Maybe he would reconsider his decision?

Maybe he’d think twice…after Friday? During the second round of the Charles Schwab PGA Tour Champions Cup Championship, he shot a 64, the 21st time the 67-year-old has beaten his tournament age.

Or maybe he would change his mind…after these last six months? After all, he posted seven top 10 finishes in his return to action.

Or maybe he would re-evaluate…just because he’s been so wonderful at Augusta National? There, he won twice, posted nine top 10s overall and made 27 cuts in 40 starts.

Bernhard Langer I listened to the question on Friday. In Januaryhe had said that this year’s Masters, in April, would be his last participation, only then would he tore his left Achilles tendon a month later, which led him to withdraw and postpone your farewells until 2025. But that was a long time ago. Maybe he had reexamined things?

No, Langer said, he hadn’t. Next April is the final again.

“It will,” he said, “there’s no doubt about it.” »

The precision was remarkable. He explained why.

“This course is so long,” Langer said. “The last five or ten years, when I played there, I played for a very long time. It’s not much fun turning 3-woods into par 4s, hybrid 2-woods and all that kind of stuff.

“The holes are made for 7, 8 and 9 irons, and I come in with metal and other things.”

His response was sincere. For now, though, he said he doesn’t get overly sentimental when he allows himself to think about the moment to come. He said there are still golf tournaments to play. Like this week’s event. Even at age 67, he continues to make changes to his game: At the Charles Schwab Cup, he said he moved the ball slightly away from himself when putting, giving him a better view.

And everything went well on Friday. He was between five and seven years old. Two early bogeys on the back nine slowed him down, but he then finished with birdies on 17 and 18. All this after that Achilles injury he suffered playing pickleball. Yes, even in downtime, Langer is active.

“I’m a very positive person, so I always thought I could come back,” he said. “My surgeon and my physiotherapist told me if everything was going pretty well, you should be fine, but you’re probably going to lose half the season or something. In fact, I was lucky enough to come back after three months.

“The good thing is we can use carts here. Because I wasn’t able to go 18 holes, that helped me. When people ask me how I’m doing now, I’m nowhere near 100 percent, but I’m a functioning golfer.

An understatement, no doubt. Just review those numbers at the top of this article.

Speaking of which, does Langer ever surprise himself?

Do the 64s and tournament victories surprise him?

They do, he admitted.

“You know, these are certainly numbers, and numbers express a lot of things,” Langer said. “The more you think about certain things – like another player asked me the other day how many Schwab Cups have you won. I said I won six and I should have won eight because the Covid year was kind of taken away from me, and another one I probably should have won. And he says, wow, what’s next? Well, who is the next best guy? I said, I don’t even know, maybe three. I don’t think anyone has won more than two or three.

“Some of those numbers are pretty incredible and I’m very lucky to have done what I did.”

But there will eventually be an end. All his tournaments will stop, not just the Masters. Interestingly, Langer hinted that might happen on Friday, when a reporter asked him how he continues to stay motivated.

In his response, he said he wouldn’t go beyond the point where he didn’t feel welcome, and you can understand that Langer knows where he stands.

“Twenty years ago, people asked me how long you would play,” he said. “I’ve always said as long as I’m healthy, I’m having fun and playing well. When you win tournaments and you’re in contention most of your life, I think if I reached a point where I feel like I have no chance and finish 50th every week, I might consider stop at that point or certainly stop playing. much less. But I’m not there yet.

“You always have to take one year at a time and see what it does.”

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