Masters champion ‘struggling to walk’ ahead of farewell

An important subplot to this year’s return to Augusta National is the farewell tour of a true Masters legend.

Bernhard Langer, twice a champion at the famed Georgia venue, will plot his way between the cathedral pines for the 41st and final time this year.

The 67-year-old German, who made debut back in 1982, has missed his last three Masters cuts and had his farewell plans derailed last year by a torn Achilles tendon which ruled him out of the tournament.

Yet, as he has done so many times in his industrious but garlanded career, Langer has shown remarkably powers of recovery to not only return, but to win on the PGA Tour Champions circuit which he has dominated in such unprecedented fashion.

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Langer has continued to shoot better than his age on the senior circuit, but the injury that ruled him out for three months last year is now taking it’s toll.

“To get back to where I was and I always thought I would come back, it was just a matter of when and how,” Langer said, as per the Desert Sun. “So it was a long and tough process. It still is.

“I’m not 100 percent and maybe I never will be, but walking is still difficult. So I’ve been riding a cart for the most part – well, walking 18 holes. I can walk, I’m okay walking nine holes, but then I get a little fatigued and stiff and all that kind of stuff. It’s still a process trying to get better in that department.”

Of course, there is nowhere like the undulating fairways of Augusta when it comes to putting an ageing, ailing body to the ultimate test.

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“I’m not going in there with a mindset of winning anymore,” Langer conceded. “That train has passed. But trying to still perform and show some good shots and hopefully be there on the weekend.

“I’m hoping to play great, and I have to play great to make the cut because the course is so long for me that nothing but great will do it,” Langer said. “I’m coming in with 2- and 3-irons where the other guys are hitting 9-irons, on every hole, and that’s just hard to compete.

“I’ve got to hit it very straight, I’ve got to keep it on the short grass so I don’t come out of the rough with less spin and I can control my distances better for my second shot if I come from the fairway.

“You know, some of the par-5s I won’t be able to reach while the young guys will. They come in with shorter clubs and high trajectory and more spin, which makes it easier to stop the ball. I’ve got to try and be better in the other departments.”

Suffice to say that if we do see the indomitable Langer prowling the fairways come next weekend, he will have saved one of his finest Augusta achievements until last.

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.