The heat was on and Bernhard Langer was feeling it on Sunday afternoon at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
Winds were howling, Joe Durant and Miguel Angel Jimenez were making a run at him and he was struggling.
Langer stood on the tee at the difficult 18th needing a par to win the Senior Players and record his seventh senior major.
He had just hit a mediocre bunker shot at the 17th that led to a bogey and there he was with another at the 72nd hole. Once again, it was a less-than-spectacular effort. He had a tense 15-footer for par and the win, Durant was warming up on the range for a possible playoff, Jimenez was sitting greenside, puffing on a cigar.
Langer had not many any putts to speak of all day. But this time, his ball rolled toward the hole, caught the right edge and went in — fist pump, victory, he’s not the dominant player on the Champions Tour for nothing.
“I was keeping an eye on the leader board,” said Langer, who did not make a birdie all day in the difficult conditions, winds steady at 20-25 miles per hour. “I was trying to shoot even par or better. I didn’t make a putt all day until that one,” he said of the winning shot. “It was tough.”
Langer three-putted early at the third hole for his first bogey of the day, took another at the 12th after a poor three-wood tee shot left him in a gnarly lie and then at 17 when he was in the bunker.
Despite the 73, he tied Hale Irwin for second-most senior majors and is now one behind the all-time leader, Jack Nicklaus, who has eight. It was also Langer’s 28th senior victory.
