BLAND OF HOPE AND GLORY

The Benjamin Button of golf - who's getting befter at 49 - is ready for Major challenge

- NEIL SQUIRES

RICHARD BLAND admits his head is in a whirl ahead of his US PGA Championship debut this week at the ripe old age of 49.

There may be no Phil Mickelson in Tulsa to defend his title but old gold is still represented in the field courtesy of the Englishman who became the oldest first-time winner in European Tour history last year at the British Masters.

He will add another late-blooming first with his tilt at the Wanamaker Trophy at Southern Hills on Thursday having qualified by breaking into the world's top 100.

But the doors that are belatedly opening for Bland in the autumn of what had previously been a journeyman European Tour bring complications.