"Jay and Keith both need to go” - Richard Bland criticizes LIV Golf partnership with PGA Tour, calls for changes in leadership

It's no secret that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger was not popular with everyone. It was met with a lot of pushback, and that now includes some from Richard Bland.

The golfing veteran and Englishman is the latest to open up on the merger and the leadership of the tours, and he was not kind about it.

Bland ripped into Jay Monahan and Keith Pelley. Monahan is the Tour commissioner and Pelley is the CEO of the PGA European Tour. He said (via NUCLR GOLF):

"Jay and Keith both need to go."

Bland is unhappy with the leadership that allowed them to make this deal. There was a brutal divide between the Tour and LIV and many on one side felt that the PGA Tour was not good to players and that they didn't have any say in what went on. The money also wasn't very good.

Now, the two sides are going to become one. That has made a lot of people very unhappy, and that includes Richard Bland.

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Richard Bland blasts PGA Tour LIV Golf merger

Calling for Jay Monahan and Keith Pelley's removal from leadership wasn't the only thing the English golfer said about the merger and leadership. He said via Golf Magic:

"From what they've said over the last 12 months and then doing the deal, I don't see how they can lead the tours in that direction when they were so critical of what PIF and what LIV were doing. I think for Jay to still be in his position is quite strange with what he's said a few times. Some of the big players have turned down huge offers."

Richard Bland was unhappy with the PGA Tour

He said that he wasn't a fan of what Pelley was doing before the merger, so he's even less thrilled with what's transpired now:

"He's weakened his position and players will be calling for an awful lot more transparency because no one knew about this at all. Regardless of LIV I wasn't a fan of where Keith was taking the tour by trying to partner up with the PGA Tour. I didn't understand that. In a month's time we're trying to play the Ryder Cup against them and now we're in bed with them."

He continued:

"I emailed Keith about this – I said I remember when you first came into the job and you gave your first player address. You pretty much stood up there and said the PGA Tour was a rival tour, a hostile tour and we're trying to compete with them. Now we're best friends with them and I wasn't a huge fan of that. We were just happy to give our best players and that just makes the tour weaker."

It's safe to say that Richard Bland is unhappy with the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, the European Tour, and everyone involved as well as the merger.