Bernhard Langer (['b??nha?t 'la??]; born 27 August 1957) is a German professional golfer. He is a two-time Masters champion and was one of the world's leading golfers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, he became the sport's first official number one ranked player. After turning 50, he established himself as one of the most successful players on PGA Tour Champions and has won a record 10 senior major championships: the 2010, 2014 and 2017 Senior Open Championship, the 2010 U.S. Senior Open, the 2016 and 2017 Regions Tradition, the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Constellation Senior Players Championship, and 2017 Senior PGA Championship. In the senior majors, Langer has competed in 48 events and has finished in the top-5 and top-10 in 24 (50%) and 38 (79%) of them, respectively.
Video Bernhard Langer
Life and work
Langer was born in the village of Anhausen, which today is a part of Diedorf municipality, near Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. He turned professional in 1972 and has won many events in Europe and the United States, including The Masters in 1985 and 1993. He was the inaugural World Number 1 when the Official World Golf Rankings were introduced in 1986. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001 (but deferred his induction until 2002). He ranks second in career wins on the European Tour (42) and has also played regularly on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, especially in the late 1980s and since 2000. He finished in a tie for fifth at The Open Championship the month before he turned 48, and regained a ranking in the top 100 three months before he turned 50. Along with Gary Player, David Graham, Hale Irwin and Justin Rose, Langer is one of only five players to have won official tournaments on all six continents on which golf is played. He played on 10 Ryder Cup teams (1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2002) and was the non-playing captain of the victorious European team in 2004.
Langer has battled the yips, having a strong tendency to flinch or twitch during putting. He has changed his putter grip numerous times in an attempt to cure the problem. In the 1991 Ryder Cup, Langer missed a five-foot putt that would have tied the Ryder Cup and allowed the European team to retain the trophy.
Langer has been married to his American wife Vikki Carol since 1984. They have four children: Jackie, Stefan, Christina, and Jason. They maintain homes in Langer's birthplace of Anhausen and in Boca Raton, Florida. Langer is known to be a devout Christian.
In 2006, in recognition of his contribution to the sport of golf, Langer was appointed as an honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). In his native Germany, Langer has received multiple honors, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Silver Laurel Leaf (Silbernes Lorbeerblatt), which is the highest German sport award. In July 2016, he was inducted into Germany's Sport Hall of Fame.
In 2015, Langer became the first player since Arnold Palmer (1984-85) to win the Constellation Senior Players Championship in back-to-back years. It was also the last year that Langer was allowed to use the anchor putter, which the USGA banned effective 1 January 2016. At the 2016 Masters, Langer was in the second to last group in the final round only two shots back, but fell to a tie for 24th.
In 2016, Langer claimed the Regions Tradition title for his sixth senior major championship. He won by a six stroke margin over Olin Browne. This was his 100th professional win and the first time Langer had won the title. His capture of the 2017 Senior PGA Championship completed a career Grand Slam. The Regions Tradition title had also made him only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, with wins in four different senior major championships. Later in 2016 he wrote history by becoming the first three-time winner of the Constellation Senior Players Championship and wins it for third straight year. The result also meant that only Nicklaus has won more senior majors than Langer. In November, he won his fourth Charles Schwab Cup and his third in a row.
In January 2017, US president Donald Trump used a story about Langer's failed attempt at voting in the United States to justify an investigation of voter fraud in the 2016 US presidential election. The story was covered in several media outlets. Since Langer is a citizen only of Germany, he was not eligible to vote.
Langer won three more senior majors in 2017 to become the most decorated player in the senior ranks of all-time. In total, he won seven titles - but he did not win the season-ending Schwab Cup. Instead, Kevin Sutherland, who was fifth in the Order of Merit heading into the final event of the season, won that to lift the trophy in what was his only win of the season. Langer subsequently called the playoff process 'unfair'.
Maps Bernhard Langer
Professional wins (110)
European Tour wins (42)
* Langer and Montgomerie agreed to share the 2002 Volvo Masters Andalucia after failing light caused play to halt after 2 holes of a playoff.
European Tour playoff record (8-6-2)
PGA Tour wins (3)
PGA Tour playoff record (1-2)
Japan Golf Tour wins (1)
- 1983 Casio World Open
Asian Tour wins (1)
- 1996 Alfred Dunhill Masters (Co-sanctioned with the Australasian Tour)
Other wins (27)
- 1975 German National Open Championship
- 1977 German National Open Championship
- 1979 German National Open Championship, German PGA Championship, Cacharel Under-25s Championship
- 1980 Colombian Open
- 1983 Johnnie Walker Open
- 1984 German National Open Championship
- 1985 Australian Masters, German National Open Championship, Million Dollar Challenge (South Africa)
- 1986 German National Open Championship
- 1987 German National Open Championship
- 1988 German National Open Championship
- 1989 German National Open Championship
- 1990 German National Open Championship, World Cup of Golf (with Torsten Giedeon)
- 1991 German National Open Championship, Hong Kong Open, Sun City Million Dollar Challenge (South Africa)
- 1992 German National Open Championship
- 1993 World Cup of Golf (individual champion)
- 1997 Argentine Masters
- 2005 MBNA WorldPoints Father/Son Challenge (with son Stefan)
- 2006 Del Webb Father/Son Challenge (with son Stefan), WGC-World Cup (with Marcel Siem)
- 2014 PNC Father Son Challenge (with son Jason)
Note: the German National Open Championship is a different event from the German Open listed five times in the European Tour wins section. That event was open to all comers, German and non-German. The German National Open Championship is "open" to German golfers whether they are amateur or professional.
PGA Tour Champions wins (36)
Note: The U.S. senior tour was known as the Champions Tour during Langer's first nine seasons on that circuit (2007-2015). The PGA Tour rebranded the senior circuit as PGA Tour Champions effective with the 2016 season.
* Tournament shortened to 36 holes due to weather.
PGA Tour Champions playoff record (6-4)
European Senior Tour wins (6)
* The U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship are unofficial money events on the European Senior Tour.
Note: The Senior Open Championship and the U.S. Senior Open are both co-sanctioned events by PGA Tour Champions and the European Senior Tour.
Other senior wins (1)
- 2012 Nedbank Champions Challenge
Major championships
Wins (2)
Results timeline
WD = Withdrew
DQ = Disqualified
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Summary
- Most consecutive cuts made - 8 (1994 Masters - 1996 Masters)
- Longest streak of top-10s - 2 (three times)
Senior major championships
Wins (10)
1Defeated Jeff Sluman in a sudden death playoff with birdie on second extra hole
Senior results timeline
Results are not in chronological order before 2017.
DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for a win. Yellow background for top-10.
Team appearances
- World Cup (representing Germany): 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1990 (winners), 1991, 1992, 1993 (individual winner), 1994, 1996, 2006 (winners)
- Ryder Cup (representing Europe): 1981, 1983, 1985 (winners), 1987 (winners), 1989 (tied - retained trophy), 1991, 1993, 1995 (winners), 1997 (winners), 2002 (winners), 2004 (non-playing captain - winners)
- Hennessy Cognac Cup (representing the Continent of Europe): 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982 (captain)
- Four Tours World Championship (representing Europe): 1985 (captain), 1986 (captain), 1987 (captain), 1989 (captain), 1990
- Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing Germany): 1992, 1994, 2000
- Seve Trophy (representing Continental Europe): 2000 (winners)
- UBS Cup (representing the Rest of the World): 2001, 2002, 2003 (tie), 2004
- Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (representing Champions Tour): 2010, 2012, 2013
See also
- List of golfers with most PGA Tour Champions wins
- List of golfers with most European Tour wins
Notes and references
External links
- Official website (in German)
- Bernhard Langer at the European Tour official site
- Bernhard Langer at the PGA Tour official site
- Bernhard Langer at the Japan Golf Tour official site
- Bernhard Langer at the Official World Golf Ranking official site
- Profile on about.com
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments