HAMPSHIRE golfing hero Richard Bland was close to quitting the game just four months ago.

Bland produced one of the all-time great performances on the European Challenge Tour earlier this month when he won the Grand Final and earned his full playing rights for next year in one fell swoop.

But the 28-year-old Stoneham clubman from Marchwood admitted: "At the start of May my game wasn't going well and I was asking myself, what am I doing?

"After years of trying to get on the tour, there were real doubts in my own mind whether it was worth carrying on. But a few friends sat me down and we talked and talked until three o-clock in the morning.

"It helped me put a fresh perspective on things, to reassess my life, and I suppose I haven't looked back since."

Bland's final round of 63 to clinch the Challenge Tour showpiece in Bordeaux was, he admitted: "The best round of golf I've played in my life. It doesn't come much better than that and knowing I can play like I did, has bolstered my confidence and my belief that I can now go on and establish myself on the European Tour."

Bland went to Bordeaux 44th in the Challenge Tour order of merit and knew that only a win would be good enough to lift him into the top 15 and secure his card for 2002.

"I went for it knowing I had nothing to lose. The ironical thing is that by the time I had eagled the 14th and established a good lead, I began to think 'Richard my boy, you've now got everything to lose!'

"But I was in such a groove that it continued to go smoothly. It was a dream come true but the dream really started to take shape in the previous tournament in Italy where I holed a 40-footer on the last green to clinch 44th and last place in the Grand Final. When that putt went down, I felt destiny was perhaps calling."

Bland finished tenth in the Challenge Tour rankings, a performance which he believes will enable him to play in over 90 per cent of next year's Volvo Tour.

He has already played the odd main tour event and finished 11th in the Scottish PGA Championship in 2000.

"My first goal is to keep my card so I'll be playing in as many of the early events as I can," says Bland. "I don't want to be worrying about having to go back to Tour School in the last weeks of the season."