This little nugget serves as breaking news coming from golf’s ironman who has been winning everything in front of him for more than four decades. Yes, the man does take time off from the game.

“From now on, I’m on vacation,” Langer said, standing with son Jason. “So this is a bonus here … we’re heading tomorrow to Europe, to Germany, to spend time over there.”

Langer certainly deserved the rest and relaxation after another year of grinding on PGA Tour Champions. At 66, he played in 24 events, collected 21 top-25 finishes, and won twice, including the U.S. Senior Open in July, his 12th career senior major. It also allowed him to set the record for most PGA Tour Champions wins at 46, breaking Hale Irwin’s seemingly unbreakable mark.

Sunday at the PNC Championship, the Langers started the day three shots behind Matt Kuchar and his son Cameron, but they erased that deficit in just three holes. The Langers birdied each of the first seven holes—while the Kuchars’ putters ran cold—and shot 28 on the front nine with another birdie on the ninth hole. By that time, they built an insurmountable lead and with five birdies on the back they were the lone team to break 60 in the final round, good enough for a two-stroke victory over David Duval and his son Brady, who made eagle on the last hole to sneak by the Singhs. The Langers shot 25-under total for two days.

“Just it’s always special whether you win or not, just being here is like the Olympics,” Bernhard said. “They only take 20 teams and there’s probably 25 on the waiting list that would love to be here. It’s always a wonderful thing to get an invitation to come and play here, and as you all know, I’ve got four kids, played with all four of them, and we have a lot of wonderful memories.”

Jason Langer, 23, and a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania who now works in Manhattan, has bragging rights over his two sisters and brother. He’s now paired with his father to win three of the five PNC Championships.

Bernhard and Jason Langer win PNC Championship – Mike Mulholland

“I’m the youngest of four of my other three siblings, they are all married and have kids,” Jason said. “They are at a bit of a different stage of life than me. In years past, multiple people wanted to play and we were all sort of playing golf and we wanted to play. Maybe had a qualifier one year or we kind of alternated. This year, no one was really vying for this other than me, and I got the nod.

“It was a ton of fun. I said it earlier, but I don’t get to play as much golf anymore, and I don’t get to see my parents and my family quite as much anymore. To be able to play golf as a family and in a beautiful spot and great competition and play a really good golf course, it’s amazing.”

Now Bernhard heads to his beloved Germany with yet another trophy to add to his impressive collection that includes two green jackets from winning the Masters in 1985 and 1993.

“We look forward to be home skiing for a couple of days and spend time in the snow,” Bernhard said. “It was the weirdest thing for me when I came over here to live in America and married a woman from Florida, and spending Christmas Day in 80 degrees of weather was kind of, this is not Christmas, you know. I always related Christmas with cold and snow or ice or something like that. But we got used to it. So it will be nice to go back and see some of my family.”

Main Image: SOPA Images

The post Bernhard Langer is now a five-time PNC Championship winner. Here’s how he’s going to reward himself appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The Senior Open returns to Royal Porthcawl in Wales for a third time this week and several stars have spoken to the European Tour website about the challenge the historic Welsh links course poses.

Europe’s only Senior Major Championship is back at the venue following memorable events in 2014 and 2017 in which Germany’s Bernhard Langer won on both occasions.

When Royal Porthcawl hosted its first Senior Open in 2014, two-time Masters Champion Langer stormed to a wire-to-wire victory as he finished 13 shots ahead of runner-up Colin Montgomerie — a record margin that still stands.

Royal Porthcawl, which offers stunning views across Swansea Bay to the Gower Peninsula and offers a true test of golf, has hosted The Amateur Championship and the Walker Cup.

Once again the members’ 18th hole will be used as the first this week, but what are players making of the test?

Bernhard Langer. European Tour

Two-time Masters Champion Langer admitted both his triumphs were achieved in vastly different conditions and the German believes mentality will again be vital if he is to win his 13th senior Major title and fifth at this event.

“It is a typical links course and a very demanding one,” he told EuropeanTour.com. “The last two times we have played here were totally opposite. One time it was bone dry, the ball was running 100 yards — that was a challenge in itself because you couldn’t stop it.

“The second time we played it the rain came sideways, the wind was howling, and it was wet and miserable. But I am used to making the best of it. It seems to bring the best out of me.”

“It starts from the tee shot and that is the sign of a good golf course.”

Colin Montgomerie. Getty Images

Colin Montgomerie, one of many European greats of the game in the field, believes Royal Porthcawl ranks highly among the best UK links courses.

The Scot revealed how new fairway bunkering since it last played host in 2017 will provide an even greater complexity.

“The greens have got a lot of undulation to them,” he said. “Most links greens don’t, the trouble is really off the tee with most links courses but here it is actually everything.

“They have put in a number of new fairway bunkers in the last five or six years since we were last year and it has made it much tighter off the tee.

“You will see a lot of people having to think more on their tee shots rather than just hit a driver aimlessly and try to find it.

“Now there are bunkers in the way and you know with links golf — Brian Harman proved it at The Open — if you stay out of the bunkers, drive the ball well you can score.

“You can always move it forward from the rough but you can’t move it forward from the bunkers, you have to come out sideways.

“It starts from the tee shot and that is the sign of a good hole and golf course overall.”

Royal Porthcawl boasts a stunning setting sloping down to the seashore, with impressive views of the coastline from every hole.

Ian Woosnam. European Tour

The second to fourth holes can play particularly difficult when played into a freshening wind, something Ian Woosnam attests to as he highlighted the challenge of approach shots onto undulating greens.

“If the wind is off the left playing those first few holes, trying to get it on the green is a challenge,” he said. “You have got to try and hug the right hand side to get a better shot into the green.

“Once you get on the green it is hard to get it close and you have got to try and two putt.”

Padraig Harrington. Jared C. Tilton

But it isn’t just the greens that Pádraig Harrington is focusing on as he targets a strong performance off the tee in his bid to complete The Open-Senior Open double.

“The course is well designed,” the 15-time DP World Tour winner said. “There is a staggering number of bunkers. You can take some trouble out but you can’t take it all out. Avoiding trouble off the tee will be my goal for the week.

“Sometimes I will play cautious, sometimes I will play a little more aggressive. If I can avoid those bunkers and any of the major trouble I think that will set me up enough.

“The greens are difficult, there are slopes, but if I hit it straight you will create so many opportunities that you will overcome the odd lack of knowledge or the odd mistake around the greens.”

Darren Clarke. Mark Runnacles

Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke is this week’s defending champion having won his first Senior Major at Gleneagles last summer.

On his first return to Royal Porthcawl since the 1988 European Team Amateur Championships, the 2011 Open Champion is excited and alert in equal measure of its challenges.

“Conditions-wise, holes, everything, it’s pristine,” he said. “But no, there are some very strategic bunkers positioned out there.

“Sometime you’ve got to play in between bunkers, carry one and not reach the next one.

“And then obviously with the contours on the greens, there are a few you’ve got to miss in the right place.

“The wind is going to get up a little stronger and that’s fine.”

The post The Senior Open: What the players are saying about Royal Porthcawl appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

You’ve almost certainly heard it before. Every golfer has. It’s one of the most common phrases in golf.

That the game of golf is “90 per cent mental.”

Well Bernhard Langer, the two-time Masters champion and the most successful player in the history of the PGA Tour Champions, has some thoughts.

Speaking ahead of this week’s Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship, Langer, who won the U.S. Senior Open in his last start, refuted the “90 per cent mental” notion:

“If you say that you have no I.Q., I’m sorry. If you put two players together with the same level of technique and experience and capability then it becomes very much mental, because what is going to differentiate those two guys who are playing at the very top of their game? But if I take you on tomorrow, I don’t know how good you are, but it doesn’t matter. You could be one of the best mental in the world, I could be the worst, and I’m still going to beat you out there just because of the different technique we have, and the different experience we have.”

Bernhard Langer on people saying golf is mostly a mental game ?‍?@BernhardLanger6 @KauligChamp @FirestoneCC pic.twitter.com/tKoGkDYXTb

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) July 12, 2023

Why golf is NOT 90% mental

It’s an interesting take from Langer, especially considering he was a player who battled the mentally-scarring yips at the height of his career. But he’s right.

Learning to commit to the shot at hand; to focus; to prevent bad shots from turning into bad rounds; all of that stuff is important. But ultimately, the deciding factor between golfers isn’t their mind, it’s their skill. Their ability to get the clubface square at impact. To swing with speed. To hit different shots around the greens.

That’s not an excuse to have a bad attitude, but it merely serves as a reminder of the true priorities. There’s no quick fix in golf. The key is understanding your problem areas, and improving them slowly.

The post Major champ explodes an old golf myth: ‘If you say that, you have no IQ’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

If you’re winning PGA Tour Champions majors at age 65, like Bernhard Langer did at the US Senior Open Sunday, by definition times have changed since you turned professional. Langer is cashing first-place checks in a remarkable sixth decade as a professional, dating all the way back to the 1975 German National Open, a tournament he won at age 17. That victory was so far back there’s no data on how much Langer won, but the DP World Tour does chronicle Langer’s take-home pay for winning his first event on the “big” tour—the 14,000 pounds he earned for defeating Brian Barnes by five in the 1980 Dunlop Masters.

That performance wasn’t dramatically different from the one Langer put on at the US Senior Open last week. Langer was up by as many as seven strokes on Sunday before finishing bogey-bogey-bogey to win by two over Steve Stricker. The first-place prize was a PGA Tour Champions record $720,000—bigger than Langer’s Masters winning cash-outs in 1985 ($126,000) and 1993 ($306,000) combined.

RELATED: How Bernhard Langer broke a record considered unbreakable.

To put Langer’s first European tour check-in perspective, two weeks ago, every player in the field at the US Open who missed the cut got $10,000 just for showing up. The Scotty Cameron putter Langer used to win the 1993 Masters—the first Cameron to be used to win a major—went for $59,097 at a 2021 auction. It’s doubtful Langer’s current Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball with an extended grip will ever get that much but given that Langer has now won more than $35 million just as a senior, he’s probably never going to need to unload it to pay his mortgage.

The post How Bernhard Langer’s first-place checks have increased during his six decades as a pro appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

With the pro-am cancelled due to rain that had plagued Southern California for weeks, many of the 78 players set to tee it up in the Hoag Classic had left Newport Beach Country Club long ago. Some had never showed up in the first place. Why bother? As the 19th-century philosopher, Scarlett O’Hara, once noted, “After all, tomorrow is another day.”

That wasn’t the case for one of the 78, however. He had no plans of waiting until tomorrow. To him, everyday matters. Every day of getting in the work necessary to be the best he can be. It had been his mindset since the 1970s while growing up in Germany, a country not known for producing world-class golfers. And he wasn’t about to change now at the ripe young age of 65.

So, on this cold Wednesday afternoon, there was Bernhard Langer, hitting one chipshot after another. Getting, as he put it, “the feel of the grass.”

The feel of the grass?

“Every golf course has different grasses,” Langer later explained. “You need to practice the short game because the club goes through the ground a little differently with different grasses and putting on Poa annua greens is different than putting Bermuda greens.”

That attention to detail is essential for Langer. “I don’t want to have any surprises out there,” he said. Who else would put in that kind of work?

Nobody, and that’s one of the reasons he made history on Sunday, passing Hale Irwin with victory No. 46 to become the winningest senior golfer of all time thanks to a dominant performance at the 43rd U.S. Senior Open at SentryWorld in Wisconsin.

No one saw this day coming, and that included Langer. At least not when he turned the big 5-0 back on Aug. 27, 2007 and launched his second career in the game he loves.

“When I first came out, I was hoping to be one of the top five or top 10 on this tour, which was a reasonable goal,” Langer said of his senior aspirations. As for anything more ambitious, Langer admits to seeing Irwin’s remarkable 45 wins (16 more than the next person on the career win list, Lee Trevino) and thinking “this is not going to be broken for a long, long time.”

Only when Langer clicked off senior win No. 40 in the summer of 2019, shortly before turning 62, did the goal truly emerge. “I wasn’t supposed to be winning at this age,” he thought, “but there are always exceptions, and I was one of the dominant players out there every year.”

Langer’s first senior tour victory, the Administaff Small Business Classic, came in October of his rookie season of 2007, which he won by eight strokes. Only nine months earlier Irwin, then 61, claimed his 45th and last senior victory in Hawaii. Talk about a changing of the guard.

Bernhard Langer has presented the winner’s trophy at the 2007 Administaff Small Business Classic, the first of his record 46th senior title. Bob Levey

Langer won three more times in 2008 and another four in 2009. There has not been a year since when the World Golf Hall of Famer hasn’t won at least one event, and the 46 victories include 12 senior major championships, another record he holds, by three over Gary Player and four over Jack Nicklaus.

So then, how did Langer pass Irwin—in his mid-60s, no less?

The conventional wisdom on this circuit has always been to pick up your wins (and paychecks) as early as possible, preferably before turning 55 or 56, when your body truly begins to break down—they call it hitting the wall—and the new “youngsters” come aboard.

Langer, however, won 13 times since turning 60. That’s more wins than all but 24 players have for their entire senior careers. And Langer is the only player to win past age 64, having done it now five times.

Suffice it to say, Langer has kept himself in remarkable shape and has remained relatively healthy, never a guarantee at this stage of a player’s career. Or at any stage, really.

“Put a picture of him at 21 next to a picture of him now at 65,” Peter Jacobsen suggested, “and other than maybe some wrinkles around his eyes and on his face, I don’t see any difference in Bernhard Langer then and Bernhard Langer now.”

His faith in God has been another factor in his favour. A born-again Christian since the mid-1980s, he approaches the game—and his life—with an inner peace others that his peers would no doubt dream of having. “I have played with a greater purpose,” he said. “I knew God would love me whether I missed the cut or won.”

1487807864 Alex Slitz

Beyond these reasons is the intangible quality that all of the greats in sports possess. Call it desire, determination, whatever. You have it or you don’t, and he has it in spades. There is no other way to explain what the man has overcome. More than most members of his profession, that’s for sure.

Take a case of the yips, which Langer has had to conquer on several occasions.

Tony Jacklin was paired with him at one event in the early 1980s when Sam Torrance, the other member of the threesome, asked Langer in the scoring tent afterwards, in reference to a very short putt he had just made, whether he had hit it once or twice.

Langer’s putting was “that shaky,” Jacklin explained, “that Sam had to pose the question.” (Just once, Langer assured Torrance.) Those days, as you might expect, were tough on him. “People didn’t even want to watch me,” Langer said, “and you can’t hide.”

Mind you, this was a player who won 42 times on the European Tour and three times on the PGA Tour, including two Masters victories. Talent was never the question. But staying mentally sharp was.

Of all the putts he missed, one stands out—the six-footer on the final green during his 1991 Ryder Cup singles match on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island against, ironically enough, Irwin, which handed the the US a victory over Europe in the “War by the Shore.” It is hard to imagine any player in the sport ever feeling more pressure than Langer encountered at that moment.

Jacklin was very concerned, and with good reason. “I really thought it was a possible career-changer,” he said. “To a lot of people it would have been a devastating thing.”

It was devastating, alright. So devastating that he won the very next week, on the first playoff hole over Australia’s Rodger Davis at the German Masters. To even get into the playoff, he canned a 10-footer on the last hole in regulation. If that doesn’t tell you what the man is made of, nothing will.

Langer isn’t dominant in any one aspect of the game, which means absolutely nothing. “He’s good enough at everything,” Lee Janzen said. “He drives it straight, his short game is very good, and he’s really good from inside 10 feet.”

Or, as Paul Goydos put it, “Does he do anything better than me? No. He just beats me.”

Goydos said that Langer’s success should make everyone reevaluate assumptions that we’ve had for a long time about athletes and the ageing process. “He doesn’t fit any of those moulds,” Goydos suggested. “Mentally, he’s as sharp as anybody out here. He doesn’t make [mistakes].”

In the end, it comes down to a simple question: How badly do you want it?

When it comes to Langer, the answer is obvious.

Billy Andrade recalled the time he showed up for the 3M Championship just outside Minneapolis in his rookie season of 2014. It was a Tuesday. He was there to pick up his courtesy car when he spotted Langer on the driving range. Just two days earlier, Langer had captured the Senior Open Championship at Royal Porthcawl in Wales … by 13 strokes!

“He was the only one [out there],” Andrade said. “It was mind-blowing. He was already focused on the next tournament.”

Getting the feel of the grass, no doubt.

The post How Bernhard Langer broke a golf record considered unbreakable appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It was to have evolved into a race against time for Bernhard Langer in his pursuit of Hale Irwin’s PGA Tour Champions record for victories, yet time stood no chance. Langer on Sunday, two months shy of his 66th birthday, posted his record 46th senior victory in a dominating manner, on the senior game’s biggest stage, the US Senior Open.

Players his age are not supposed to win. Irwin was 61 when he produced the last of his 45 senior victories. Until Langer came along, the oldest to win on the senior tour was Scott Hoch, at 63 years and five months. This victory by Langer at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis., advanced that record for the fifth time.

And he did so while having to contend with Wisconsin’s favourite sons, Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly, on their home turf. He carried a two-stroke lead over Kelly, three over Stricker, into the final round, and though he bogeyed his final three holes, he still won by two over Stricker, the runner-up, and three over Kelly.

“It’s been a long time coming, but I’m very, very happy,” Langer said. “Never thought it would happen at a US Senior Open, but I’m very thrilled that the record of 46 wins happened this week. It’s certainly one of the greatest tournaments we ever compete in, and to beat this field, where everybody was here, especially Stricker and Kelly on their home grounds, is a very special feeling. Very grateful.”

It was his record 12th senior major championship, to go with two Masters titles. It was his second US Senior Open victory, 13 years after his first. It also marked his record 11th season with multiple victories, his having won the Chubb Classic earlier this year.

Langer closed with a one-under-par 70 that largely was mistake-free until the closing holes. He completed 72 holes in seven-under 277. Stricker, seeking a third straight major championship this season, shot a two-under 69, while Kelly posted an even-par 71.

At the end of play on Saturday, Langer leading by two, Kelly sensed the task ahead for both Stricker and himself was ominous. “You know he’s going to be tough,” he said. “He’s smelling 46 right now.”

Patrick McDermott

As if on cue, Langer opened with birdie-birdie for the second straight day, added another birdie at six and at one point led by as many as seven. Over four rounds, Langer led the field in fairways hit (49 of 56) and greens in regulation (52 of 72), usually a winning formula in a USGA championship.

“I knew it was going to be a tough day just because Steve Stricker has been in top form,” Langer said. “He’s winning basically every time he tees up or thereabouts. I knew he would want to have his streak going of three majors in a row, and I knew he was going to give it his all.

“The same with Jerry Kelly. He’s one of the best ball-strikers, a very underrated golfer. I knew he would do well because he is one of the straightest hitters. The key this week, I think, was hitting the fairways. If you could keep it out of the cabbage, you had a chance. I think that’s one of the reasons I did so well.”

In the immediate aftermath, he was asked how long he could keep going, and he cited aches and pains that weren’t there a decade ago.

“I’ve got two bad knees, for those of you who don’t know, and it hurts bending down and staying down,” he said. “When I have dinner and I sit for an hour or something and get up, it’s hard to get up. That’s just been that way for a number of years.

“But I’ve got good news. I have my mother that’s going to be 100 on Aug. 4, so I think I have good genes. Hopefully, I’ll be around a few more years.”

The post Bernhard Langer, 65, defying age, wins US Senior Open to surpass Hale Irwin with record 46th Champions victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Els, 53, who began the final round trailing Langer by five, birdied two of his final three holes on a cool, wet day at Newport Beach Country Club in California to complete a bogey-free six-under par 65 and beat Doug Barron and Steve Stricker by one. It was Els’ third senior victory and second in this tournament.

Langer, 65, entered the final round with a one-stroke lead, and still led with seven holes remaining, but fell from a three-way tie for the lead with a three-putt bogey at 14, and another three-putt bogey at 17 ended his bid. He shot a two-over 73 and fell to a tie for seventh.

“Basically it came down to the putter,” Langer said. “I didn’t putt well. I missed two very short ones and had whatever, a couple of three-putts. Didn’t play too bad. I played good enough to shoot one or two-under or something. That would have done it, but the putter was not good enough.”

His next opportunity to set the record he now shares with Hale Irwin for most senior victories will be the new Galleri Classic in Rancho Mirage, California, that begins on Friday at Mission Hills Country Club.

Els hadn’t won since October of 2020, and he had to wait out Barron playing the 18th hole with a chance to tie and force a playoff. But Barron missed a four-foot birdie putt, giving Els the victory.

“Even at our age, even on the Champions Tour, we still want to get better and get to where we’re comfortable and I’m getting to that stage,” Els said. “For a long time in my 40s I didn’t play very well. To get that confidence back has taken awhile, but rounds like this, tournaments like this, it’s coming back a little bit.”

The post Bernhard Langer’s bid for record 46th senior victory unravels as Ernie Els wins Hoag Classic by one appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Langer, 65, birdied five of his last seven holes to shoot his age, giving him a three-stroke victory in the Chubb Classic at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, the third event of the 2023 schedule.

“There’s been a lot of talk about catching Hale for the last few years, and there’s a lot of pressure, especially today when you get this close,” Langer said. “Then you have thoughts running through your mind, and you’re going, wow, you’re this close, you don’t want to lose it now. But that’s the wrong stuff to think. You’ve got to just focus on one shot at a time.”

Langer, a Christian, took comfort from a Bible verse from Proverbs 3, one he wrote down and carried with him all day Sunday, “to encourage me,” he said. “It says, ‘I will trust in the Lord with all my heart and not lean on my own understanding. In all my ways I will acknowledge him, and he will make my path straight,’ and my path was pretty straight today and this whole week. I drove it very well, hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, and fortunately did better than anybody else.”

He staved off a host of challengers on the back nine, including Padraig Harrington, Steve Stricker and Steven Alker. He completed 54 holes in 17-under-par 199, while Stricker and Harrington tied for second. It was the second year in a row Langer won the Chubb Classic and the third time in his storied career.

Not only did he shoot his age on Sunday, but in the first round on Friday, he bettered his age with a 64, the seventh time in his senior career that he has done so.

“It’s very gratifying,” he said, “and I know there’s only certain courses I think where I can win. There are some courses where I have a hard time because of lack of distance. Let’s face it, I’m not hitting it as far as these 50 or 52-year-olds, and there are some courses where the bombers have such a big advantage and I have a hard time. But on a golf course like this that’s very tight and not too long, I have a chance.”

Langer, who has won two or more tournaments every year for a decade, would seem to be almost a cinch, given that this one came so early in the senior season, to surpass Irwin on the all-time victory list at some point this year.

The post Bernhard Langer equals Hale Irwin’s PGA Tour Champions record with 45th career victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Only two men have a chance to win the season-long points
The top six on Charles Schwab Cup points are a who’s who in senior golf but only Steven Alker and Padraig Harrington have a chance to take home the top prize and the $1 million bonus.
And really, Harrington has to win the tournament in order to have any chance of surpassing Alker, who holds a 617,980-point lead in the standings. If Alker finishes outside the top five then Harrington will win with a tournament victory. There are various other scenarios based on the number of ties ahead, but that’s the general idea of what needs to happen for Harrington to have a chance.
Jerry Kelly, Steve Stricker, Bernhard Langer and Miguel Angel Jimenez are Nos. 3-6 on the points list but there aren’t enough points available by winning the event that could have them catch Alker.

A breakdown of Alker and Harrington
Alker, a 51-year-old from New Zealand, Monday qualified last year to get into his first Champions event and then rattled off six consecutive top-10 finishes to solidify his status. He’s now won five total senior events, including four this season — Rapiscan Systems Classic, Insperity Invitational, KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.
His consistency has been simply amazing. He’s played in 22 events and aside from the four victories has 17 top-10 finishes and 20 top-25 finishes. Yes, he’s only finished outside the top 25 twice all year.
Harrington has played four less events than Alker, which undoubtedly has kept him from being closer in the Schwab Cup standings. The 51-year-old Irishman has three victories, 12 top-10s and has finished inside the top 25 in 17 of 18 events. He won the US Senior Open, Dick’s Sporting Good Open and the Ascension Charity Classic.
Kelly won three times this year but was not as consistent overall. Stricker won four times but only played in 12 events because he battled illness early in the season.

Bernhard Langer holds the Charles Schwab Cup and Phil Mickelson holds the tournament trophy on the 18th green after the final round of the 2021 PGA Tour Champions Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club. Ben Jared

Who won last year?
With so much noise surrounding Phil Mickelson and his LIV Golf exploits this year, it’s easy to forget that he actually won the overall tournament by making three late birdies to shoot a final-round 65 to clip Alker by one shot. Mickelson obviously was not eligible to play in any PGA Tour-sanctioned events once he made the jump to the LIV series, meaning, of course, that he was not allowed to defend his title this week in the desert.
Langer did not play particularly well that week last year and finished in 17th-place but it was enough for him to capture his record sixth overall Schwab Cup season title.

Speaking of Langer
The 65-year-old machine continues to roll, winning the TimberTech Championship last week in Boca Raton, Florida, for his second victory of the year and his 44th overall on the PGA Tour Champions.
He is now only one victory away from tying Hale Irwin’s 45 total senior titles.
Langer has been playing on the tour since 2007 and notched at least one victory in each of his 15 seasons. He’s captured five tournaments or more in a year on three occasions, with a high of seven in 2017. He won 42 times on the European Tour (second all-time), with three PGA Tour victories, including two Masters.
This year he won’t win the overall Schwab Cup title, but he can certainly tie Irwin’s record with a tournament victory and add a third victory to his season total.

Anything else?
We mentioned the bonus structure earlier and it’s not nearly as deep or as lucrative as the PGA Tour but a nice parting gift awaits those finishing inside the top five on the final Schwab Cup points list.
The winner will take home a cool $1 million, second place will earn $500,000, third place will collect $300,000, fourth will receive $200,000 and fifth place will earn $100,000.

You may also like:
Get your FREE November issue of Golf Digest Middle East here
Future stars set for the Junior Dubai Desert Classic
Pat Perez’s surprise congrats after LIV triumph
Aramco Saudi Ladies International to ramp up prize money to $5million
Tee times and pairings for Aramco Team Series first round in Jeddah
Georgia Hall and Olivia Cowan set for Aramco Team Series finale
Nedbank Golf Challenge pairings as Fox looks to reel in Rory
Fleetwood and Molinari named captains for Hero Cup in Abu Dhabi
Jessica Korda calls time on 2022 season early
Angel Cabrera given additional prison sentence
Rory backs Tiger for PIP award
Four Saudi courses certified by GEO Foundation
Rory confirmed for Dubai Desert Classic
Rule-change bonus for forgetful golfers
Langer continues to deliver on senior tour
Three players set for DPWTC pro-am after Luckiest Ball triumph
DP World Tour Championship to be greenest yet

The post 5 things you need to know ahead of the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup finale appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Langer has had a longer career than most if you just count his time on the senior tour. And he’s certainly made more than most. Heck, the two-time Masters champ has made three times as much since turning 50 than he did on the regular PGA Tour. And the dude shows no signs of slowing down after a six-shot romp at the TimberTech Championship.

With 44 career victories on the senior circuit, the 65-year-old German is just one away from tying Hale Irwin’s mark. And there’s a better chance of you winning the lottery than Bernhard not breaking that record. Anyway, here are some other numbers that tell just how amazing Langer’s (long) run of dominance has been.

• 15: The number of seasons Langer has played as well as the number of seasons in which he’s recorded a win.
• 10: The number of consecutive seasons Langer has won at least two tournaments. That’s a decade straight of multiple victories. Since turning 55 and being eligible for senior discounts at most places.
• 6: The number of times he’s won the season-long Schwab Cup. Bernhard was nice enough to let Steven Alker or Padraig Harrington win that this year.
• 40: Langer’s number of career runner-ups on the senior tour. That’s a lot of close calls on top of those 44 wins!
• 11: Langer’s record number of career PGA Tour Champions majors. He’s also the only golfer to have won all five of the senior tour’s majors. Let’s just call is the Bernhard Slam.
• 11: Langer’s record for being the tour’s money leader, including seven times in a row. Sorry for using the same number twice, but that’s amazing.
• 10: The number of times Langer has won a tournament by at least five shots, including on Sunday. As if that’s not crazy enough, consider he’s separating himself from the field this much during mostly 54-hole events.
• 13: Langer’s biggest blow-out came over four rounds at the 2014 Senior Open Championship. As if you needed another example of why this dude is the Tiger Woods of the senior tour.
• $33,680,331: Langer’s career PGA Tour Champions earnings. And that doesn’t even include all his Schwab Cup bonuses! Add in another $8.2 million for that and that puts him up to nearly $42 million!

Again, those are just his earnings since turning 50. Bernhard, you beast.

You may also like:
Get your FREE November issue of Golf Digest Middle East here
Three players set for DPWTC pro-am after Luckiest Ball triumph
DP World Tour Championship to be greenest yet
Rory shows of funny side and impressive trophy room
Famous Tiger Woods golf ball up for auction
Lydia Ko having ‘best season of her life’
Scheffler can steal back No. 1 from Rory
Nelly and Lexi in for QBE Shootout
Dubai’s Chiara Noja on a stellar 12 months as a pro
Tiger and Rory to play in ‘The Match’
Bubba says he was paid guaranteed money from PGA Tour to appear in events 
DP World Tour announces guaranteed pay for players and launches 2023 calendar
Koepka leads LIV fleet at International Series Morocco
Top tips from Butch Harmon

The post Bernhard Langer’s incredible (PGA Tour Champions) career by the numbers appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.