Two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer has announced he will play at the tournament for the 41st and final time this year.
Langer, 66, first won at Augusta in 1985, aged 27, after finishing two strokes ahead of Curtis Strange and former champions Raymond Floyd and Seve Ballesteros, all three of whom finished in a three-way tie for second. Eight years later, he would triumph by an even wider margin, winning by four from runner-up Chip Beck.
They were the German's only major wins after finishing as a runner-up at The Open twice in 1981 and 1984. Langer has been playing on the PGA Tour Champions since 2007 and has 13 championships, the most of anyone in senior tour history.
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The day before the start of the 2024 senior tour, he announced his decision to 'retire' from the Masters. "It's going to be my last Masters this year, so I've already decided on that," Langer told NBC.
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"Probably will be my last US Open, too, unless, I don't know, some miracle happens in the future!" Winning the US Senior Open last year earned him a spot in this year's tournament at Pinehurst No. 2.
Langer continued: “It’s exciting, but at the same time, I’m aware that I’m going to be hitting 3-irons and 2-hybrids when the guys are hitting 9-irons into the green, and that’s tough to compete against. But it’s a challenge, and I usually don’t shy away from challenges.”
Langer won the Masters for a second time in 1993Regardless of how he performs at the US Open, Langer will make history by becoming the oldest-ever player at the championship. He was also previously the oldest player to make the cut at the Masters after doing so in 2020 at 63.
However, last year Fred Couples, who is 109 days older than Langer, took that record. After that tournament, he addressed how long he would continue playing at the Masters.
“I asked the chairman several years ago," he recalled. "I said, ‘Is there an age limit? When do you tell people to stop playing?’ He said, ‘Listen, Bernhard, you will know yourself when it’s time to stop,’ and I hope he’s right. I don’t want to make a fool of myself.”
Despite not making the cut in any of the last three years since finishing tied for 29th in 2020, it is only a decade ago that he finished in a tie for 8th in 2014. Between 2013 and 2020, Langer only missed the cut twice, finishing in the top 25 in 2013 and 2016 as he neared 40 starts at Augusta.
Only seven players have won the Masters more than the only German champion: Tiger Woods (five), Arnold Palmer (four), Gary Player, Jimmy Demaret, Nick Faldo, Phil Mickelson and Sam Snead (three). Alongside Langer on two titles are: Ballesteros, Ben Crenshaw, Ben Hogan, Bubba Watson, Byron Nelson, Jose Maria Olazabal and Tom Watson.
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