The Masters: Former champ to make final start this year

One of the perks of winning The Masters is that you get to keep playing in the tournament until Father Time catches up with you.

For one legend of the game, that time is now.

Bernhard Langer has announced that this year’s tournament, taking place at Augusta National Golf Club from April 11-14, will be his last appearance in the opening men’s major of the season.

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Speaking ahead of this week’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship on the Champions Tour, he said: “I’ve been thinking about it for a year or two. Every year I play I feel like my game is just too short to compete and I don’t want to be just playing to be playing.

“I would love to compete, I’d love to be on the leaderboard or be in contention and that’s very, very difficult now with my length, lack of length.

“I’m hitting 2-hybrids and 3-woods into par 4s where the other guys are hitting 9-irons and it’s hard to compete against that.

“I’m the oldest in the field I would think this year as well. I always said if I can’t compete anymore against the young guys, then it’s maybe time to say goodbye and I think this year’s the right time.

“My son asked if he could caddie for me and I thought that was a great way to say farewell and goodbye.”

Langer, twice a winner of the Green Jacket, will be making his 41st and final start, 42 years after making his debut.

The 66-year-old missed the cut on his first visit to Augusta in 1982 but won the Green Jacket just three years later, holding off Seve Ballesteros, Raymond Floyd and Curtis Strange to become Germany’s first major champion.

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He repeated the trick in 1993, winning by four shots from Chip Beck.

Langer finished inside the top-10 in 2014, his first top-10 at Augusta in a decade. In 2016, he was in in the second-to-last group in the final round, starting the day only two shots back, ultimately finishing in a tie for 24th

In 2020, aged 63, he became the oldest player in Masters history to make the cut. That record was subsequently eclipsed by Fred Couples last year.

Langer, who also intends to make his final DP World Tour appearance in his native Germany this year, is the latest past champion to announce his ‘retirement’ from the Masters. Larry Mize and Sandy Lyle, the winners of the Green Jacket in 1987 and 1988 respectively, both played for the final time last year.