Bernhard Langer - Part 2 (The Early Tour Years)

Music playing  00:00

Mike Gonzalez  00:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin, I know this has been one of your favorite guests that we've ever had on the program having done this for almost three years now. And the other thing that I think you'd agree with is it's probably good that we waited a little while to get the "rest of the story."

Devlin, Bruce  00:35

Well, isn't that the truth? Well, without a name you'd understand, fairly easily. 160 plus victories around the world, a couple of Masters Championships and two Senior U.S. Open Championships and it is again, a great honor to have Bernhard Langer with us this morning, Bernhard, thanks for joining Mike and myself.

Langer, Bernhard  00:57

Yeah, thanks, Bruce and Mike. It's a pleasure to be with you again.

Mike Gonzalez  01:00

Good morning from Florida and Merry Christmas, you've got the Christmas tree in the background, it looks like you're ready to celebrate the holidays.

Langer, Bernhard  01:09

Absolutely. It's one of my favorite times, not just because it's off-season, but obviously, because we're celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. And that's very meaningful to me.

Devlin, Bruce  01:21

Yes it is.

Mike Gonzalez  01:21

Happy holidays to everybody. But this will probably air sometime after the holidays. So hopefully everybody's enjoyed them. But Bernard, as we talked about a little bit, the first time we got together. I think one of our favorite episodes has been from our listeners hearing about their reaction to your episode was talking about your early life, and growing up in Germany. So we did a nice job of covering that, kind of getting you almost on tour. And then we turned our attention to the Masters and your two victories and what happened in between those victories with a win at HarbourTown. I think today, we want to kind of get through some of your other professional career on the various tours you played on. Certainly talk about the Ryder Cup. And I guess the cherry on top is going to be talking about the Champions Tour career, and particularly what happened with a great year this year. So maybe just go back to the beginning of your tour play. It's going to be interesting to have our listeners hear you talk about what life was like as a young man just going out on your own on tour and playing professionally. Where did you get your first professional win?

Langer, Bernhard  02:31

That was 1979. It was called the Cacharel World Under-25 Championship in Nimes, France. It was not an official tour event. But it was recognized because people came from all over the world to participate and you had to be under 25 years of age. And I had qualified, being one of the better younger players on the European tour at the time. And ended up winning with a record margin by 17 strokes. Which was wild because, as you all know, I had the yips when I was 18. Now I'm 22 and made just about every putt I looked at and played some really good golf and you don't win golf tournaments by 17 strokes. That doesn't happen in four rounds very often. And so it was a magical week. And it gave me the confidence to then go on and win my first official European Tour event in 1980, which was the British Masters, at St. Pierre, in Wales and there's a funny story about that one because we played Sunningdale two weeks prior and I was on the putting green at Sunningdale playing the European Open I think and Seve walks over, Seve Ballesteros and says "let me see what you're putting with and I hit it. So well here, hit a few and he hit three or four putts and handed it back to me and walked away and I go "Hold on Seve, what do you think of my putter? And he stopped turned around and he said "do you really want to know?" And I said yeah I want to know!" He was one of the best putters I had ever seen. And he goes "well, I think your putter is too light and it doesn't have enough loft." So I go okay and then he walked away and so I'm thinking well Seve says this is to light and not enough loft so I better get another one. So straight into the pro shop. And I was looking all over the pro shop and finally, to make a long story short, I found a similar putter looking similar to mine, a Bullseye with a flange on the back. But it was heavier and it had a little more loft. So I asked the salesperson in there, "can I try this for five minutes on the putting green." He goes, "Sure, just come back whenever you're done." So I had about 20 putts and said, Yeah, this rolls good, it feels good. And I'm gonna buy this so, I go back in. I said, "I'd like to buy this putter. I said, "oh, how much is it?" And he goes, "Oh, this is from an old lady. She retired and she wanted us to sell her clubs or whatever, you can have it for five pounds." So , The Dunlaap Masters

Devlin, Bruce  04:07

oh my goodness, 

Langer, Bernhard  05:11

I paid five pounds. I went on to finish third that week at Sunningdale, second the next week and then won my first tournament the following week. So i went three, two, one, thanks to Seve's advice partially and that was a big stepping stone for my future career.

Devlin, Bruce  05:50

You won the Dunlop Masters that year, you won by five shots. Shot rounds are 70-65-67-68 and beat Brian Barnes. 

Langer, Bernhard  06:01

Yeah, I remember that. Brian Barnes was one of the better players for many years on the European tour. A big fellow and really had a lot of talent. Hit the ball a long ways. And yeah, it was tough to take him down. But I had my game the last three rounds there and played very solid golf.

Mike Gonzalez  06:25

I think some people will remember Brian Barnes for taking Mr. Nicklaus down in two successive matches in the Ryder Cup.

Langer, Bernhard  06:34

I'm not surprised. Brian Barnes took a lot of people down.

Mike Gonzalez  06:39

He was quite a character, including his attire, seeing some of those long socks, shorts, looks that he would sport on the Golf Course.

Langer, Bernhard  06:48

Yeah, he was. One thing stood out with him, towards the end of his career, I think he started to drink a bit too much. And I played with him in a tour event in England, and he would mark the ball with a beer can. That was very unusual. He thought it was funny. But for me as a young touring Pro, I didn't think that would set the right example. So, he played like nine holes and then he sent his caddy in to get a reload of beer cans for the back nine.

Devlin, Bruce  07:22

Oh, boy.

Mike Gonzalez  07:23

Maybe he thought that was okay because you're German and so he connected you with beer? If he was playing with the French he'd probably mark it with a bottle of wine? 

Langer, Bernhard  07:31

Connected me with the Oktoberfest. 

Mike Gonzalez  07:33

Exactly. Yeah, 

Devlin, Bruce  07:34

That's right.

Mike Gonzalez  07:35

So validation, I think came at the 1981. German Open then is that right? Would that have been your second victory on the European Tour?

Langer, Bernhard  07:43

It might as well Yes. I think it did. Because the the first one was late in the year actually it was the last tournament of the 1980. European Tour. And then yeah, 1981 was very special. Because whenever you win in your home country, and I might have been the first German to ever win the German Open. It's extremely special. All the people in the crowd were cheering for me and wanting me to win. And I believe I took down the great Tony Jacklin if I'm not mistaken. 

Mike Gonzalez  08:19

You sure did!

Langer, Bernhard  08:20

And that wasn't easy, because he had already won the, I believe the British Open or the Open and the U.S. Open. So he knows how to play golf. It was a very memorable victory.

Mike Gonzalez  08:37

Yeah. And that was I guess at that time, probably too, he was coming up on his Ryder Cup Captaincy, which we'll talk about a little bit because those were the transformative years as you kind of got in 1983, 1985 and 1987. So we'll talk about that. But he was a great champion. You were a five-time winner I think of the German Open isn't right.

Langer, Bernhard  09:00

That could be right. Yeah, I won most tournaments in Germany four or five times we had the Mercedes German Masters, which I believe I won four times. We had the SAP Championship, which I won several times. And then the only one I didn't win was the BMW, the International. A few seconds, but there was always somebody that played magical golf, and I never made it across the finish line.

Mike Gonzalez  09:26

Well, it wouldn't have anything to do with the logo you're sporting today.

Langer, Bernhard  09:32

Well, yeah, it could be but not really. You know me, when I'm playing. I'm very competitive. But yeah, there's a bit of a rivalry between Mercedes and BMW, that's for sure.

Mike Gonzalez  09:44

There sure is. 

Devlin, Bruce  09:45

For sure. 

Mike Gonzalez  09:47

One thing I think I'm picking up on is because of your expansive record.,you've won so much, you've won all over the world. I've got a feeling that on some of these points, you're just gonna have to kind of take our word for it.

Langer, Bernhard  10:00

Yeah, I think so too.

Mike Gonzalez  10:03

It's just hard to remember all this stuff.

Langer, Bernhard  10:06

There was one special year, I think it was 1986, maybe 1985 and 1986. I won like seven tournaments on six different continents in a span of 12 months. And that's when the world ranking came out. And I was ranked number one for I believe, three weeks, but hung around the top five for several years in the world rankings. And anyways, that was a special year. I'd won in Japan, I won in South Africa, won in the U.S. and in Europe, and, South America, only place I didn't win was the Antarctica because we don't play there.

Mike Gonzalez  10:49

Well, just take our listeners back to those early days. As a young man playing the tour, of course, you and Vicki would have been married when?

Langer, Bernhard  11:01

Yeah, we met in 1983. At the Inverary Classic in Fort Lauderdale, America, I got a few invites, I was managed by IMG, living in Germany playing the European tour mostly and won the European money list in 1981. So I got to play the majors in America. It was very, very difficult in those years to play the U.S. Open or the Masters, or the PGA. They invited one guy, in general, one European. And so I was able to play those in 1082, after winning the money list in 1981. And then got some invites. So I came over early in the year when the European Tour hadn't started yet in those days, and played a couple of tournaments in Florida, and then moved on to the Players Championship and the Masters. That was the plan. So I met my future wife, Vicki in 1983. And we hit it off right away and got married nine months later in 1984, January of 1984. And been married ever since celebrating our fortieth year next month, when we're in Hawaii. Yeah, that was the beginning of, you know, the totally different life for me and having four kids and four grandkids, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So,

Devlin, Bruce  12:34

it's amazing how it stacks up.

Langer, Bernhard  12:36

Yeah, The early years on the European Tour were very difficult. I don't know if we talked about it in the first part of our podcast. But there were no courtesy cars, there was no organization of anything, you had to be in charge of yourself to get to the tournament, and I was 18 when I tried the European Tour. I couldn't rent a car because you had to be 21 or 25 to rent a car. So I either had to fly and then take a bus or a taxi or a train, or I had to drive everywhere. Which wasn't easy because there was one tournament in Germany, all the others were all over the place. Mostly Great Britain and some in Spain. And I had no money. It was extremely difficult. Even the range balls in those days were so bad, they were yellow compression, 42 maybe 45. You would hit a ball and it would change directions four times in its flight. So you never knew, was it you that caused the hook? Or was it the ball? So most players traveled with a shag bag. So I had golf bag, suitcase, shag bag, you know, all this stuff. And I had to go on buses and trains and all that. It was complicated, it was difficult. We actually had  25 or 30 caddies on the driving range at the same time as we warmed up picking up our own range balls, and there was no chance you're not gonna hit some other caddy sooner or later. It was very dangerous, very dangerous. And I remember the first few years we had two cuts on the European Tour. It was not an all-exempt tour yet. So you had to Monday qualify. Then if you made that, you got into the tournament, there was a cut Friday. There was another cut on Saturday. So if you made both cuts and you played Sunday, you were automatically into next week's tournament because you couldn't physically get from there to the Monday qualifying in another country. So that's how I basically got exempt. I made enough cuts to get into enough tournaments to earn enough money. And I finished 56th I think the first year they did have the top 60 weeks were exempt and everybody else had to go qualify, Monday qualify.

Devlin, Bruce  15:12

Now, after the Saturday cut, there was still no guarantee was that you're going to make a check the next day because the prize money didn't go down that far did it?

Langer, Bernhard  15:22

I think, if I remember correctly, the everybody kind of got paid, that may cut but you know, sometimes it was 100 pounds or $50 if you didn't finish anywhere near the top. So that was my first year on tour. But with all the difficulties of getting around, I still loved it, I enjoyed it. I didn't want to go back to teaching golf. I realized this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I realized that I was a fairly good ball striker, but my short game wasn't quite there yet. So I had improved my putting and my chipping. And I got some lessons and I worked hard at it. And then I got a letter from the German government saying I'm gonna have to do my national service, which means 15 months away, learning to protect our country. So I was checked out and they put me into the Air Force. I had to go through three months of boot camp. And one morning in January, frozen ground, six o'clock alarm, we got up, took a cold shower. By 6:30 AM Breakfast. Seven o'clock, we were told we're marching all day. So you pack up your backpack, about 30 pounds in there of stuff, some food and some other things, and a rifle and we lined up at 7am. And off we go marching all day. And the guy in charge said, Okay, every so often, I'm gonna yell attack, which means low flying enemy airplane is gonna come at you flying low and shooting machine gun bullets at you, which means you throw yourself on the ground, you don't keep walking, or marching, you throw yourself on the ground, so you're smaller target. So he showed us once how to do it and he fell flat on his stomach, which means your 30 pound backpack would hit you every time as you throw yourself on your stomach holding a rifle as well. And we did that hundreds and hundreds of times. And I remember one time at the beginning of the day. You know it was kind of hurting a bit to throw myself flat on my stomach. So I threw myself on the side, onto one side and then rolled onto my stomach, which was less painful. And he must have seen me and he said, "What's your name?" And I said, "Langer." He said "come here, how do we do it correctly?" So I got to do 25 extra, you know, flat on my stomach. And I'm telling you this because the next morning, six o'clock alarm. I'm trying to get out of bed and I couldn't move. I was in such pain. I couldn't move my hand, my arm, my leg. I couldn't move any part of my body without excruciating pain. And I first said "I can't get out of bed" and the other seven guys I was sharing a room with, eight guys in total, seven others said. "Oh yeah, come on, get out of there. You're just pretending you know, you don't want to get up." And I said, "No, I'm in pain." And finally they all rushed out and got dressed. And I'm still laying in bed and now some of the head guys came in and said "get out of there and get ready. You lazy so and so. "I said "I can't move." He said, "Yeah, we've heard that before. Get out of there." Anyways, make a long story short, they finally realized it was serious. They called the ambulance, transported me to the nearest hospital and I had a stress fracture at L4 and L5 l five in my lower back and a bulging disc. So I had no idea. I had never been hospitalized in my life and I'm 19 years old. So I'm going "What does that mean?" They said, "Well, we're going to have to keep you here for four or five weeks. And hopefully the bulging disc will go back in but the stress fracture we're not sure how that will heal and all that kind of stuff." Well make a long story short, I was released after five weeks. It felt reasonable. But you know there was a time when I thought I'm done. I'm never going to play golf again. I'm finished, I'll have to learn something else. And so I went back to finish my few more weeks of bootcamp and then got sent to, the last four months, to a special training camp where the best sportsmen were integrated together. So I was already the best German golfer at age 19. So I was in a camp with long distance runners, you know, 5,000 meter, whatever, 10,000 meters and other athletes basically, they got all the athletes together. And so the thing I remember is, I think I can run with these guys, you know, I'm fit, I'm healthy, I thought I was in great shape. 

Mike Gonzalez  20:46

Good luck with that.

Langer, Bernhard  20:47

I went to train with these long distance runners. Well, you can imagine, they left me in the dust. You know, I could arm wrestle with him and take them down, but running, I was nowhere near. So anyway, my next year in the Air Force, the good thing is, I just needed a letter from the German Golf Federation, from certain tournaments, anybody, that I need to play in this tournament, in this competition, and I got to have a week off, I got to go. So those 12 months, I was probably gone 10 months playing golf somewhere or practicing. So that was not as much of a lost time. But generally, I had a pretty bad experience, as you heard me explain and the discipline they taught me it's not what I needed. I already had discipline, being a golfer. Like one time, they came every Friday afternoon at 5pm. They came to each room, one guy and inspected your boots, your rifle, your locker, your bed, and everything had to be perfect. And if everything was perfect, you had a very good chance to get to go home for the weekend. And I lived like an hour away. So on this particular time, I was really looking forward to going home for the weekend. You know, to see my family and my girlfriend and just get away from this miserable boot camp stuff. So I did everything perfect. I showed him my black boots, I could see my face reflecting in it and my rifle was totally clean and, to make another long story short, he takes my boots and he spits on them and he hands him back to me. And he goes, "What's this?" I'm not stupid. I figure well, if I say you just spit on it, I'm in trouble. And if I say they're dirty, I'm in trouble. So I say, "sorry, I'll clean it right up." And he says, "You better clean this up and you're spending the weekend here. You're not going home." And so that kind of discipline, I hated it, really. But it is what it is. I made it through my injury. And I did have a lot of trouble with my lower back in the years to come and my neck, I believe because of that injury, but we made it through.

Devlin, Bruce  23:18

Yes you did, in flying colors too, by the way.

Langer, Bernhard  23:21

I remember one time playing in Australia. I shot 67 on Thursday morning, I went jogging on the beach, this was like three years later or something or four, and felt great. I went to bed, the next morning, I was doubled over, couldn't get up, couldn't straighten up. And my lower back went into spasm. So now I'm in Melbourne, Australia and I lived in Florida at the time because that's where my wife was from, and I was in excruciating pain. So I had to withdraw from the tournament, I had to wait three or four days, take pills to get the pain to go down a bit and then go on a 22-hour plane ride and fly to Florida, and it was terrible. It's just awful. So and you know, I had several things like that in the years to come where my neck would go out or my lower back or I would play was extreme pain, which I probably shouldn't have done and things like that. And I believe it all goes back to that incident at the Air Force.

Devlin, Bruce  24:28

Interesting

Mike Gonzalez  24:29

As you reflect back on some of your early travels, probably before you met your wife. One thing you didn't mention is you go from country to country is you had to deal with a bunch of currencies that they don't have to do today.

Langer, Bernhard  24:43

Oh yeah, that's for sure. You always had to have some Spanish money, some German, some British, French wherever. You planned ahead. If you were going four or five weeks on tour, it's usually four or five different countries and it was a better exchange rate getting it at home than doing it at the airport, in the hotel or somewhere. So that was something. And I remember one time I played the Spanish Open at El Saler, and I had, at that time, a little briefcase with me and I had all my passports and money and important papers and things in the briefcase. And it had a lock on it, so nobody could open it. And I went out on Saturday and played my round and came back in my room afterwards, and somebody took a knife and cut the briefcase open and stole all the money and some other things. And I was so mad. I went down to reception. I said, "who did this" and "well, we we don't know. And it's your fault. You should have put it in a safe." You know, they don't take responsibility. And I was so furious. I got out the next morning Sunday. And I shot 10 under which was a course record by two or three at El Saler, which was a very difficult Golf Course. And I won the Spanish Open. But you know, it's just something you don't forget, that kind of stuff.

Mike Gonzalez  26:14

How about accommodations? Were you able to do some homestaysor were you typically in hotels,

Langer, Bernhard  26:20

Oh, many times I slept in my car in the early days. And showered in the clubhouse. Sometimes I found a motel if it was cheap enough. And then later on, I would, you know, make a little more money in the years to come and then stayed in normal hotels. And then as I played better, I stayed in some very nice hotels. But it took a while, it took several years. And one time I remember playing in Sanford in the Dutch Open, and I was looking for a roommate to cut the costs of the hotel room. And I couldn't find one. All of a sudden Simon Hobday from Zimbabwe approached me and says, "I think you're looking for a roommate, right?" I said, "Yeah, I am at the Dutch Open, I'm staying at this hotel." It's whatever it was, say $100 a night so "if you want to split it, it'd be $50." He said, "count me in. I'll be your roommate." I said, "Great." So I gave him the address and I'm there on Monday here arrives Tuesday morning or whatever, and comes into the door and I'm in the room and he goes, "so Bernhard, do we have a tub or do we have a shower?" "I'm not sure maybe we might have both." So he opened the bathroom doors and say "Oh great, we've got both. We've got a tub and a shower. And I' m thinking why that's weird. Why is that so important to him. Anyways, I hear him run the bathtub, you know the water kept running for minutes. And I'm thinking well, he's gonna take a bath. So then the door was open and he pulls, he came arrived with his suitcase and his golf bag all packed up still from the airport. He takes the whole suitcase into the bathroom. I'm going wow, he's very modest or something. He doesn't want me to see him. But the door was open so it was like an oxymoron. So anyways, he takes his whole suitcase, everything he owned for a seven-week trip, from whites to blacks to Cashmire to wools, you can imagine. Everything goes in the bathtub, everything. He just emptied it out. Threw the empty suitcase outside in the room. Then he walks over, grabs a bar of soap, unwraps and takes the paper off, throws the bar of soap and the tub. He comes back out, unzips the golf bag. Pulls out of one iron. Does this in the bath tub you know stirring the clothes up and comes out with the biggest grin and says that's my laundry done for the week. And I'm going wow,  What a character he was Oh yeah I got a few stories with him, unbelievable.

Mike Gonzalez  29:16

We got a few good ones from Nick Price too. I can't remember them but what a character. I thought you were gonna tell us he was setting his bar up or something.

Devlin, Bruce  29:30

Well, Bernhard while on the Hobday subject, is one of his stories one about the Swiss Open where he went to have a drink in the bar after playing around a golf.

Langer, Bernhard  29:46

I don't recall that one.

Devlin, Bruce  29:48

Yeah, so he goes in and the gal behind the bar says "I'm sorry Sir, you have to have a tie to have a drink in here. It's after five o'clock." You know now, right? So he goes up, puts a tie on ,comes back down and all he's got on is a tie and a pair of jockey shorts on that's it. Sat at the bar and wanted a drink. What a character!

Mike Gonzalez  30:17

Well, you must have traveled with some characters back in the day. Who were some of your favorite guys to either hang with, travel with, room with or play with back in the early days?

Langer, Bernhard  30:29

Well, there were no other Germans at the time. Every once in a while some you know, one of the Germans would Monday qualify something but not, not many of them were ever exempt. So I was really a loner. I was the only German out there, all the French and all the Spanish and English, they would all hang together, the Swedes. And I was just, you know, the German out there. So I did learn a little bit of Spanish because I spent some of the winters in Spain to practice. But you know, I wasn't good enough to converse with them. But I always enjoyed the Spanish. I thought they were just, you know, straightforward, easygoing, and not quite as clique as some of the others so, but I really didn't have many very close friends on tour, I just went about my business you know, doing my thing, and trying to become a better golfer and work my way up the rankings, so I could make a better living and provide for my family in the future. And you know, see where the game would take me. But you know, I did enjoy the Ryder Cup. My first one was 1981 when the Europeans were finally, the Europeans is wrong, the Continentals were finally included. It used to be just Great Britain and Ireland. And then we also had a team event in 1979. It was called the Hennessy Cup which was the Continent against Great Britain and Ireland so I would be paired with you know, the Spaniards, the Swedes, the French, the Italians and playing against you know, Faldo, Lyle Woosie, those guys from Great Britain. That was a fun event. Later it changed the name to the Seve Trophy. But those were the only team events I ever played in my life besides a few World Cups. Because, as I said earlier, I was never an amateur, never participated in amateur events or team golf much and I truly enjoyed it. It was fascinating for me to represent my country or a certain group of people and play my heart out for my team.

Devlin, Bruce  32:46

Yeah. I think most of the guys that we've talked to enjoyed that too, playing the team competitions.

Mike Gonzalez  32:55

You know, as I was reviewing your record again, last night Bernhard, I came upon a tournament and you'll remember it I'm sure. I can't find it now but I think you went, not  in this sequence. But three rounds of 60-61-62, minus 27, for a three round event. Do you remember which one that was?

Langer, Bernhard  33:19

Oh, I don't actually. Sorry, was earlier my career or later.

Mike Gonzalez  33:24

Let me see if I can find it. We can edit all this stuff out.

Langer, Bernhard  33:28

I remember being on the Champions Tour and we had to play two Pro-Ams the first year when I turned 50 every week and I shot 61-62 in the Pro-Am with my own ball, and I'm going "Well I'm gonna to win this tournament, and nobody's gonna beat me this week." And I shot 73 the next day, and obviously I didn't win. 

Devlin, Bruce  33:49

It's a crazy game isn't it?

Langer, Bernhard  33:50

That's the game of golf.

Devlin, Bruce  33:52

I can tell you where it was. It was the Lufthansa German Open in 1985. You shot 61-60-62 for a total of 27 under par. You beat Michael McLean and Mark McNulty by seven shots.

Langer, Bernhard  34:11

Well, I think it may have been a little shortened Golf Course, if I recall correctly. We had a lot of rain one year and they made a par five into par three or par four, you know, because it was so flooded. So I think the Par might have been 68 or 69 because I don't recall shooting 11, 10 under, eleven under three days in a row.

Devlin, Bruce  34:39

Well, I guess they were calling it,

Langer, Bernhard  34:43

I did score 10 under in the German Masters in Berlin one year and in that 10 under I missed a three-foot putt that horseshoed on me and I had a three-putt from 18 feet on another hole. Um, so you know, that could have been a 58. Actually, I shot 60, which was 12 under. And if those two things hadn't happened, that could have been a 58. But obviously, I did a lot of other things well, I chipped in and made some other putts.

Mike Gonzalez  35:17

Holed out from the fairway with a four iron, but other than that, you know, 

Langer, Bernhard  35:21

exactly, 

Mike Gonzalez  35:22

There was another, the Carol's Irish Open in 1987, you won by 10 shots. You must have played pretty good that week, that was over Sandy Lyle with scores of 67-68-66-68. So you must have had it going that week as well.

Langer, Bernhard  35:36

I did that was at Portmarnock, the famous course, the old course. And I just got a new driver. It was one of my, it had a different shaft. And I drove it so good. I'm not sure I ever drove it this good the rest of my life or before, and you know, all these pot bunkers. I avoided all of them I drove it so unbelievable for four days in a row. And the following week was The Open Championship. And I'm going, "I'm gonna win the Open Championship. I'm driving it so good. There's no way I'm not going to be in contention or even win it." And, as it so happened, I took that driver with me, and I could never hit it again. It wouldn't go straight, it wouldn't go long. I tried it for weeks and weeks, and could not hit anything. I still to this day, I'm puzzled by it, that I would drive it perfectly for four days and then could never hit it again properly for the rest of my life.

Devlin, Bruce  36:40

That's wild, isn't it?

Mike Gonzalez  36:41

Speaking of drivers, were you one of the last holdouts to move to the metal technology.

Langer, Bernhard  36:49

I was. I might have been the last one to win the Masters with a persimmon driver in 1985. No, that would have been 1993. Sorry, everybody had already I think the metal drivers came out what an 1989 or something like that. Late 80s, early 90s. Everybody had already switched and I was hanging on. It was Davis Love and myself I think. We were trying to hold on to these persimmon clubs. But I realized I was losing 10-15 yards on my fellow competitors you know that I knew they were a similar length to me and all of a sudden they were hitting it way past me. And so I finally switched. But what happened to me is I could not hit it straight in the early days. All the modern metal heads, they were all slicing. Everything was going right for me until they finally improved them. And over the years now obviously they're so much better and so good. So much more forgiving and bigger. It's not even a comparison anymore.

Mike Gonzalez  37:57

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