{"id":420316,"date":"2023-01-28T14:18:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T14:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/richard-bland-boasts-share-of-lead-at-halfway-stage-in-dubai-desert-classic\/"},"modified":"2023-11-29T18:57:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T18:57:44","slug":"hero-dubai-desert-classic-2023-r2-richard-bland-boasts-share-of-lead-at-halfway-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/hero-dubai-desert-classic-2023-r2-richard-bland-boasts-share-of-lead-at-halfway-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Bland boasts share of lead at halfway stage in Dubai Desert Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Englishman Richard Bland holds a share of the lead at the halfway stage of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic after posting two successive rounds of 67.<\/p>\n<p>The 49-year-old returned to complete his second round on Saturday morning after making three birdies over the first four holes before play was suspended due to fading light on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>And he carded three more birdies and a solitary bogey in his remaining 14 holes to set the target at 10 under par.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Birdie<br \/>Birdie<br \/>Par<br \/>Birdie<br \/>Birdie<br \/>Birdie<br \/>Birdie <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Thomas_Pieters?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Thomas_Pieters<\/a> charging up the leaderboard \ud83d\udd25 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/HeroDDC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#HeroDDC<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RolexSeries?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RolexSeries<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uXnSv7s1Ln\">pic.twitter.com\/uXnSv7s1Ln<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DPWorldTour\/status\/1619301419206557698?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 28, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Belgium\u2019s Thomas Pieters joined Bland at the summit after closing his Saturday 67 with seven birdies on the back nine before American amateur Michael Thorbjornsen made it a three-way tie.<\/p>\n<p>Thorbjornsen carded an eagle, seven birdies and one bogey in his 64 to grab a share of the lead.<\/p>\n<p>Scotland\u2019s Connor Syme, Swede Marcus Kinhult and Spaniard Adri Arnaus sat one shot off the lead on nine under.<\/p>\n<p>The pre-tournament build-up had been dominated by a war of words between Northern Ireland\u2019s Rory McIlroy and American Patrick Reed, who were another stroke back on eight under but will play in different groups in Sunday\u2019s third round.<\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Twitter --><\/p>\n<figure>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"525\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">First time out at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DubaiDCGolf?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DubaiDCGolf<\/a> and Michael Thorbjornsen delivers.<\/p>\n<p>He joins the lead at -10. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/HeroDDC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#HeroDDC<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RolexSeries?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RolexSeries<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DPWorldTour\/status\/1619323552766869506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 28, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Twitter --><\/p>\n<p>Joining the pair on that number were Englishmen Matt Wallace, Dan Bradbury and Ian Poulter, Austria\u2019s Bernd Wiesberger, Australian Lucas Herbert and Spain\u2019s Angel Hidalgo.<\/p>\n<p>Bland has made just one bogey in the opening two rounds and is happy with where his game is at.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cEvery part of my game is in pretty good shape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only dropped shot was at the sixth this morning where (on my) second hole of the day, I misjudged the temperature and chipped to three feet and missed<a href=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/hero-dubai-desert-classic-2023-r2-rory-mcilroy-and-patrick-reed-set-up-potential-showdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo other than that, it\u2019s been pretty stress-free which is kind of nice<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GolfTodayUK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 49-year-old returned to complete his second round on Saturday morning, carding three more birdies and a solitary bogey in his remaining 14 holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1799,5439,88,9286,9159,89,9051,90,91,3599,92,1447,94,2461],"class_list":["post-420316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dubai","tag-emirates-gc","tag-golf-news","tag-hero-dubai-desert-classic","tag-january-2023","tag-news","tag-pa-news","tag-reports","tag-results","tag-richard-bland","tag-scores","tag-thomas-pieters","tag-tournament","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.3 (Yoast SEO v23.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dubai Desert 2023 R2 - Bland boasts share of lead<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dubai Desert 2023 R2 - He returned to complete his second round, carding three more birdies 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