AUGUSTA, Ga. — About 10 years ago, Bernhard Langer asked the Augusta National Chairman if there was a time limit for continuing to play at The Masters.
“Do we age out when we are 60?” Langer pressed.
“You will know when it’s time to quit,” the Chairman responded.
“It’s totally up to you.”
Past champions of The Masters can play for as long as they please. But for Langer, who won this esteemed tournament twice, in 1985 and 1993, will call it quits after this week. The time has arrived for him to step away after 41 starts.
“After four decades, it’s going to be bittersweet. I knew it was time to call it quits as a player,” Langer said with his voice breaking, fighting to hold back tears.
“I wanted to do it last year but I couldn’t with my Achilles surgery. The course is just getting too long, and I’m getting shorter and shorter and I’m hitting hybrids where the other kids are hitting 9-irons and 8-irons, maybe even wedges. So I knew I wasn’t going to be in contention anymore.”
Langer played a practice round on Sunday. He walked all 18 holes, an impressive accomplishment for a 67-year-old on this undulating terrain — let alone someone who tore their Achilles 14 months ago.
But Langer struggled. He does not have the length to compete with the Scottie Scheffler’s, Rory McIlroy’s, or Bryson DeChambeau’s of the world. The course is now listed at 7,555 yards, 600 more than what the scorecard read in 1985, when Langer won his first Green Jacket.
“I think the goal, if I’m not mistaken, is to have the players hit similar irons into the green as they did in the 1960s or ‘80s or 2000, whenever it was. They probably are very, very close to that,” Langer said.
“Not for me, though. I realized again [on Sunday], I probably should have quit several years ago because where I’m driving it, I sometimes can’t see the flag. There’s a good chance I can’t see the flag on No. 1 because I don’t get it to the top of the hill. There’s a very good chance I can’t see it on 17 and various other places. There are par-4s when I’m hitting 3-wood into the green when other guys are hitting 8-irons, 9-irons, 7-irons.”
During Sunday’s practice round, Langer explained how he had to hit a 3-hybrid into the green, which is one of the more diabolical putting surfaces on the golf course. Given that Langer had to play his approach with a longer club, which therefore has less loft, his second shot into the 1st took one hop and scadattled over the green.
“That’s no place to chip from,” Langer said about that shot.
“You don’t ever want to go over that green. That’s what happens when you have those kind of clubs into the greens. It’s time to quit.”
Langer, who grew up in West Germany, became just the second European to win this tournament after his close Ryder Cup confidant Seve Ballesteros. He fell in love with the game at the ripe age of nine, when he was caddying at a local course with his older brother.
“We were able to practice a little bit and chip and putt and hit balls on the range if there were no members to caddie for, and we couldn’t afford golf clubs, but one of the members discarded some of his old sticks,” Langer reminsiced.
“They actually had bamboo shafts. It was a 2-wood, a 3-iron, a 7-iron, and a putter with a bent shaft.”
As a child, Langer had no idea The Masters even existed. His family could not even afford to buy a television set until he was 12 years old. Even then, the TV only had three channels.
“I’m sure The Masters wasn’t on one of those three channels,” Langer joked.
He first learned of this tournament when he became an assistant professional at Munich Country Club in the 1970s. While there, the club received plenty of golf magazines and journals. Within those publications, authors wrote about Augusta National, a place where Langer could only dream of playing some day. He never even fathomed he would become a tournament player either, hoping to instead make a career in golf.
Well, not only did he become a tournament player, but Bernhard Langer became one of the most celebrated champions of all-time. He is, without a doubt, one of the best European players to take up the game, and his remarkable story from modest means to two-time Masters champion will live in golf lore forever.
But Langer, who is as stoic as they come, will struggle to contain his emotions this week. Heck, he barely kept his composure during his pre-tournament press conference. That’s what spending over 40 years at one remarkably special place will do.
“When I’m inside the ropes, my mind switches to being a competitor, play golf and take care of the task in front of me. But I might get a bit emotional looking around and the spectators, seeing my family, my kids, my grandkids, my brother and other friends that are going to be supporting me this week,” Langer said.
“[Winning two Green Jackets are] the most important wins in my career, and it kind of put a smile on me how bad my English was at the time and the red outfit and all that kind of stuff. I always tease Tiger, I said, ‘See, I was the one wearing a red shirt first; you came later.’
“Anyway, it brings back wonderful memories. I think the second time in ‘93 my wife was greeting me with three of our kids, so a lot had changed from ‘85 to ‘93. There’s just a lot going through my mind.”
When Langer makes that final walk up to the 18th green on either Friday or Sunday, the emotions will no doubt pour over him. But so will a serenading applause, a well-deserved celebration for one of the greatest champions and one of the greatest gentlemen the game has ever seen.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.