NEWPORT BEACH — Bernhard Langer, the PGA Tour Champions’ ageless wonder, started breaking records soon after joining the 50-and-over professional tour in 2007. He has another chance at the record he covets the most when he tees it up this weekend in the Hoag Classic at Newport Beach Country Club.
Langer, now 65, will break the tour’s all-time record for tournament titles – a record of 45 he currently shares with fellow World Golf Hall of Famer Hale Irwin – the next time he hoists a Champions trophy.
Langer tied Irwin’s career mark last month when he won the Chubb Classic in Naples, Fla., for the fifth time (another record), shooting his age in the final round for a three-stroke victory over Steve Stricker and Padraig Harrington to break three more of his own records.
At Naples, he became the oldest to win a Champions title (65 years, 5 months, 31 days) for the third time, won his record 12th Champions title after age 60, and extended his record streak of winning at least one Champions title to 17 consecutive calendar years.
Langer also has won a record 11 PGA Tour Champions majors and a record six Schwab Cup trophies as the season-long points champion.
Langer tees off at 11:40 a.m. on Friday in the first round in a threesome with Jim Furyk and Mike Weir, all of them major championship winners on the PGA Tour.
Langer won the Masters in 1985 and 1993, Weir won the 2003 Masters, and Furyk won the 2003 U.S. Open.
In his second year on the Champions tour in 2008, Langer won the Hoag Classic (then the Toshiba Classic) for his second title on the tour. How special would it be to set the all-time PGA Tour Champions record at Newport Beach Country Club?
“Well, it would certainly be very special to do it on a golf course like this, but I can’t think ahead,” Langer said Wednesday in a media interview. “I’ve got to stay in the present and in the moment and trying to figure out how these changes (in the recently renovated NBCC layout) will affect my play, my game, around here.”
Mark O’Meara, one of 10 World Golf Hall of Famers in this week’s field, has called Langer “the Tiger Woods of the Champions tour.”
In some respects, Langer also is the Tom Brady, Nolan Ryan, Gordie Howe, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and George Foreman of PGA Tour Champions because of his accomplishments at such an advanced age.
Remarkably, Langer has won 27 of his 45 Champions titles since turning 57. If most players on the senior tour are chronologically challenged after age 60, Langer must be chronologically gifted.
Fred Couples, a Newport Beach resident and two-time Hoag Classic champion competing this weekend, paid Langer an even bigger compliment.
“Bernhard Langer is absolutely the greatest individual that makes our tour go, and he’s the quietest guy on tour,” Couples said earlier this week. “If he was a Rory (McIlroy) or Phil (Mickelson) … our tour would be talked about every single day. What he’s doing is absolutely incredible.”
Paul Goydos, a Coto de Caza resident and five-time Champions winner, agrees with Couples’ assertion that Langer doesn’t get the attention he deserves.
“What he has done is astounding,” Goydos said after playing in Thursday’s pro-am. “His age is absolutely irrelevant. It’s a meaningless number. It’s just how many times you’ve been on the planet as it circled the sun. That’s what age means. Nothing to do with the condition he is in. It’s irrelevant.
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“He’s the oldest guy out here, and he’s going to win more. Winning six Schwab Cups stands out to me, because you have to play well the whole year. But I think winning at least once 17 straight years is even more impressive.
“You don’t defeat Father Time very often, but he’s doing a wonderful job of it. That’s not luck. It’s not some fluke. He works hard to stay where he is. It’s because of hard work and determination.
“Is he going to be playing the Champions tour at age 70? Absolutely – what’s going to stop him?”
MOST PGA TOUR WINS BY AGE
Most wins in 20s: Tiger Woods 46
Most wins in 30s: Arnold Palmer 44, Ben Hogan 43
Most wins in 40s: Vijay Singh 22
Most wins in 50s (Champions tour): Hale Irwin 42
Most wins in 60s (Champions tour): Bernhard Langer 12