LIV star has $11.5 million justification for brutally honest money admission

Richard Bland hasn’t held back in disclosing that cash was a colossal factor in his switch to LIV Golf, where he’s raked in an eye-watering $11.5 million.

Bland, 51, bagged himself over $3.5 million in LIV Golf’s first season and knocked out more than $4.4 million in earnings in 2023. Rolling into 2024, he already pocketed another cool $2.3 million, spiced up with $630,000 from clinching the senior PGA win and piling on $800,000 at the US Senior Open.

This treasure trove from LIV Golf dwarfs what Bland earned across 511 tournaments on the DP World Tour. Spilling the beans to Golf Monthly, Bland didn’t mince his words as he bluntly declared: “That was purely why I did it. I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes. I was honest and upfront of why I joined LIV and it was purely for the money.

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“I know people have been slated, you know, ‘it’s growing the game, it’s doing this doing that, whatever,’ I purely went for one thing and one thing only, and I’m not ashamed to say that. I had the opportunity to make my life, my family’s life and whatever we do as a family a lot more easier. So as I say it was a no-brainer.”

While heavy hitters like Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Jon Rahm got their hands on plush nine-figure signing bonuses, Bland insists he started from scratch bonus-wise.

“You know, as I’ve said many times like I know a lot of people who believe me when I say this but LIV didn’t offer me a dollar, it was just purely the opportunity to play,” he candidly told the magazine.

“So no matter what people might think, whether I’m lying or not telling the truth on this side, I’ve got nothing to hide I never have. So it was just purely the opportunity to play and I had to play well enough to stay on LIV. Obviously it was a decision that I had to talk to my wife and to my family about and in the end it was quite an easy decision for me.

“I didn’t sign for one penny and that was fine and I don’t begrudge the guys that signed for tens of millions or whatever, they earned it that’s fine. They’ve been at the sharp end of golf so to speak at the high end of the world rankings for a lot longer than I was.

“I’d only been there a year sort of buzzing around the top 50. So how can I suddenly go right I want $10 million?

“It’s kind of like getting above your station a little bit. Those guys, the DJs and the Brookses and the Brysons, they’ve been top 10 in the world for probably a decade.”

“Me buzzing around 50th for 6-9 months, it’s a little different. I was just thankful that they believed in me and gave me the opportunity and hopefully I’ve repaid that to them.”