Bernhard Langer hits his tee shot on Friday on the 11th hole at Phoenix Country Club.
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Maybe he’d reconsider?
Maybe he’d give things a second thought … after Friday? During the second round of the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup Championship, he fired a 64, the 21st time the 67-year-old has bested his age in tournament play.
Or maybe he’d change his mind … after these past six months? He’s posted seven top 10s in his return to action, after all.
Or maybe he’d reassess … just because he’s been so wonderful at Augusta National? There, he’s won twice, posted nine total top 10s and made 27 cuts in a whopping 40 starts.
Bernhard Langer listened to the question on Friday. In January, he’d said that this year’s Masters, in April, would be his final appearance, only then he tore his left Achilles a month later, leading him to withdraw and postpone his farewell until 2025. But that was a while ago. Maybe he’d re-examined things?
No, Langer said, he hadn’t. Next April is still the finale.
“It will be,” he said, “no doubt about it.”
The definiteness was notable. He explained why.
“That course is just so long,” Langer said. “The last five or 10 years when I played there, it’s just playing very long. It’s not much fun hitting 3-woods into par-4s, and 2-hybrids and all that kind of stuff.
“The holes are made for 7-, 8-, 9-irons, and I’m coming in with some metal and other things.”
His answer was sincere. As of now, though, he said he’s not been too sentimental when he’s allowed himself to think about the coming moment. He said there’s still tournament golf to be played. Like this week’s event. Even at 67, he’s also still making tweaks in his game — at the Charles Schwab Cup, he said he’s moved the ball slightly farther away from him on putts, giving him a better look.
And everything appeared great on Friday. He was five-under through seven. Two early bogeys on the back nine slowed him, but then he finished with birdies on 17 and 18. All after that Achilles injury, which he suffered while playing pickleball. Yes, even in downtime, Langer is active.
“I’m a very positive person, so I always thought I would be able to come back,” he said. “My surgeon and PT said if everything goes somewhat well, you should be OK, just you’re probably going to lose half the season or something like that. Was fortunate to come back after three months actually.
“The nice thing, we can use carts out here. Because I wasn’t able to walk 18 holes, it helped me. When people ask me how are you doing now, I’m nowhere near 100 percent, but I’m a functioning golfer.”
An understatement, no doubt. Just look again at those numbers toward the top of this article.
Speaking of, does Langer ever surprise himself, though?
Do the 64s and the tournament wins astonish him?
They do, he admitted.
“You know, they’re certainly numbers, and numbers express a lot of certain things,” Langer said. “The more you think about some of the stuff — like another player asked me the other day how many Schwab Cups have you won. I said I’ve won six and I should have won eight because the Covid year was kind of taken away from me, and another one I probably should have won it. And he goes, wow, what’s next? Well, who’s the next-best guy? I said, I don’t even know, maybe three. I don’t think anybody’s won more than two or three.
“Some of those numbers are quite incredible and I’m very blessed to have done what I’ve done.”
But there’ll eventually be an end. All of his tournament play will stop, not just the Masters. Interestingly, Langer hinted when that might be on Friday, when a reporter asked him how he’s continued to stay motivated.
As part of his answer, he said he won’t go past the point to where he feels unwelcome, and you can appreciate that Langer knows where he stands.
“People asked me 20 years ago how long will you play,” he said. “I always said as long as I’m healthy and I’m having fun and I’m playing well. When you win tournaments and you’re in contention most of your life, I think if I reached a point where I feel I have no chance at all and I’m finishing 50th every week, I might consider quitting at that point or certainly playing a lot less. But I’m not there yet.
“Still taking one year at a time and see how it feels.”
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
