Richard Bland shares how Lee Westwood directly influenced his decision to join LIV Golf in 2022

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LIV Golf continues to dominate talk in the golfing world in one way or another and Richard Bland has revealed how he came to be part of the show.

Bland was one of the players to join the inaugural season for LIV and has since made a nice chunk of change in doing so.

Bland, as we know, has not hidden the fact he went for money eventually.

Unlike many players on the tour, Bland has never suggested anything otherwise and concedes he saw the chance to set his family up as something too good to turn down.

But speaking on his move to LIV, Bland has now revealed how things actually came about and that at first, there was no money involved at all.

Richard Bland reveals which tour player convinced him to speak to LIV in 2022

Speaking to Golf Monthly, Bland revealed how a conversation with Lee Westwood opened the door for him to approach LIV himself.

“I remember at The Matchplay we were playing and in my group it was myself, Bryson, Talor Gooch and Lee (Westwood),” Bland recalled.

“And I remember Lee was my game on the Friday, the last match and I knew I had to beat him to get through and I’ve known Lee for 30 years.

“And I think we were going down the second or third and he said to me, ‘have you spoken to LIV yet’ and this is when we knew it was really coming around. And I was like ‘no, why would they want to speak to me?’ and he says ‘Blandy, you’re top 60 in the world, they’re going to want to talk to you.

“So I parked it for the time being and when I got home I spoke to a couple of people and showed an interest and as I’ve said many times, LIV didn’t offer me a dollar, it was just purely the opportunity to play.”

Both Bland and Westwood have been hit with huge fines from the European Tour since moving to LIV.

However, Westwood has admitted he’s not paying them, while it’s unknown if Bland has taken a similar stance to his good friend.