BENTON HARBOR – Golf matters to Bernhard Langer, the PGA Tour Champions all-time leader in major championship titles with 11.
But golf is not the top priority in the life of the 64-year-old German native who is playing this week after an absence of six years at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Harbor Shores along the shores of Lake Michigan. Langer began play Thursday with South Africa’s Ernie Els and New Zealand’s Steven Alker off the 10th tee.
For the 5-foot-9, 160-pound Langer, who has been married for 38 years to wife Vikki, family matters most. The Langers have raised four children in Boca Raton, Florida – daughters Jackie and Christina and sons Stefan and Jason – and they come first.
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Langer, whose favorite book is the Bible and who is an admirer of St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa), has won 43 victories since turning 50 and has completed the senior grand slam – winning the U.S. Senior Open, the Senior Players, the Region Tradition, the Senior Open and the Senior PGA, though not any of the previous ones at Harbor Shores.
Langer played in 2012, 2014 and 2016 here and finished in the Top 10 in each, including a pair of thirds. In 2018, he showed up for Media Day as the 2017 Senior PGA’s champion – Langer triumphed in 2017 at Trump National in Virginia – but then didn’t defend in May.
Why? Family. Jason graduated from Calvary Christian Academy that weekend. Jason, who played No. 4 on the Pennsylvania golf team, recently received his diploma from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School of Business, which is why Langer skipped the PGA Tour Champions first major championship, the Regions Tradition, which ended May 15 with Steve Stricker as the champion.
“I took several weeks off for my son’s graduation and before that I watched him play in the Ivy League Championships,” said Langer, who once drove son Stefan to a small junior golf tournament in Englewood, Florida, years ago in which this writer’s daughter was playing. Family was the topic of our day.
The straight-hitting Langer, who is No. 2 in driving accuracy (81.6%), 15th in greens in regulation (70.9%) and ninth in putts per round (28.5), doesn’t know what to expect from his game. He comes into the week fifth on the money list with $578,873 thanks to five Top 10 finishes, including the title in the Chubb Classic in Naples earlier this year, but doesn’t know what to expect.
“It’s definitely great to be back to this course and this part of the country,” said Langer, who was the victorious European captain when the Ryder Cup was contested at Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Michigan, outside Detroit, in 2004. “It’s a beautiful course and great test. My form? I don’t know.”
His competition this week expects to see the same-old Langer, who burst on the American scene in 1985 with back-to-back PGA Tour titles at the Masters (where he beat the late Severiano Ballesteros of Spain) and Sea Pines Heritage. No one has done that since. Langer also won the green jacket at Augusta National in 1993. During his 50-year career as a professional, Langer, the son of a German prisoner-of-war who escaped a Russian train headed to Siberia at the end of World War II, has earned $64,321,910 and played in 10 Ryder Cup Matches for Europe.
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“It’s difficult to say one particular thing I’ve learned from (Langer),” said Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie, who won the 2014 Senior PGA here at 13-under, six shots better than Langer with whom he played all four days. “He never played a shot before he was ready. His course management skills – he has never made an unforced error.”
If you’re looking for a betting lock this week, there is no better lock than Langer, even at 64, finishing among the leaders.
“(I’m) losing a little bit of distance, but if I play my best game and hit it straight, I still have a chance to win a few tournaments,” said Langer, who needs just three more PGA Tour Champions victories to pass all-time leader Hale Irwin.
A World Golf Hall of Fame member, Bernhard Langer already is a Hall of Famer where it matters the most – with his family.
Moment of silence for Uvalde
The PGA of America suspended play in Thursday’s round at 12:32 p.m. with one horn blast and resumed it one minute later with two blasts to recognize those who lost their lives in the Robb Elementary School shootings in Uvalde, Texas.
Players and caddies were also invited to participate by wearing commemorative ribbons provided by the PGA or by writing the school’s mission statement “Live. Learn. Love. Lead.” or printing “L L L L” on their hat, glove, shoes or yardage book.
Rain in forecast
Thursday’s afternoon wave (78 golfers) was expected to be interrupted by storms around 5 p.m. Rain is forecast for Friday’s second round which will be played in cool (60 degrees) and windy (northwest, 12 miles per hour) conditions.
But after Friday’s cut, the weather is expected to be partly cloudy Saturday and Sunday, with temperatures in the 70s and low 80s.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism