Bernhard Langer Perseveres Winning Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS

Bernhard Langer wins the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS on the second playoff hole. It’s his first major victory since 2010. Photo courtesy of Zachary Weiss.

Bernhard Langer had many obstacles in his way in the attempt to win his first major championship since the 2010 U.S. Senior Open.

Langer needed to make a 50 foot putt with four feet of break, overcome a 20 downpour of rain and a fast charging Jeff Sluman. Even then Langer came within a roll of losing.

“Mentally I was up and down,” Langer said. “I was like this is not Bernhard Langer, usually I’m a lot more steady but it comes in all shapes I guess.”

Despite all of the challenges, Langer found a way to defeat Sluman on the second playoff hole to win the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS.

Early in his round, Langer birdied holes two and three but had to fend off Kenny Perry who had a four under front nine ending with a holed bunker shot on the ninth hole.

Langer recorded bogeys on holes four and seven but made birdies on the sixth and ninth holes to keep a one stroke lead over Perry. It appeared as though it was a two horse race with Sluman trailing by four shots and Russ Cochran trailing by five strokes. That was when the rain came into play.

With a heavy rain in effect for 20 minutes Perry and Langer fell back to the field and that allowed Sluman and Cochran to catch up.

Cochran and Sluman combined for five back nine birdies and one back nine bogey while Langer made bogey on 10 and double bogey on 12.

“It’s no fun in the rain, it was a heavy rain” said Langer. “I had to hit a 7-iron on 9. You can’t wait 10 minutes and say I’m going to wait until the rain goes by. I had one practice swing and hit the ball and I looked at my caddie and said I’m soaking wet just now, 20 or 30 seconds in the rain and everything was dripping.”

Perry had bogeys on 12 and 13 and missed a short putt for par on 16.

“It [the rain] did me in,” said Perry. “I struggled ever since it started raining and greens started softening up even more.”

Sluman continued his round but consistently hitting fairways and greens giving himself a chance for birdie.

“I felt like I was going to play well but I just didn’t think with the players that were ahead of me, that they would basically not shoot 2-, 3-, 4- under themselves,” Sluman said. “The golf course wasn’t going to get rock hard overnight, so you knew that every pin was going to be accessible. But you know it’s Sunday and sometimes there’s Sunday nerves.”

Late in the round Sluman converted a six foot birdie putt taking the lead before parring his final two holes.

At this point, Langer was 50 feet away on the 17th green. As Sluman was waiting on the 18th green, Langer was able to make his birdie putt to tie for the lead.

“Impossible,” said Perry of the putt. “He could start there all day with a hundred balls and never make that putt, but that’s him, he always does it. That’s why he’s a Hall of Famer.”

Sluman and Langer each parred the 18th hole and Cochran, trailing by one, was unable to birdie meaning there would be a two man playoff.

Both players went back to the 18th tee and when they reached the green, Sluman had the advantage being a few feet from the pin while Langer was 30 feet away. Langer missed his putt tapping in for par. Sluman took his turn and had the right line but finished half a turn short extending the playoff another hole.

“I’m not going to hit a better putt than that,” Sluman said. “It just didn’t go in. I thought everybody [believed the putt would go in], including Bernhard. He couldn’t believe it.”

Once again, the two headed back to the 18th tee and upon reaching the green the roles were reversed with Sluman being 30 feet away and Langer six feet. Sluman missed his putt and tapped in for par. Langer stepped up and made the putt earning his third career Champions Tour major.

Langer’s victory made it the first time ever pros from a country outside of the United States held both The PLAYERS Championship and Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS. Now he will join fellow countryman Martin Kaymer at next years PLAYERS Championship.

“It really neat,” said Langer. “First of all there’s not many German players on any tour in the professional golfing world, there’s only a handful at that. That the two of us would win this tournament the same year is pretty unique. I admire him for what he’s achieved at his young age and I think he’s looked up to me over the years. We’ve become very close friends.”

At the halfway point of the Champions Tour season, Langer leads Jay Haas by 883 points. Now Langer feels stronger than ever but realizes there is still plenty of season left.

“Winning a major after a couple of close ones gives me a lot of confidence and belief in my game,” Langer said. “It consolidates the yellow jersey, my goal is to keep the yellow jersey all year. We’re only halfway there, but so far so good and we’ll see what the rest of the season holds.”

Of note:

Bob Gilder shot his age shooting 7 under 63. The round included an eagle on the second hole and birdies on holes 7, 10, 12, 16 and 18.

“I thought I was too young to be able to do that,” Gilder said. “I hit every fairway and I missed one green, but I putted beautifully today. I made the putts that I had to make. I just didn’t make any mistakes.”

Bernhard Langer finished in the top-10 in fairways hit, greens in regultion and putts… Jay Haas finished at 10 under putting him in a tie for sixth place in his 1,000th career start… There were four bogey free rounds Sunday and those were Bob Gilder [63], Jeff Sluman [65], John Cook [66] and Hal Sutton [68]… The par-4 8th hole allowed 22 birdies for the week making it the most difficult Champions Tour hole of 2014… Jay Haas, Joe Durant and Bernhard Langer are the only three golfers with top-10’s in all three of this year’s Champions Tour majors… Mark McNulty finished in fifth place at 11 under with put him in fifth place, his first top five finish since the 2012 Nature Valley Open when he placed second… Mark Calcavecchia withdrew from the tournament after playing eight holes of his final round.

He said it: “I don’t know what it is about this golf course but I really like it. I just have never played very good here or scored very well. I don’t know what it is. I’m glad to finish on a good note here.” – Jay Haas