Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Top of his game
Bernhard Langer dominates tour.
BOCA RATON — Bernhard Langer has been the dominant senior golfer on the PGA Tour Champions since he turned 50, but this past season might have been his best yet.
Langer won four tournaments, one of them the day after he turned 59 in August. Two of the victories were majors, the Regions Tradition and the Senior Players Championship.
The Boca Raton resident placed in the top three 11 times, and his worst finish in 21 events was a tie for 13th. He also won the money title for the eighth time in nine years, banking just over $3 million, and claimed his fourth Charles Schwab Cup.
And by the way, he did all that using a new putting style, since the USGA’s anchored-putter ban took effect on Jan. 1.
“It turned out to be really good, actually,” Langer said. “I didn’t know what to expect. I’d been putting the anchored style for 17 years.”
At the end of the 2015 season, Langer experimented with a variety of putter lengths, weights and lofts and tried holding the grip against his forearm and putting cross-handed.
His tinkering continued at the second tournament of the year, the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton in February, where he ultimately decided to stay with his long putter and use it unanchored. He won the
“It’s just been a continuous success story.” Bernhard Langer, pro golfer
Chubb Classic in Naples the following week.
“I felt it was best for me to just go nonanchored, because that’s the most similar to what I’d been doing and as I pursued that over weeks and months, it got better and better,” Langer said. “And it turned out to be a pretty decent year.”
In the process, Langer showed his rivals that he’s still the player to beat on the senior tour.
“They thought they were taking away one of his biggest weapons with the anchoring ban. I think that maybe motivated him a little more,” said Paul Goydos, who finished third in the Schwab Cup standings.
“To do it at 59, when theoretically you’re burned out, it’s something that’s hard to understand, even for me, who’s been trying to do it for 30 years. How a guy can play that well that long ... He never seems to have an off day or even an off hole. It’s truly a wonder.”
A two-time Masters champion who was tied for third heading into this year’s final round, Langer said the key was his consistency, from his driving and his irons to his short game and his putting.
He was first in greens in regulation at 78 percent, scoring average at 68.31, birdie average (4.69) and total driving. Langer also was second in putting, third in scrambling and fifth in sand save percentage.
“If you combine the greens in regulation with putting, that’s a fantastic combo,” Langer said. “I felt like I was fairly consistent throughout the whole bag, no matter what club.
“It’s just been a continuous success story, just maybe even a fraction better, which is not easy to do as you get older.”
Langer also credits quality time with his family for that success.
He has been married for 32 years to Vikki, whom he met at the old Inverrary Classic in 1983, and they have four children, who all play golf: daughters Jackie and Christina and sons Stefan and Jason, who is the youngest at 16.
“I was taught that family’s important, and I make it a priority in my life to spend time with my wife and my kids and be there for them when important things happen,” Langer said. “And let them know, yeah, I’m a golfer, but I’m also a dad and a husband. So when I come home I don’t spend 10 hours on the golf course, I’m spending a lot of time with my family.”
Langer also is devoted to his church. He spent three to four hours there last Saturday helping pack and deliver Thanksgiving dinners to people in need.
“I love to go to church on Sundays and hear the message and have fellowship with other like-minded people,” Langer said. “That’s a big part of my life. I became a believer in ’85, and ever since it is my other priority, to live my faith on a daily basis.”
Contrary to what some people believe, Langer, a native of Germany who appears as fit and trim as when he started playing on the European Tour at age 18, does not have grueling gym sessions for hours on end.
When he’s home at Woodfield Country Club in Boca, he’ll work out for 90 minutes every day. On the road, he’ll stretch twice a day and have a light workout. At 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, he said the training doesn’t just help him hit the ball a little farther.
“It also prevents injuries and you feel better. You have more endurance, more stamina. If you have that you can concentrate better,” Langer said. “It helps your whole lifestyle, every area.
“The hardest deal is to stay healthy. If you’re not healthy, you can’t play the game. I have my issues here and there. We all have backaches here and there, tennis elbow, golfer elbow, I’ve had that for a number of years.”
Langer’s worst season was in 2011, when he had thumb surgery in March and said he didn’t feel painfree until November. That was the one year he didn’t win the money title.
“So most of the season I was playing hurt or I wasn’t playing at all,” he said. “But the other eight years have been just incredible. It’s been a lot of fun. Many guys at my age don’t play that good any more. They say the prime age for the Champions tour is 50-55 and then it goes downhill for most people.”
After 32 years on the European Tour, where he won 42 times, and about 25 seasons on the PGA Tour, where he won three times, Langer wasn’t sure what to expect when he became eligible for the Champions Tour in 2007.
“I was still exempt on the PGA Tour, and at first I thought it could be sweetsour, I might miss the younger tour, but I really didn’t,” said Langer, who’s won almost $21 million and 29 senior titles. “I played two or three tournaments and I said, ‘Yeah, this is where I want to be the rest of my life.’ There was no doubt about it.”
And there’s little doubt that he’ll keep being the man to beat on the PGA Tour Champions until he decides it’s time to call it quits.