Who was John Bland? Five-time PGA TOUR Champions winner dies at 77

John Louis Bland was a professional golfer from South Africa who won over thirty professional tournaments around the world. Bland was born on September 22, 1945, and died on May 9, 2023, at the age of 77.

Bland’s death was announced by South Africa’s Sunshine Tour golf circuit. He died Tuesday “after a battle with cancer,” the Sunshine Tour said.

Bland, who was born in Johannesburg on September 22, 1945, went professional in 1969 and won his first of 36 titles at the 1970 Transvaal Open.

He won the South African PGA Championship in 1977, one of three victories that year, a tally he matched in 1983 when he defeated Bernhard Langer in the European Tour’s Benson & Hedges International.

Bland went on to make 306 PGA TOUR Champions starts, finishing with six runner-ups and seven third-place results to go with his five wins.

Bland won the London Masters on the Legends Tour, formerly known as the European Senior Tour, just nine days before making his PGA TOUR Champions debut.

He won two more races on that circuit 14 and 15 years after winning the London Masters.

His most recent official start was in 2009.

Bland leaves behind his wife, Sonja, three children, John-Mark, Bonney, and Candice, as well as three grandchildren.