MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2025

Bernhard Langer

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to welcome to the interview room for the final time two-time Masters Champion Bernhard Langer, the boy from Bavaria.

Bernhard, I think on behalf of all of us, you have personified professionalism and class on the golf tour, and it's a great honor to have you as a two-time champion at the Masters. Could you share some of the emotion that you have experienced the last two days as you wandered around the course, and in particular, the drama on the 18th hole.

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, it was a very special last two days for me, even starting off walking to the first tee yesterday, I got a standing ovation and the people really, you know, applauded. I almost teared up and almost started crying right there, and I said, Come on, get it together, you've got some golf to play.

It kind of kept going. There were lots of standing ovations throughout the golf course in various spots. Today coming up 18 was mixed emotions because I was still inside the cut line, and even when I made bogey, I wasn't sure I'm totally out of there or not because I actually thought 3-over would make the cut, as windy as it was today. I thought it was harder than yesterday. But it doesn't look that way.

So there were lots of emotions flooding through my mind the last two days as I was walking down the fairways. I saw my wife, I saw my four kids, and I saw two of my grandkids came out and supported me, and friends from Germany and family from Germany. Just even friends from all over the world, literally, were walking a few holes with me. It meant a great deal.

I just have so many wonderful memories of playing this golf course. I fell in love with it immediately when I played my first round here, and was fortunate to win twice, and come back here for many, many years. Very special.

And then I had my son on the bag, as well. Our youngest son, we won the PNC Father/Son tournament four times together, and when I said this is going to be my last Masters, I asked him if he would caddie for me, and he immediately said yes. That was, you know, another bonus.

Q. Could you ever have imagined as a young boy, earning a few coins as a caddie in Germany, that you would go on to play in 41 Masters?

BERNHARD LANGER: No. I had no clue. I had no idea, period. I mean, just the golf was nothing in Germany, and when I became an assistant pro, just to teach golf and to help others to improve my game, I thought that was going to be my life.

Then I became a fairly good player during those 3 1/2 years, and I thought, well, maybe I should try The European Tour for a couple years and see if I can make a living playing golf, because it's probably more fun than teaching golf on the range for eight hours a day. We know the rest, right.

But I had no clue I would ever play in America and end up living in America and marrying an American, raise my kids here, and then win the greatest tournament in the world, and on and on. Yeah, it's truly a fairy tale.

Q. How complicated was this round? The emotion, the competitiveness; were you in control of the round, or was the round in control of you?

BERNHARD LANGER: I was trying to be in control of the round. But the wind didn't play with me. I actually hit a beautiful wedge into 15 to the middle of the green, and it spun all the way back in the water, and I made 7. I hit a perfect golf shot, literally, and I made 7, which is very annoying. Otherwise, I would be here this weekend.

That's how golf is. It can be the greatest game, and sometimes it can be very brutal. It's a very fine line of, you know, hitting a great shot or ending up in a terrible place.

Q. How do you think the Patrons will remember you here?

BERNHARD LANGER: That's a good question. I mean, the Patrons, I think, have gotten to know me more and more as I've started playing more and more in America. Because when I first got here, they had no clue who I was.

You know, it was more about the Americans in those days. Because I remember when only one European was invited here. You had to win the Money List to get into the tournament, and that all changed when we started the World Rankings, and then it opened up to more players around the world.

And anyways, how will they remember me? Hopefully, you know, as a good golfer. But hopefully also a man of faith and a man of family and somebody that treated people well and was a good role model.

Q. In a recent interview we had, you said that you miss 30 to 60 meters from many of the players here and so you cannot be competitive. But if I look at the leaderboard today, I see many long hitters that are well behind you. So what's your comment on that?

BERNHARD LANGER: Well, the comment is, I've always said, yeah, I love the game of golf, but I love to compete. I'm a competitor. I want to be in the heat. I want to be on the leaderboard. I want to have a chance to win.

On this golf course, I don't feel I can win anymore. I can maybe make the cut if I play really good, which I did play really good today, and just didn't get rewarded because of what I just told you.

But I'm hitting such long clubs into these greens, where I can't stop the ball where I need to stop it. It's a golf course designed to be hit with medium to short irons. The greens are so severe. I played really smart today where I missed it always in the right place where I had a chance to get it up-and-down, except on 15.

But I had to go for the shot. You can't say I'm going to fly it over the green and play for a 6. That's just not in my DNA when I have a sand wedge in my hand.

Q. What did you play on 18?

BERNHARD LANGER: That was a very good drive and then a 3-hybrid. The wind was right-to-left, so I aimed to the left, thinking the wind would push it, and it didn't. It went dead straight, and I missed the green, kicked left and didn't get up-and-down.

Q. Two for you. One, when you have a week like this, and I realize what you just said about the length of the golf course and the clubs you're hitting in, but is there a tiny bit of you that now wants to get back out there and compete next year? And secondly, how gratifying was the birdie at 12, and can you talk a little bit about what you'll remember about 12?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, there were times last couple days when I thought, you know, did you make the right decision here, or should you -- should you have waited another year or two with your last Masters? Because I was, you know, playing quite well and very smart.

But I think looking back, it is still the right decision, just for the reasons I shared a minute ago. It's just the golf course is too long for me.

The 12th hole, yeah, I had a bunch of birdies on that hole, but I also had one or two water balls and other things. So it's maybe the hardest short hole for that length in the world, especially when it's windy.

And today I was fortunate to hit a perfect 8-iron, and I judged the wind pretty well, and knocked it right behind the flag and made the putt.

Q. Congratulations on this truly amazing round today. I want to ask, I imagine it to be quite stressful playing in the Masters. Did you really enjoy it today? Did you get a chance to look around and take in all this beauty and the scenery?

BERNHARD LANGER: Absolutely, yes. I try to enjoy every day that I'm blessed with to live. But I made a special effort to enjoy my last, possibly last couple of rounds around here. I didn't know how it's going to turn out.

And you know, I always appreciated the beauty of this golf course and the challenges you have to face, pretty much on every shot, the support of the Patrons and so much more.

Q. The Champions Tour put out a video this week about you being the last Major Champion to win with a Persimmon driver, and it seemed to, in general, a lot of nostalgia on social media among golf fans, and particularly the Last Supper driver that you showed off. What does that mean to you, and why do you think that that resonated so much with people? Did you hear about it or it just seemed to be everywhere?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, I didn't see a whole lot of it. I haven't had time to follow the social media the last couple days. There was too much else going on.

But you know, I never mentioned to the public that this tournament actually was very instrumental in me becoming a Christian, in a sense, because I grew up Catholic, and I thought I was a Christian. But I basically used Jesus Christ in a very bad way in my first interview in Butler Cabin. Then I went to my first Bible study in Hilton Head three days later and learned that, you know, you should be born again spiritually, and I had no idea what that meant.

So then, I bought my own Bible and started going to the Bible studies, and shortly after that, a couple months later, I became a Christian and gave my life to Jesus. When I came back, my second win, eight years later, I was a Christian, and I won on Easter Sunday, which was very emotional and very meaningful for me because that's the one day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And that's what Christianity is all about. Because if that wouldn't have happened, there wouldn't -- there wouldn't be any Christianity.

So this tournament was, yeah, more meaningful to me than most people know, even in a spiritual sense.

And then you have Amen Corner here, as well. So pretty cool.

Q. I wondered, on 15, I know you struck it perfectly, but if you had to do it over, would you club down, perhaps and take spin off and hold the green that way?

BERNHARD LANGER: I would do the very same thing again. I thought I had the perfect club. I had 86 yards, and I took a club that goes 10 further than my sand wedge. I hit it crisply, and it landed where I wanted. Because you don't want to land it on the back fringe and go one up and you go over. Now you're pitching down toward the water.

I landed where I wanted to land it, and I just couldn't believe the ball had that much spin. Because I'm hitting off a downhill lie, and I kind of flighted it in there. I didn't, you know, hit it up in the air where the wind would back-shoot it and lands with a lot of spin and all that kind of stuff.

Will Zalatoris did the same thing just before me. He landed it a couple yards shorter and spun it back. So I was aware of what could happen, and thought I made sure I hit it hard enough and all that. And I felt like I did the right thing, but obviously I didn't.

Q. And 18, I know you were studying what club to hit for a little bit. Anything you'd do over on 18?

BERNHARD LANGER: Probably not. I took the right club for the second shot. I was thinking maybe a 2-hybrid, make sure I clear that front bunker, but then I saw where the wind was helping from the left, a 3 should do it. And I think it was the right club, it's just the ball didn't move left-to-right. It went dead straight and hit the bank and kicked left, which was even more unfortunate.

I thought about putting it where I was, but there was quite a bit of long grass the first four or five yards. So I thought, well, you have a better chance getting up-and-down with a chip-and-run. So I was thinking 8- or 9-iron. Took a 9-iron and just came up a few feet shorter than I hoped.

Q. What do you anticipate missing the most about being in competition here?

BERNHARD LANGER: Oh, it's just competing and walking down the fairways and being out there, facing the challenges that this course represents. I mean, this is the best manicured golf course we play year in after -- and out. I just love being here and facing the decisions you face.

Like I said, these greens are so severe, you've got to hit it within a foot or two or a yard or two, and if you miss that spot, you're going to be in trouble.

And yeah, so I'm -- as a competitor, I'm going to miss all that. On the other hand, I know I'll be hitting 3-woods and hybrids into greens that are meant to be hit with 8-irons.

So I can't do it with those clubs.

Q. (Question in German: What will you do this weekend?)

BERNHARD LANGER: We're doing a documentary about my life. So it's a documentary story that will be aired in Germany in a few months, and this is the final part of it. We've done everything else. We're going to edit for a year.

So I imagine we'll probably -- I'm going to have to sit down with them for another hour or two and talk about, you know, this tournament and my farewell, or my goodbye from being a competitor here, because the Masters is a big part of that documentary. And there will be a few other questions as well.

So that will be one thing, and then I have all my family here. So I'm going to spend time with my family and enjoy still the tournament. We might come out and have lunch and maybe see -- I'm sponsored by Rolex and by Mercedes, so I might visit them at their hospitality suite and say hello to a few people and things like that.

But we're not going to be bored. It's going to be a good weekend either way.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for 41 years of wonderful memories. We are very proud to have you as our champion, and we wish you all the best for the future.

BERNHARD LANGER: Thank you. Appreciate it. (Applause)