CNN
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For Bernhard Langer, age is just a number. Still it is 46.
A month before his 66th birthday, the German won the US Senior Open on Sunday for an unprecedented 46th win over PGA Tour champions.
Langer carded a seven-under overall at the Centerworld Course in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, to finish two strokes ahead of local hero Steve Stricker and surpass American Hal Irwin as the winningest golfer on the Senior Tour, who had been 50. Eligible for older players.
Irvine’s record stood for 16 years, but on Sunday his record, along with many others, was lost due to the German. A 12-time senior major champion at age 65, Langer more than surpassed himself and Irwin (7) in career senior major titles, as well as breaking his own record as the oldest winner on the PGA Tour Champions for the fifth time. Gave. ,
And it’s not done yet.
“My mom is going to be 100 on August 4, so I think I have good genes,” Langer told reporters.
“Hopefully, I’ll live for a few more years.”
Domination over PGA Tour Champions has continued an illustrious career for the former world No. 1 and two-time Masters champion in 1985 and 1993.
He won three times on the PGA Tour, but it was his dominance on the European Tour (now the DP World Tour) that mirrored his dominance on the senior circuit. With 42 wins over a 23-year span, Langer is behind only Seve Ballesteros in all-time European Tour wins, while the great Spaniard is eight ahead.
Langer celebrated his first win on the PGA Tour Champions in 2007, fast-forwarding to his first two senior majors – the Senior Open Championship and the US Senior Open – three years later.
Now, he stands alone at the top. Yet, despite his incredible exploits, Langer insists, he is still very much human.
With “two bad knees”, Langer has pain when bending, a considerable discomfort in games where bending to read putts is a constantly repeated action.
Langer said, “I read that if you go down from the tee box… it’s 20 times your body weight.”
“So for easy math, if you are 200 pounds, there is a load of 4,000 pounds on the knee joint when you walk downhill. Imagine how many times I’ve gone downhill on Tour in the last 50 years.
“The body is hurt, there is no doubt about it. I feel it just like everyone else.
A one-under 70 in the final round was enough to stop Stricker, who carded a 69 and narrowly missed out on 16.th PGA Tour Champions victory and seventh senior major title.
Langer denied the famous hometown victory to the Wisconsin-born striker but the 56-year-old had nothing but praise for his rival.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?”, the striker told reporters.
“It gives hope to all of us who are still here playing that we can continue to play as well as they have been playing for so long. It’s really impressive.”