Just not a fair fight.
No how, no way.
Bernhard Langer simply grinds the competition into the turf, doesn’t matter where it is.
He’s the Doomsday Machine.
Corey Pavin became the latest victim, the latest to try and beat this soon-to-be 60 year-old marvel of a champion golfer.
Langer tried to give the rest an advantage this week at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in weather-challenged Wales. It was rainy, windy and the conditions were miserable at best on Friday, not so great on Thursday, pretty decent on Saturday when Tom Watson shot his age and windy enough during the final 18 holes to keep the low scores away. Now the advantage we’re referring to is that Langer was under the weather. Sore throat, scratching voice, aches and low energy.
So you think someone would step up and beat him.
Nope.
Sure, Herr Langer gave Pavin some brief hope. He shot one-over on the front nine, Pavin one-under. The overnight four-shot lead was cut to two but that’s as close as Corey would get. Langer wore him down on the back and finally made a birdie at the 18th, his only of the day but it was a tough enough day where 73 got the job done. Four-under par, three shots clear of Pavin. They were the only two men under par for the 72 holes that included a lot of Welsh weather misery.
“I think I had some good up-and-downs,” Langer pointed out after his 10th Senior Major title. “I had to buckle down. One-over wasn’t that bad a score in the conditions. And four-under was simply spectacular for a nearly 60-year-old who admitted he wouldn’t have played if it wasn’t a major. That’s how he was feeling at the start of the tournament.
“It wasn’t pretty but he got the job done,” Lanny Wadkins observed. Lanny forgot to point out that the weather for most of the tournament wasn’t pretty either.
Langer isn’t an overly-spectacular player. He does everything pretty well. He’s had a target on his back with that long putter. Some of the bitter-beer-face old guys out there playing against him whisper that he is anchoring.
He’s not.
That’s sour grapes and Langer even hinted there’s a lot of jealousy from other members of the Champions Tour. Maybe it’s not jealousy, they’re just fed up with Bernie beating their brains out. Did we mention this is his fourth win of the season and three of the five senior majors belong to him as their season winds down.
Langer won 42 times on the European Tour and now he’s got 33 Champions Tour wins on his resume. There’s that number 45 — the record held by Hale Irwin. Langer’s only 12 wins from matching it. Twelve wins sounds like a lot for a guys who celebrates his 60th on August 27.
It may not be out of the realm of reality. Langer’s in fantastic shape and doesn’t spend much time practicing when he’s at home. He waits until he gets to the tournament site to start his prep work.
He’s a master of his craft.
Pure German engineering.
