me a better player.
Speaker 1: And you're You're on Martin Kimer's the cliques. Having access
Speaker 1: to a guy Martin Kimer could be the most unassuming
Speaker 1: two time major champion that's also won the players Champion
Speaker 1: you could ever meet. I think because Martin's such a
Speaker 1: nice person, such a genuine, genuine human being, that you
Speaker 1: sometimes forget how great a player he was. You can't
Speaker 1: win two majors and phone it in. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you look at the places that he's won, right,
Speaker 1: winning US Open at Pinehurst, which was brutal, and then
Speaker 1: the way they had whistling straight set up, and then
Speaker 1: to win at the Players as well. Last year you
Speaker 1: got to spend a lot of time with Martin. There
Speaker 1: were times where he was healthy, there's times where he wasn't.
Speaker 1: But what have you taken away from your time and
Speaker 1: your experience with a great player like Martin?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I just think he's very He's just
Speaker 2: you can see he's just very, very cool under pressure,
Speaker 2: and you know, I think he's got tremendous sort of
Speaker 2: self belief in himself, and you know, you talk to
Speaker 2: him about you know a few things.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I was just with him a few days ago and
Speaker 2: it was got I think the US Opens going back
Speaker 2: to Pinehurst again this year, isn't it? And it was interesting.
Speaker 2: We was having dinner one night and and I just
Speaker 2: was just chatting to him about that week, and you know,
Speaker 2: it was just interested in talking to him about you know,
Speaker 2: when did you really feel like, you know, you're right, Okay,
Speaker 2: I've got this, I've got it done. And it was
Speaker 2: quite he was telling a funny story. I think he
Speaker 2: was like I think he said, I'm like he hit
Speaker 2: his t shot on fifteen or something like that, and he's, uh,
Speaker 2: and he hit I think he hit like two iron
Speaker 2: off the tee and then he hit his second shot
Speaker 2: into about fifteen feet with a three iron and he's gone.
Speaker 2: He was walking up to the bring. I'm right, okay,
Speaker 2: that's it. I'm good now any three puts and he
Speaker 2: was in. He was and it was like it was
Speaker 2: so interesting and he's funny. As soon as you think
Speaker 2: and he's gone.
Speaker 1: On the golf course, as soon as you think, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm safe now, Yeah, I've got it. Someone holds a
Speaker 1: bunker shot, you make a bad swing out of nowhere
Speaker 1: because you go to that mindset of going, okay, I've
Speaker 1: got this. Yeah, and it sometimes can really really kind
Speaker 1: of switch the other way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's he's and he and he actually quite
Speaker 2: openly talked about the time, you know, I think he
Speaker 2: went on to win by seven or eight or something
Speaker 2: like that, but he talked about the time in Abbadabby
Speaker 2: when he had a ten shot lead I think with
Speaker 2: twelve to play and lost to Gary Starr and uh,
Speaker 2: and it was interesting that he that he talked about
Speaker 2: quite a member. Yeah, that how he you know that
Speaker 2: he was just going along. Everything was kind of great
Speaker 2: and you know, just right and thinking what okay, this
Speaker 2: is just you know, just kind of get it into
Speaker 2: the house and take the trophy, thanks very much. And
Speaker 2: I think he made I think he made a six
Speaker 2: or something on the on the ninth or something like that,
Speaker 2: and and I think Gary then made birdie, so it
Speaker 2: was like a three shot swing there, and then he
Speaker 2: made I think he made a triple on thirteen, where
Speaker 2: then he makes a birdie on the very like next hole,
Speaker 2: so suddenly it's a four shot swing. Yeah, and he
Speaker 2: said I just couldn't stop it. I just literally fit.
Speaker 2: I was trying everything, but he just I just could
Speaker 2: not kind of you know. And someone is as good
Speaker 2: as Martin was, the world number one and major winners
Speaker 2: and what have you that, Yeah, it happens, you know,
Speaker 2: it does happen. And but yeah, he's just he's just
Speaker 2: you know, he's just one of those guys that you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes he doesn't give you a whole lot, but what
Speaker 2: he gives you it's good stuff, you know. And at
Speaker 2: the end of the day. You know, we've all I've
Speaker 2: been around the block enough that yeah, I know what,
Speaker 2: you know, I know what I've got to do. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't really need I shouldn't really need any sort
Speaker 2: of pep talking now that right, Come on, guys, you
Speaker 2: know he should be if that should just come from
Speaker 2: within yourself. But yeah, he's like you said, he's just
Speaker 2: he's just a cool guy to be around. And and
Speaker 2: that's when again one of the other things I think
Speaker 2: I've just loved with live and You've got to know
Speaker 2: players so much more because you're round in that team environment.
Speaker 2: You have got to know Gmac a lot more, Burn
Speaker 2: Wisberger last year, Laurie Cancer who's been on the cligues
Speaker 2: a little bit. But you know, you're also around all
Speaker 2: the other guys where everybody's at the course at the
Speaker 2: same time and you and and it just it really
Speaker 2: is just a great atmosphere to be around and to
Speaker 2: play golfing.
Speaker 1: I think I've said this a lot of times. I
Speaker 1: was lucky enough to kind of start my career on
Speaker 1: the traveling circus in the early two thousands. That was
Speaker 1: the European Tour back in the day, and Live reminds
Speaker 1: me a lot of what the European Tour used to be, right.
Speaker 1: It was kind of this traveling circus. It went all
Speaker 1: over the world and things like that. Keith Pelly has
Speaker 1: just resigned from running the Deep World Tour, the old
Speaker 1: European Tour. You've been on Live for the last this
Speaker 1: will now be your third year. But you are a
Speaker 1: European Tour guy. That is you didn't you didn't play
Speaker 1: in America. You never left and moved to Florida and
Speaker 1: played the PGA Tour and did both, So the European
Speaker 1: Tour was your home obviously. Keith Pelly moving on sounds
Speaker 1: like Guy Kinnings who was the longtime agent for Monty
Speaker 1: and everybody at IMG, he's now going to take over
Speaker 1: that role. What happens in your opinion now to the
Speaker 1: European Tour, because there is there is this argument now
Speaker 1: that I think you can make this that with the
Speaker 1: alignment and the partnership that the European Tour that Keith
Speaker 1: and Jay forged together. Now every year the top ten
Speaker 1: players off the europe off of the DP World will
Speaker 1: go to the PGA Tour. Where do you see the
Speaker 1: European tour going and where would you want it to go?
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, I think Keith has done a lot of
Speaker 2: good for the tour. I think he has. You know,
Speaker 2: was I a fan of where I where he was
Speaker 2: taking the tour in the last maybe two years partnering
Speaker 2: up with with America. No, I wasn't, And why not?
Speaker 2: I just like again, I just I always go back
Speaker 2: to I remember when he first came in as CEO,
Speaker 2: he gave his first player, full player address at PJ
Speaker 2: Cattle and I can't remember what year it was when
Speaker 2: whenever the first year was he was in charge PJ
Speaker 2: Cattaloon and he basically we were then going to partner
Speaker 2: up with Asia.
Speaker 1: It was going to be the Asian Tour.
Speaker 2: And he was basically saying that America is hostile America,
Speaker 2: who's our rival, and we have to compete with them.
Speaker 2: As far as ask said, that was the whole idea
Speaker 2: of the Roleck series is to play for seven million dollars.
Speaker 2: Pretty much what that America PJ Tour were playing at
Speaker 2: the time is to try and keep our best players
Speaker 2: in Europe to play bigger events. But yet we still
Speaker 2: just you know, in some ways, they we bowed down
Speaker 2: to whether it be player power that right, they want
Speaker 2: to go play in America, and we made it easier
Speaker 2: for them to go play in America, that we cut
Speaker 2: our playing minimums down. You know, I think it's now
Speaker 2: that you only have to play what was it two
Speaker 2: or three events outside of the majors too.
Speaker 1: You've got you've got guys that I mean, You've got
Speaker 1: guys going to the Race to Dubai at the end
Speaker 1: of the year leading the European Order Merit that have
Speaker 1: legit other than some of the co sanctioned and the majors,
Speaker 1: have played in maybe two to events legit real standalone,
Speaker 1: and you can take Abu Dhabi and Dubai out of
Speaker 1: that equation, right they are not. Those are the ones
Speaker 1: historically that we're talking like a regular Pete European old
Speaker 1: school DP World tournament. The guys that every year are
Speaker 1: winning this are playing the majority of their golf on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour, right. A lot of these guys live
Speaker 1: the majority of the year in America. And I still
Speaker 1: remember to where I mean, I started working on the
Speaker 1: European Tour in the early two thousands. I've had on
Speaker 1: the podcast. He's a good friend of mine, Trevor Immoman, Trevor,
Speaker 1: Justin Rose Poltz, Adam Scott. They use the European Tour
Speaker 1: to go over and win on the European Tour to
Speaker 1: then be the springboard to get them top fifty. And
Speaker 1: because top fifty back in the day was the holy grail,
Speaker 1: right if you were top fifty in the world, regardless
Speaker 1: of which tour you played on, you got into all
Speaker 1: the majors, you got into all the wgc's, you got
Speaker 1: into the Players Championship, and then you got most likely
Speaker 1: if you were winning, and you're probably gonna get an
Speaker 1: invite into Honda, an invite into Bayhill, one of the
Speaker 1: big tournaments. But back then, those guys Rosie Scottie Poltz,
Speaker 1: that kind of generation. They won European Tour events, real
Speaker 1: European Tour events, not CO sanctioned ones, not Dubai Abu Dhabi.
Speaker 1: They won rank and file European Tour events. That's how
Speaker 1: they got to America. Now it seems like the way
Speaker 1: to get European Tour membership is to play in all
Speaker 1: the majors, win one of them, and then go play
Speaker 1: one tournament. Go play Scotland, which is now CO sanctioned,
Speaker 1: but you're not playing a full European school. I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, it's easy to beat up on Patrick Reed, right,
Speaker 1: Patrick Reed makes it sometimes easy for people to beat
Speaker 1: him up. Right. But Patrick Reid has played a lot
Speaker 1: on the DP World Tour in the last five years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's I think I spoke to him.
Speaker 2: I think he said he's played. He's played more more
Speaker 2: regular DP World events and than what Rory has in
Speaker 2: the last however long. Yeah, and it's you know, I
Speaker 2: don't know, I'm kind of maybe spitballing here a little bit.
Speaker 2: But if you didn't have to be a DP World member,
Speaker 2: you know, to play Ryder Cup, would they even come back?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I remember at maybe they wouldn't.
Speaker 2: They might come back for maybe play Dubai or you know,
Speaker 2: and Rory maybe play the Irish or something like that,
Speaker 2: But I I don't know, maybe they wouldn't.
Speaker 1: The miracle at Madina where the European Ryder Cup team
Speaker 1: had the massive comeback all the Nobbles to captain, they
Speaker 1: win it for sev But on Sunday morning it looked
Speaker 1: like they were going to get beat and they were
Speaker 1: going to get beat bad, and I remember thinking Blandy,
Speaker 1: is this kind of if they do get beat, is
Speaker 1: this kind of the final nail in the coffin? Because
Speaker 1: the majority, if not ninety percent, of that Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: team for the European Tour all flew to Chicago from America.
Speaker 1: They didn't fly from Europe because they all lived in America.
Speaker 1: They were all playing on the PGA Tour, they were
Speaker 1: all making their homes in America. And I remember thinking,
Speaker 1: if they go on to lose this, this it's not
Speaker 1: the euro it's not Europe against America. It's the it's
Speaker 1: the European based players that left the European Tour to
Speaker 1: come to the PGA Tour for the money, for the
Speaker 1: bigger tournaments. They're the ones making up this Ryder Cup.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's a hard one that I think
Speaker 2: that the Ryder Cup selection is how you balance yeah,
Speaker 2: because it is a European it is a European team,
Speaker 2: and it is a.
Speaker 1: You know, and it is you have the European Tour
Speaker 1: and you.
Speaker 2: Have to you it may be someone that you know,
Speaker 2: and I've like, I think it's how how do you
Speaker 2: split it, you know, from say like a world ranking
Speaker 2: list or world points list to the DP World Order,
Speaker 2: a merit points list of who gets in. And however,
Speaker 2: you know, my point is you had a guy last
Speaker 2: year who's third in DP world points list on the
Speaker 2: yearly list, and he's not in the he's not in
Speaker 2: the Ryder Cup. He's third Asian MORONC and he's one
Speaker 2: at that venue that year and he's not in. You know,
Speaker 2: so that that kind of didn't really sit right, and
Speaker 2: that just shows you then that really the the the
Speaker 2: kind of race tooby list is completely irrelevant. It doesn't
Speaker 2: matter to.
Speaker 3: The world or the.
Speaker 1: You're pretty relevant right now in hugely, you know.
Speaker 2: I think that's one of the things that really really
Speaker 2: sticks in my is is how, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: know what kind of say Keith has had in that.
Speaker 2: I know, you know he can't vote on it, Llever,
Speaker 2: but to stand there and go, right, okay, guys, you
Speaker 2: know they've put this, they must have put this proposal
Speaker 2: together to go right now, this is what's going to
Speaker 2: happen as regards of world ranking, and someone has gone like,
Speaker 2: hang on a second, that is just not fair. You know,
Speaker 2: how can you have like our major, which is the
Speaker 2: BMWPGA Championship in September where you have a lot of
Speaker 2: the top ten players in the world, certainly probably four
Speaker 2: or five of them, Rahm and Rory and Tommy and
Speaker 2: Fitzie all playing, and you can have a tournament in
Speaker 2: America where the FedEx is done, the FedEx is done
Speaker 2: so that it's and they're playing for more points that
Speaker 2: I don't I don't get. And it was exactly the
Speaker 2: same at the DP World Championships at the end of
Speaker 2: the year. Are Tour Championship, the same tournament in the Marrier,
Speaker 2: Chris playing for more world he's playing for more world
Speaker 2: ranking points. How that can be allowed? I've got no
Speaker 2: idea is if you are a DP World player now,
Speaker 2: I think it's almost impossible to get into the top
Speaker 2: fifty in the world unless you probably win six times.
Speaker 1: Well, I think if I was talking to Chow Men thought,
Speaker 1: because he's the commissioner and chairman of the Asian Tour,
Speaker 1: and we were talking about Tom Kim and Tom Kim's
Speaker 1: kind of meteoric rise to the PGA Tour, but the
Speaker 1: road that he took in coming from Asia and then
Speaker 1: coming to Europe and then getting to the PGA. Choe
Speaker 1: was saying those stories won't happen anymore, and it does
Speaker 1: increasingly seem as we stand in twenty twenty four that
Speaker 1: without the framework of an agreement between Live and the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, like you said, it seems like the only
Speaker 1: way to get into all of the big tournaments. It's
Speaker 1: to me, it seems like it's going the route that well,
Speaker 1: unless you play on the PGA Tour, there is no
Speaker 1: real pathway for you to really make the jump that
Speaker 1: a lot of people have made. And again I use
Speaker 1: Adam Scott and Trevor Imloan. I worked with both of
Speaker 1: them in the early two thousands and the holy grail
Speaker 1: for them was get top fifty in the world. That
Speaker 1: gets you into the players, that gets you into some
Speaker 1: of the WGCs. Then you can start to make this
Speaker 1: move that's kind of the base camp that then you
Speaker 1: can make the jump to go to the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: And it does seem like right now, the world it
Speaker 1: seems like if you're not on Live, the world is
Speaker 1: basically trying to become one hundred percent PGA Tour centric. Now, Blendy,
Speaker 1: what do you say to the fans and the people
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast saying you you left the European Tour.
Speaker 1: The European Tour gave you a platform for twenty years.
Speaker 1: You left to further your career right for what was
Speaker 1: better for you. So your opinion on what happens with
Speaker 1: the European Tour is in valid anymore because you basically
Speaker 1: left to go do something else. Because there are people
Speaker 1: that say that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, and I completely get it. But of
Speaker 2: course there's one thing in life we're always allowed, and
Speaker 2: that's your opinion. Everybody has one, you know, So whether
Speaker 2: my opinion people want to listen to it or they don't,
Speaker 2: best you know, I'm not going to lose any sleep
Speaker 2: over that, you know. My opinion is I certainly don't
Speaker 2: like the way it's going. Like you say, given ten
Speaker 2: of your best players away every single year is for
Speaker 2: me as a recipe disaster. I relate it to my
Speaker 2: football team Southampton.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had My father in law is a season
Speaker 1: ticket holder.
Speaker 2: You know they gave away for you know, they they
Speaker 2: sold all their best players, okay, you know because a
Speaker 2: Liverpool or a Man United or a man City would
Speaker 2: come in for them and pay for an awful lot
Speaker 2: of money for them.
Speaker 1: Now they're in the Championship and.
Speaker 2: At some point, at some point, yes, you can kind
Speaker 2: of keep your head above water for a while, but
Speaker 2: you know you're not replacing Lake for like, you have
Speaker 2: someone like Nikolai Hooyguard who's got one of those spots
Speaker 2: going to the PGA Tour this year. And this is
Speaker 2: and this is no disrespect to the guys that have
Speaker 2: come from Challenge Tour. That is not the same level.
Speaker 2: It's not the same level of player that you're replacing.
Speaker 2: The ten or fifteen guys that are coming from Challenge Tour.
Speaker 2: Is not replacing those It's not the same caliber. It
Speaker 2: isn't so you are just watering down your talent the
Speaker 2: whole time, and that I think in the future for
Speaker 2: future sponsorship is going to hurt the talk because again,
Speaker 2: no disrespect to any player that's playing on the Deep world.
Speaker 2: They're all really good players. They are I'm not I
Speaker 2: don't dispute that at all. The standard is incredibly high.
Speaker 2: But unless you have got marquee players people that right, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go watch that guy. Where's the return
Speaker 2: for the sponsors? They're just going to go unless you're
Speaker 2: going to give me x Y and Z. You know
Speaker 2: of a player and of course, then you've got to
Speaker 2: pay them to come back and play, and it's I'm
Speaker 2: just not a fan of it. I'm just not a
Speaker 2: fan of giving your your ten best players, if you
Speaker 2: I kind of it frightens me that over the next
Speaker 2: five years, if this does carry on, you're going to
Speaker 2: give your best fifty players to the PGA Tour. Now, yes,
Speaker 2: some will come back. Not all fifty players are going
Speaker 2: to keep their card, but but it's kind of like
Speaker 2: the way, kind of the way, you know, I would
Speaker 2: almost go if I was a twenty six, twenty seven
Speaker 2: year old guy and I've played good on the DP
Speaker 2: World Tour and I've got my card in America and
Speaker 2: I go play and I don't keep my card and
Speaker 2: I maybe just miss out, and I've got full corn
Speaker 2: Ferry status, I would almost probably go at that age,
Speaker 2: I'll I'll stay in America and not go back, and
Speaker 2: not go back, you know, because let's face it, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I know you can say that they're playing
Speaker 2: for more money in Europe than they ever have, but
Speaker 2: you know, I think you know, you read between the lines.
Speaker 2: You know, PJ tours proping an awful lot of that
Speaker 2: up that Yeah, I and and it's a sad way
Speaker 2: to think about it, and it's a sad opinion to
Speaker 2: have it. It is, and I wish I didn't have it,
Speaker 2: But I really do hope that, you know, it gets
Speaker 2: sorted out and and I just somehow I just fear
Speaker 2: that the deep world could be in some ways left behind.
Speaker 2: I really do. And I hope Guy comes in and
Speaker 2: he's stronger maybe in that area than maybe Keith was.
Speaker 2: Like you say, I think Keith did an awful lot
Speaker 2: of good for the tour. You know, I don't think
Speaker 2: probably the last eighteen months two years of his sort
Speaker 2: of tenure has been you know, his best. But you know,
Speaker 2: it is what it is, and you know, and I
Speaker 2: know some people might go that I'm maybe a part
Speaker 2: of that because I went to live but I can
Speaker 2: also say that, you know, and Keith knows. He said
Speaker 2: this to me when I had a meeting with him.
Speaker 2: He said, Bland, if I was in your position, I
Speaker 2: would go. And that was our CEO of the DP
Speaker 2: world at the time. He said to me, he said,
Speaker 2: if I was in your position, I would go, so
Speaker 2: and he was right, Yeah, I, like you say, you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's the best decision I've ever made and I'm
Speaker 2: a better player for it, and no regret and I'm
Speaker 2: oh none, none whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Lastly, twenty twenty four, what are the goals for you?
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you know you're setting goals in you know,
Speaker 1: you're fifty one. What are the goals? Are the goals
Speaker 1: to keep improving? Are the goals to win? Because obviously
Speaker 1: we were talking about this yesterday as well. At your
Speaker 1: stage of your life, your career, your body, your game,
Speaker 1: you have to pick. I mean, there's courses that are
Speaker 1: going to set up well for you and courses that
Speaker 1: are going to set up well for other players. What
Speaker 1: are the goals for this year?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You know, I know to be you know, if
Speaker 2: I wanted to play on live in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to play some seriously good goal. You know.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people think, oh, it's everybody's
Speaker 2: live that's washed up and this, that and the other.
Speaker 2: Let's just bs. You know, you have to even to
Speaker 2: finish top fifteen on a live event, you have to
Speaker 2: play some serious goal. You have to and if you
Speaker 2: finish in the top ten, you have played some unbelievable goal.
Speaker 2: That's my opinion, and so yeah, So for me, if
Speaker 2: I can play, I would like to think if I
Speaker 2: can play two more years, I think that would be
Speaker 2: me probably riding off into the sunset. You know. You know,
Speaker 2: my brother's gone through cancer this last sort of twelve months.
Speaker 2: I want to I want to enjoy the rest of
Speaker 2: my life. You know. Of course, I'll still be around golf.
Speaker 2: I'll still play golf. I might even play a few
Speaker 2: senior events here and there. You know, have I got
Speaker 2: any ambition to play sort of seniors in Europe? I haven't,
Speaker 2: to be honest. And then do I want to maybe
Speaker 2: play champions and start playing twenty five twenty six tournaments again?
Speaker 2: I don't think I do, you know. So it's a
Speaker 2: lot of travel. Yeah, I love playing in America, you know,
Speaker 2: but you know we're happy where we are. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I think if I could play through twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: I think that would be you know, I'd be sort
Speaker 2: of retiring and very happy man. So you know, but
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean to say that this year I'm going
Speaker 2: to give it everything I've possibly got. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: a I'm a hundred an all in guy. You know,
Speaker 2: I can't do anything half heartedly you know, I'm behind
Speaker 2: the eight ball anyway when you're playing against DJ and
Speaker 2: Brooks every every round. So you know, I've got to
Speaker 2: be at my best, you know, most of the time.
Speaker 2: And that's what's made me a better player. That's just
Speaker 2: it just that has to come out of me. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm going to do everything I can to be playing
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five. Of course, i'd love to be
Speaker 2: coming down the stretch with one of those guys fighting out.
Speaker 2: I hope it happens, but yeah, you know, it's I'm
Speaker 2: sort of more also, you know, I can kind of
Speaker 2: see the end of the road a little bit more now,
Speaker 2: which I kind of like the look of as well,
Speaker 2: So you know, but we'll see. You know, I've always
Speaker 2: sort of said, I, you know, I'll cross that bridge
Speaker 2: as well when I come to it. My wife says, oh,
Speaker 2: you'll never retire. But you know, I've had like a
Speaker 2: nice sort of two three months off and I really
Speaker 2: miss it too much. So but you know, now I'm
Speaker 2: back in kind of practice mode, and you know, I'm
Speaker 2: here at the Floridian with you practicing and for the
Speaker 2: next couple of weeks, and it's it does kind of
Speaker 2: get the juices flowing again, I can say that. So,
Speaker 2: but yeah, you know, I'm excited to play in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four. I'm exactly where I want to be. I'm
Speaker 2: playing on the tour. I want to play on regardless
Speaker 2: of the financial side of it. I just I just
Speaker 2: love playing live. I think it's great. I really do.
Speaker 1: Does your football team, Southampton, do they get back to
Speaker 1: the premiership. My father in law, Mike McCleary, I mean,
Speaker 1: he goes to the games, he sits there in the rain,
Speaker 1: he's devastated. They're in the Championship. Do they get back
Speaker 1: to the Premiership playing well?
Speaker 2: They're on a good run right now. I think they're
Speaker 2: about eighteen and nineteen unbeaten, and I think we play
Speaker 2: Sheffield Wednesday tonight, who are like nineteen, So it's know
Speaker 2: in Southampton, this is probably and we're at home, so
Speaker 2: this is probably. Now we're going to lose three nol.
Speaker 2: I think it's tough. It's going to be tough to
Speaker 2: get an automatic. But how you're back through the you
Speaker 2: look at Leicester. Leicester look really strong. It's which, yeah,
Speaker 2: they kind of I think we can maybe nick a second,
Speaker 2: but I would probably. I think if someone offered you
Speaker 2: the playoff spots right now, I think you'd take it.
Speaker 2: I think you'd take it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I think it's always the same with being a Saints fan,
Speaker 2: you know, even though even though it's quite good at
Speaker 2: the minute. Yeah, they did it at the start of
Speaker 2: the season. They had a good start, and then they
Speaker 2: lose four in a row, so you know, hopefully they
Speaker 2: can keep the run going. But you know, it's just
Speaker 2: whether the squad is strong enough and big enough to
Speaker 2: get through. You know, Forty six games is an awful
Speaker 2: lot of a lot of football in the season. So
Speaker 2: I hope so, I hope so. But there's always that
Speaker 2: sort of bit of pessimistics view when you're a Saints fan.
Speaker 2: So we'll see.
Speaker 1: I am learning. I am learning that well, having a Saints'
Speaker 1: supporter in the family.
Speaker 2: I'll ask me that question in about three months and
Speaker 2: I might be able to give you a better answer.
Speaker 1: Great stuff, have a great year. Thanks for talking to us, Claude,
Speaker 1: thank you, bou.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: That was Richard Bland and listen, he's definitely somebody I
Speaker 1: root for, right. I think that his story how long
Speaker 1: it took him to find his first win, to find
Speaker 1: that success Yeah, it's easy to categorize someone like Richard
Speaker 1: as a journeyman. But if you are a journeyman, it
Speaker 1: means that you're still seeking, But it also means that
Speaker 1: you're still on this journey playing professional golf. And there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people at Richard's age that are
Speaker 1: packing it in that that aren't playing anymore. He's still playing.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see what he can do in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. And I think it's important that we hear
Speaker 1: from superstars, from regular golfers, and from people that are
Speaker 1: just making their career playing professional golf. And I think
Speaker 1: Richard's got a very very good story. Thanks everyone for
Speaker 1: listening some of it, but which comes to you every Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We are back next week.