Men’s professional golf has seen its fair share of aces in the opening months of the year, but LIV Golf player Richard Bland went one better during the second round of its Mexico tournament with an albatross.
The Cleeks GC player had been having a steady if unspectacular tournament with an even par first round followed by going one-under through the first 15 holes of round two.
However, that all changed dramatically on the par-5 16th at Club de Golf Chapultepec. At the 575-yard layout, his tee shot found the fairway after travelling 318 yards. That left him 253 yards to the pin, and when his shot took a bounce onto the green before rolling considerably right of the hole, it initially looked at best like he'd leave himself a long birdie attempt. That was before the ball began curving towards the hole like a magnet and finding its target.
Not surprisingly, it took Bland a little while to realise the ball had been holed before confirmation came and he exchanged gleeful high-fives with his playing partner Mito Pereira and his caddie.
Incredibly, it’s not the first albatross in LIV Golf history, with Brendan Steele being the first to achieve it. Steele’s moment of magic came last August at LIV Golf Greenbrier, when he holed out on the par-5 615-yard 17th for his albatross on his way to finishing T25.
While Bland will have to make do with being the second LIV golfer to make an albatross, incredibly, it was also in Mexico where the Englishman made the fifth hole-in-one it the circuit’s history. That came in the 2024 LIV Golf Mayakoba, when he made an ace the day after his 51st birthday on the par-3 eighth at El Camaleon Golf Club.
That was just the start of an unforgettable year for Bland, who went on to win two senior Majors, in the Senior PGA Championship and Senior US Open. Given what he has now achieved again in Mexico, it’s anyone’s guess what the rest of 2025 has in store for the popular 52-year-old.
