Bernhard Langer fought back tears as he watched highlights of his two wins at Augusta ahead of his final Masters appearance. The German, 67, won the green jacket in 1985 and 1993.
But Langer, still competing on the Champions Tour and a winner of the PNC Championship with son Jason in December last year, is calling time on his playing career after his 41st Masters showing this week. Speaking on Monday, he revealed: “It’s time to quit”.
After watching highlights of his triumphs, Langer said: “It’s very emotional. You can tell already my voice is breaking a bit just realising it’s going to be my last competitive Masters. After four decades, it’s going to be bittersweet. I think I knew it was time to call it quits as a player. 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 nine irons and eight irons, maybe even wedges. So I knew I wasn’t going to be in contention anymore.
“A few years back I asked the chairman of the club, is there a time limit? Do we age out when we’re 60? Or what is it? He said, no, you will know when it’s time to quit. It’s totally up to you.
“It is time to quit. I’m just not competitive on this course anymore. We’re playing, what, 7,500-plus yards, and I’m used to playing courses around 7,100.
“I can still compete there but not at this distance.”
Langer is not the only legend to call it a day in recent years, with the likes of former winners Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam and Larry Mize all stepping away. He revealed he has already sought Mize’s advice on how to handle the occasion.
“He gave a little speech at the Champions Dinner, and he just broke down,” Langer recalled.
“He just couldn’t say what he wanted to say. It was just overwhelming and too much for him.
“He said, ‘yeah, I totally screwed up’. I said, ‘no you didn’t, it was just showing how much it meant to you, but it was probably even far more important for you because you grew up here in Augusta. You’re a local boy, local hero’.
“I’m from Germany, and it means a great deal for me, too, living in Florida now and having married an American and raised my kids in this country and all that. It’s never easy, not for any of us.”
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