Brookover: Langer only gets better with age
Brilliant is brilliant, regardless of age. Brilliant was Bernhard Langer, a few months shy of his 59th birthday, playing with the slimmest of leads in the wickedest of winds Sunday afternoon on the Wissahickon Course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
Brilliant is brilliant, regardless of age.
Brilliant was Bernhard Langer, a few months shy of his 59th birthday, playing with the slimmest of leads in the wickedest of winds Sunday afternoon on the Wissahickon Course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
While John Daly embarrassed himself by acting like a churlish child at the age of 50 and Colin Montgomerie barked at people sponsoring his lucrative retirement tour, Langer calmly navigated his way to a third straight Constellation Senior Players championship, proving that the German sensation is only about substance.
Langer has become the Tiger Woods of the Champions Tour. This was his seventh major title since hitting the senior circuit and his second this year. One more major title and he will tie Jack Nicklaus for the most majors in senior tour history, an accomplishment that might even make Tiger a little jealous.
The mild-mannered Langer is simply happy that he is pushing 60 and still playing sensational golf.
"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, sometimes five. I've been out here eight years and I won the money list seven times out of eight. The one year I didn't win I had surgery on my thumb, which knocked me out several months and I was playing hurt. I would like to say I've played some of my best golf over the last 10 years."
No one would argue, especially not after his 28th title on the PGA Tour Champions circuit. Only Lee Trevino and Hale Irwin have more, which is additional proof that brilliant is brilliant regardless of age.
"Well, he is Bernhard Langer," said Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez, who finished tied for second with Joe Durant after they each shot a remarkable 2-under-par 68 in Sunday's unforgiving winds. "He's a top-class player for many, many years. Still very fit, still strong, still passionate about golf. He can win a third time and maybe more because he enjoys what he is doing and that's the main thing."
There is a real perspective to Langer's game in his advancing years and he needed every bit of that Sunday. He consistently hit fairways and greens, but all of his birdie putts were followed by cries of "ahh" from the gallery.
"It was a tough, tough day," Langer said. "The wind was so gusty and so strong at times that I was wondering if they were going to call the tournament today. There were a few putts, if you hit them at the wrong time the ball would have just continued to go."
Langer's final-round playing partners - Jeff Sluman and Jay Don Blake - were tortured by the conditions, particularly on the 10th hole when they both scrambled around the course before making double bogeys that removed them from tournament contention. Langer, meanwhile, played the hole like an artist, using a hybrid club off the tee and on his second shot to get to the green in regulation.
He settled for a lot of pars, then found himself scrambling to maintain his lead in the home stretch.
"I didn't make anything until I made a six-footer on 17 and a 12-footer on 18," he said. "Made nothing all day and had many opportunities."
The six-footer on 17 was for a bogey that left him a shot ahead of Jimenez and Durant, who were already in the clubhouse. The 12-footer concluded a wild ride to the finish.
Langer followed Blake's drive into the crowd off the left side of the fairway by blasting his tee shot into almost an identical spot. Both men dropped and were forced to hit their next shots with the gallery on top of them. Blake hit a 4 iron over the green. Langer hit a 5 iron into the left bunker. His sand shot was more proof of his brilliance.
His next shot, a 12-foot putt that circled the hole before dropping, won him another major and put him one step closer to becoming the greatest senior player in history. He might have had a better career on the PGA Tour, but he was always loyal to his roots on the European Tour.
"Never played the PGA Tour full-time, really," he said. "So at times I wonder what would have happened if I had committed myself, but I didn't. I felt I wanted to support the European Tour."
Now he dominates the Champions circuit. Langer knows this tour is different. He knows that some of the greats from the PGA Tour in his era have a difficult time getting to the starting line because an assortment of ailments have taken their toll from years of twisting and turning the body in violent ways.
"Fred Couples . . . would be up there most of the years, but his back is holding him back," Langer said.
Nothing is holding Bernhard Langer back. Brilliant is brilliant regardless of age.
@brookob