LIV Golf star deletes Twitter following spat with Tour pro

LIV Golf's Richard Bland has appeared to have deleted his Twitter following his spat with Eddie Pepperell.

26 Apr 2023

Richard Bland, a member of Greg Norman's LIV Golf, has appeared to have deleted his Twitter account following a spat with Tour pro Eddie Pepperell last weekend.

Bland, 50, joined Norman's league during its inaugural 2022 season. He's currently a member of Martin Kaymer's Cleeks GC and is ranked 33rd in the 48-player LIV Golf standings.

Over the weekend in Australia for the LIV Golf Adelaide event, where he finished 35th, Bland got into a heated discussion on Twitter with former fellow DP World Tour player Pepperell.

The back-and-forth all started when the LIV Golf Updates accounts tweeted a clip of Chase Koepka making an ace at The Grange GC's party hole, nicknamed the "Watering Hole" at the league's fourth tournament of 2023.

CHASE KOEPKA WITH THE ACE AT THE WATERING HOLE!
Madness in Adelaide! #LIVGolf pic.twitter.com/m70i1PrURj
— LIV Golf Updates (@LIVGolfUpdates) April 23, 2023

Pepperell, in a discussion with other Twitter users, pointed out that this was not the first time that a golf league had introduced a fun, fan-engaging initiative during a tournament.

Bland caught wind of the tweet and decided to join in. He wrote to Pepperell:

"Ed.. tell me where on DP World [Tour] there's been a hole like this. Because in 22yrs of playing the tour I can’t think of any. But maybe your 15 minutes on tour you know different."

Pepperell hit back at Bland. He wrote:

"Where to start. Suppose it's simple; in my 15 minutes I won more events than you did in 22 years. What the Tour has done (just to name a few); GolfSixes, Heineken hole at Himmerland, Beat the Pro in Holland. The Tour, which you spent 22 years on, did ok for you mate."

The next day, Bland explained in a new tweet, that he had been drinking the night of tweeting.

"Unfortunately I did have too many last (night) Ed.. & I apologise for what I said.. I should know better not to tweet under the influence," Bland wrote.

After walking back his comments, now it appears that he has deleted his Twitter account, too.

If you go back to the initial Twitter thread between he and Pepperell, where there once was Bland's response, now says "this Tweet is from an account that no longer exists."

Only time will tell whether this is a permanent deletion or a brief deactivation.

This week, Bland is at Sentosa Island for the LIV Golf Singapore event. It marks the fifth event of the 2023 LIV Golf season and will begin on Friday.

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