The indefatigable Bernhard Langer! At 67, the German won the PGA Tour Champions final to extend his series of years crowned by at least one success since he moved to the senior circuit... in 2007! With this first success in 2024 (the 47th of his senior career), Langer ended the year in style and will aim for at least one success in 2025 for the eighteenth consecutive season!
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Bernhard Langer, results
Two last rounds in 67 (exactly his age!) allow him to win with a one-shot lead over an Australian duo. The branches of the 17 that made him lose a point do not change anything.
Langer is a devil! And it was with a final 10-meter putt on the 18th that he signed the winning birdie, even though Alker remained 10 cm short to finish at one point.
Steven Alker will console himself with his second Order of Merit in three years, by beating South African Ernie Els by a hair's breadth. Richard Green completes the podium by finishing second ex aequo in Arizona.
Langer won his first professional tournament at the age of 17 in Refrath near Cologne[1] and then started his professional career in 1976 as a golf instructor at the Augsburg-Bobingen/Burgwalden Golf Club. As a playing pro, he won the German Golf Instructors' Championship in Stuttgart in 1979 on the course of the Stuttgart Golf Club Solitude e. V., where he also won the Lufthansa German Open in 1982 and the American Express, the national championship, in 1985. To the surprise of all experts, he won his first major European tournament in Chepstow, Wales in 1980.[1] For many golf fans, he became immortal in 1981 when the ball came to rest high up in the fork of an ash tree on hole 17 at the golf tournament in Fulford. Langer waived the penalty stroke and climbed up the tree to the laughter of the spectators and chipped the ball onto the green. Physically weakened by this, he missed his next putt, but then holed out and saved his second place with a bogey. The tree is now adorned with a memorial plaque in memory of this curiosity.[1] His big breakthrough came with his first major title, winning the Masters on April 14, 1985 in Augusta (Georgia, USA).[2] He was the first German to receive the green winner's jacket. In 1986, Langer was the first number 1 in the newly established golf world rankings. In 1993, he was able to repeat his victory in Augusta when he won his second major tournament. In 2006, he won the unofficial team world championship in Barbados for the second time alongside Marcel Siem (16 years after his first historic victory, then with Torsten Giedeon).
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Since 2007 (after his 50th birthday), Langer has been playing on the North American Champions Tour (known as the Senior PGA Tour until 2002) for professional golfers over 50, which he won straight away. At the same time, he finished first in the Champions Tour money list in 2008 and 2009 and was named best player in both years (and best newcomer in 2008). In 2010, he won both the Senior British Open and the Senior US Open on two consecutive weekends.
In 2014, at the age of 56, Langer surprised everyone by finishing in a shared 8th place at the Masters in Augusta. Equipped with a lifetime starting right, he also competed in the US Masters in subsequent years, but failed to make the cut several times.
Langer is the first player to win the Senior Players Championship, one of the major tournaments on the Champions Tour, three times in a row (2014 to 2016).
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On November 14, 2021, he won the Charles Schwab Cup for the sixth time.
With his victory at the Senior PGA Championship on May 28, 2017, he became the first golfer in history to win all five senior majors at least once. It was also his 9th senior major title overall, which also set a new record. With his victory at the British Seniors Open in Wales in July 2017, the Senior Open Championship in July 2019 and the US Senior Open Championship in July 2023, he increased the record to twelve wins.
At the 2020 Masters, which was played for the first time in November due to the coronavirus, he made the cut as the oldest player of all time. He is one month and 12 days older than the previous record holder, Tommy Aaron. The PGA Champions Tour statistics list him as the oldest winner of all time after his victory in a playoff at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic on October 24, 2021.[6] He improved this record several times. Most recently on July 2, 2023 at the US Senior Open Championship at the age of 65 years, 10 months and 5 days. With his 46th victory on the PGA Tour Champions, he also took over the sole record as the most successful player of all time on this tour from the American Hale Irwin, who won 45 tournaments on the US Senior Tour in his career.By winning the Charles Schwab Cup Championship Phoenix, Arizona on November 10, 2024, he was able to top his own record as the oldest winner on the PGA Champions Tour at the age of 67 years, 2 months and 14 days and achieved a victory on the tour for the 18th year in a row, nine months after his Achilles tendon rupture.
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On his 64th birthday, he managed to play his age for the first time with a round of 64 at the tournament in Grand Blanc.
