No one has won more in professional golf after turning 50 than Bernhard Langer, and for the most part, his setup has changed very little in the last 17 years.
For gear nerds, Langer has both one of the most eccentric and elusive bags to get a deep look at, considering he’s starting to wind down his playing schedule as he nears the age of 70.
At this week’s Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, GOLF got an inside look at Langer’s bag, which includes clubs from Ping, TaylorMade, Tour Edge, Cleveland, Titleist and Adams(!), which hasn’t had a significant Tour presence in over 10 years.
Keep reading below for a deep dive into why Langer picks each club in his bag.
Ball
Titleist Pro V1x
Langer’s pellet of choice is the Titleist Pro V1x golf ball. The reason the 67-year-old and 47-time PGA Tour Champions winner prefers the spinny version of the most popular ball in golf is because he, like many pros, has always valued spin.
For the game’s top players, spin is kind of like the opposite of cooking. In cooking, you can always add ingredients but you can never put the genie back in the bottle when you’ve added too much. In golf, spin is something that the best players in the world know how to manage and take away when they need it.
A great example is Rory McIlroy’s golf ball change earlier this year to the spinny TaylorMade TP5 platform, which showcases his ability to control the extra spin provided by the golf ball by hitting 3/4 and knock-down shots.
Langer has never been one of the longest players on the PGA Tour Champions, but he’s been one of the most accurate and the best scramblers, and lot of that has to do with the control offered by playing a spinny golf ball. In 2024, he was second in driving accuracy (79.74 percent), fifth in greens in regulation (73.23 percent) and seventh in scrambling (65.09 percent).
Even as he ages and loses speed, playing a spinny ball allows him to retain stopping power on the greens, making it easy for him to make his money with his putter.
Driver
Driver: Ping G400 9.0 (small minus)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-6 X
Langer has tried a bunch of drivers over the years, but keeps coming back to the G400 because he loves the miss and the spin doesn’t dip down too far.
But good things must come to an end, as Langer is on his last G400 head after his most recent gamer cracked. He was testing a Tour Edge EProto and had the same Tour AD IZ-6 shaft as his gamer.
Fairway wood
3-Wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus 15˚ (FCT: Std, Sliding weight: Rear)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI-7 S
Langer carries three different 3-woods with him, a Qi10 Tour, a Stealth 2 Plus and a Callaway Elyte Ti, but it’s the Stealth 2 that’s in the back this week in New York.
Notice how Langer goes from X flex in his driver to S in his 3-wood. You’ll see this in his irons as well, but Langer treats every club as an individual tool which means just because something works in one, doesn’t mean it works in another.
The Graphite Design Tour AD DI in Langer’s 3-woods has a slightly stiffer tip section than the AD IZ in his driver, so one possible reason for Langer to go a flex softer is to keep that peak height and spin where he wants it.
Hybrids
2-hybrid & 3-hybrid: Adams Idea Pro Tour Prototype 18˚ and 22˚
Shafts: RT Technologies Midas
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. When Langer was on staff with Adams just after his 49th birthday in 2006, he got fit for the Idea Pro 2 and 3-hybrids and he’s still using them the exact same ones today.
The thing is, Adams hasn’t had a presence in professional golf in over 10 years and RT Technologies has long been defunct, so if either of these break, Langer will be forced to go elsewhere as they are the only two that he has.
Irons
4-7-iron: Tour Edge CBX Forged (w/ Langer grind and Tungsten plugs)
8-9-iron: Tour Edge Pro 723
PW: Tour Edge BL Proto
Shafts: Hogan Apex (4), True Temper Dynamic Gold Mid S300 (5-PW)
Loft Progression: 24, 27, 31, 34, 38, 42, 46
Like we pointed out with his shaft choice in the 3-wood, Langer treats each club as an individual tool and that’s further evidenced by his blended set of Tour edge irons.
The Ben Hogan Apex shaft in his 4-iron is so popular that many pros of an earlier generation still have stockpiles of it.
His long and mid-irons are custom jobs thanks to the addition of Tungsten weight ports to get to his preferred feel and the custom sole grinds for turf interaction.
This set also has a good bit of offset to it, which is something Langer demands of his irons and wedges, but for the most part, this set is set up for high launch, which is why he’s using the newer Dynamic Gold Mid shaft.
Wedges
54: Cleveland 588 RTX
60: Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks Prototype
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Langer’s wedges are total custom jobs. He loves the larger profile of the Cleveland 588 RTX and carries two 56-degree wedges with varying amounts of lead tape on them for feel. Both are bent to 54 to add about a significant amount of offset to match his irons and then the grind is redone so as not to lose bounce.
He also has two different Vokey prototypes for his 60-degree, both also with a significant amount of offset bent into the club.
Putter
Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball Long
Length: 48″
The PGA Tour Champions’ best statistical putter last year has continued his run of dominance despite his age and anchor ban in large part due to this Odyssey 2-Ball Long Broomstick.
If Langer is not on the golf course or practicing, the putter stays in the car or the locker room. If he goes out to lunch, it comes with him. The holy grail never leaves his sight if he can bear it.
The coolest thing about this putter is the grip, there’s no special broomstick grip here. It’s a simple Golf Pride Tour Velvet for the bottom hand and the top half of another for the top hand.
Langer also uses a different broomstick method than most, standing very upright with a much longer build (48-inches) than one of his height (5’8) would be fit for and he keeps his left elbow tucked and uses the right arm to drive the stroke.
Grips
Langer uses a Tour-only Golf Pride V55 ribbed (non-cord) grip and puts the rib at 7 o’clock, making the grip’s alignment aid on top appear at 1 o’clock on the shaft. This may seem strange to most, but he does this because the rib then fits in the lifeline of his hand.
He fears a hook and had a tendency to make his grip stronger so he moves the rib to lock it into his lifeline and help him square the clubface.
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