Langer one good Masters round from history
A day after one of golf’s legends played his last round in the Masters because the Augusta National course had become too long and too tough, another is one good round from possibly winning his third green jacket.
Bernhard Langer, 58 years old, showed that Tom Watson may have called it quits too soon. Putting an emphasis on technique and accuracy over strength, Langer shot a 2-under 70 in Saturday’s third round and is 1 under in the tournament.
With a final-round 68, as Langer shot in 1985 when he won his first Masters, he could become golf’s oldest major winner, usurping Julius Boros, who won the 1968 PGA Championship when he was 48.
“Well, it would be one for the old guys,” Langer said.
Though his drives were sometimes 60 yards behind his playing partners on some holes, Langer said he knew where he wanted to go and often was able to get there, drawn from the experience of playing what he estimates is around 200 rounds at the course since his first Masters in 1982.
Langer has hit 33 of 42 fairways this week, at an average distance of 261.8 yards. He’s not last in the field in driving length, though he’s a pitch away. But he is hitting it just long enough to hit hybrids and not the 3-woods into greens that Watson said caused him to decide to stop playing in the Masters.
“We’re not playing tennis or soccer or football where it all comes down to speed and strength,” he said. “But there’s still other ways of doing it. If you hit it exactly where you want to hit it, you can still shoot under par, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
Driving is one of two things he works on as part of his preparation. The other is his short game.
His 14-yard chip-in on No. 14 was the second of three consecutive birdies. He reached 2 under with a 14-foot birdie on No. 15. That got him to one shot behind the leader, Jordan Spieth, until Langer made what he said was one of two bad swings in the round. Langer’s drive on the par-4 closing hole leaked to the right and into the pine trees, leaving him no hope of reaching the green in two. After punching out across the fairway, his third shot flew the green, where the flag was placed in the back.
He putted through the first cut and onto the green, where he was left with a 7-foot putt for bogey. Gripping the top of his putter with his left hand and pulling it very close to his chest, he swung his right and made the putt.
Langer can use the long putter because he doesn’t anchor it against his body. Golf’s governing bodies ruled that anchored putters can no longer be used, starting this year. Langer, who used an anchored putter, experimented with 15 different putters and four styles of putting over several months before developing a comfort level with his current equipment and technique.
He has three-putted just two greens this week, and both came Saturday.
“At this moment in time, I’m still the most comfortable by just not anchoring because I’ve done this for 18, 19 years now,” he said. “Put so many hours into it, it’s difficult to change something that quick.”
Only a handful of the players on the leaderboard were alive when Langer won his first Masters. He said he if plays well, they could watch him slip on another green jacket Sunday.
“I believe I can,” he said. “Obviously, it depends how the others do. If I play my best, I can shoot 4 or 5 under tomorrow. But so can Jordan Spieth or any of the others on the leaderboard. So I can only play my game and see how that holds up.”
Bernhard Langer
Birthplace: Anhausen, Germany.
Age: 58.
Turned pro: 1972.
How qualified: Two-time Masters champion in 1985 and '93.
Best stat on Saturday: Langer needed just 27 putts, or 1.5 per hole.A day after one of golf's legends played his last round in the Masters because the Augusta National course had become too long and too tough, another is one good round from possibly winning his third green jacket.
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