Langer three-peats with big putt on 18
WHITEMARSH » It may have been a bit more suspenseful than anybody expected, but Bernhard Langer eventually prevailed on Sunday at the wind-blown Constellation Senior Players Championship at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
The German star won his second major crown of the season by a single stroke over Miguel Angel Jimenez and Joe Durant, and needed to convert a knee-knocker for par on the brutally difficult 480-yard finishing hole to avoid a playoff. In the process, Langer becomes the first back-to-back-to-back champion in the tournament’s 34-year history.
“It feels great to achieve the hat trick in this tournament,” Langer said. “It’s amazing — I still have to pinch myself.
“When you keep winning, confidence breeds success. You get used to the pressure, you get used to being in the hunt and you get used to winning. If you don’t do that for any length of time, you don’t feel as comfortable.”
With five major titles on the Champions Tour in the last 11 played over the past 24 months, Langer is making a strong case as one of the best over 50 golfers in history. At the age of 58 he is now tied with Hale Irwin with seven career major championships, and is now just one behind golfing legend Jack Nicklaus, who is tops on the all-time list.
“I think I established myself as one of the better senior players right from the get-go,” Langer said. “I’ve won at least two tournaments every year and sometimes as much as five.
“I’ve been one of the better guys out here, obviously, but there are some that don’t play much, like (Fred) Couples.”
The leader on the Champions Tour in birdies, Langer didn’t have a single one during Sunday’s 3-over-par round of 73. And he had a lot of chances, but when Langer really needed to make a big putt, he delivered on the 18th with a 12-foot par save that rolled around the cup and dropped.
“I played it to the right edge (of the cup), and it just barely caught that right edge and went in,” Langer explained.
Just moments after a bogey at No. 17 that sliced his lead over Jimenez and Durant to one shot, Langer hooked his last drive into the rough. And after taking a drop to get relief from a tent, Langer hit a 5-iron approach shot into a greenside bunker.
“It was tough to make a par on 18 because it played straight into the face of the wind,” Langer said.
Without a sand save in his four previous attempts this week, Langer converted on his final try when the pressure was at its zenith. His sand blast drifted a bit to the right, but in the end it set the stage for a memorable final putt.
“They didn’t mow the greens this morning because of the windy forecast, which was probably a smart thing to do,” Langer said. “But the greens were firmer but a bit slower, and I didn’t make anything until I made a 6-footer (for bogey) on 17.”
Nobody in the 81-player field managed to break par for the 72-hole tournament. Langer’s winning score of 1-overpar 281 was, by far, the highest score in tournament history. It was the highest score relative to par on the tour since the 2008 Senior PGA at Oak Hill.
It had a lot to do with the venerable, challenging Wissahickon Course, and with winds consistently blowing around 20 miles per hour — and gusting to 35 — it felt more like a British Open than a major on the Champions Tour.
“The conditions were so difficult, I was 1-over, but if there had been no wind this week, I almost want to guarantee I would have been 10-under, maybe more,” Langer predicted.
“It was a tough, tough day. The wind was so strong at times, I was wondering if they were going to call the tournament. The ball was oscillating a lot, and there were a few putts, if you hit them at the wrong time, the ball would just continue to go.”
Jimenez (68) and Joe Durant (68) shared the runner-up spot at 2-over 282, and second-round leader Brandt Jobe was alone in fourth place at 3-over 283.
The swashbuckling Jimenez tried mightily to put some pressure on Langer, and he succeeded early with three birdies on his first seven holes to get to 1-over-par. But the cigar-chomping Spaniard failed to make up any additional ground the rest of the way.
“I thought I needed to finish under par, and then (Langer) had four more holes to play and you never know what is going to happen because it was tough out there,” Jimenez said.
Durant took a different route, mounting what was a late charge with a pair of late birdies to move up 11 spots on Sunday. A rare three on the finishing hole wrapped up a 68. It was one of just two birdies on the finishing hole on Sunday.
“I made a lot of 3- and 4-foot (putts), which is what you have to do on the day like this,” Durant said.
The second-round leader, Jobe, made a mid-round run with back-to-back birdies at Nos. 6-7, to pull within a stroke of Langer, but then dropped off with three bogeys on the back nine.
“I thought if I got it to even-par I had a good shot of winning the golf tournament,” Job said. “I got there, but I just couldn’t stay there.”
To get an idea of just how challenging it was being in the final group on a wind-blown Sunday at the Cricket Club, consider this: Langer’s playing partners — Jay Don Blake (76) and Jeff Sluman (75) — were a combined 11-over par for the round. Even though Langer suffered three bogeys, he played with cautious efficiency, and it wound up being enough.
“I was always in the lead, so even though a made a few bogeys, I still kept my noise in front,” Langer said.
“We just had a great week here in Philadelphia. The course was phenomenal, the people were very kind, the food was great and the weather was pretty good.”