U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 25, 2025

Bernhard Langer

The Broadmoor (East Course)

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Bernhard Langer, two-time Masters winner, two-time Senior Open champion, and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. You've already played two U.S. Senior Opens here at the Broadmoor. What can you tell us about the course and what challenges it presents to the players this week?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, I think the Broadmoor may have the toughest greens anywhere pretty much, tougher than Augusta, tougher than just about anywhere we play. There's so much breaks and undulation on these greens. You hit a putt two inches shorter than you should and it ends up six feet away, and you hit it two inches further than you should and it ends up six feet on the other side.

Huge breaks, so that's one challenge. The other one is obviously dealing with the altitude, the wind, calculating all that. We're not used to adding 10 percent or -- is it 10? Is it 15? Is it 7? Nobody really knows. If you hit the ball really high, it goes further. If you hit it low, it goes a little shorter, all of that.

The rough is up this week. They've had, I think, the last 40 days it rained, 35 days if I'm not mistaken. That's what a local told me. It's playing very long. The ball is plugging off the tee shot pretty much.

I played a practice round just an hour ago, and like 17 was a driver, 3-wood for me just to get to the front edge, and that was before we had more rain. So it's playing very long and very challenging.

For me personally, I don't hit the ball as high and as far as the young guys do, so I have a flatter ball flight, which makes it then hard to stop the ball on the green. When the greens get a little firmer, the ball comes in and just releases to the back, which is not where you want to be.

Q. For you, how would you describe the state of your game given where you were coming into the week?

BERNHARD LANGER: It's been a bit up and down. I've had some good finishes this year and some not so good ones, and lately I've been struggling a little bit with my game, whether it's the long game or sometimes the putting. It's not where I want it to be, especially when you face a test like this.

But in golf, you never know. You find something very small, and all of a sudden we remember how good we can play. The body remembers when something clicks and feels good, and I've just got to find that something.

Q. Are conditions similar to your last two times here or is there anything that stands out different?

BERNHARD LANGER: Very different. Last time it was quite firm, if I remember correctly. The fairways were running. The ball was scooting down the fairways, and it played quite a bit shorter. I don't think I've ever seen this course as lush and green and soft as it is right now.

Q. You mentioned the challenges of the course. Where does this rank for you in terms of difficulty of the course?

BERNHARD LANGER: It's always maybe one of the hardest tests. USGA prides themselves on making the courses very difficult, and even par is a fantastic score. It's always a challenge no matter where you are with your game and no matter where we play this championship. It demands everything. You've got to drive it well, hit good iron shots and have a great short game.

Q. Having won on this course before --

BERNHARD LANGER: I have not, sorry.

Q. Where is your confidence level going into tomorrow?

BERNHARD LANGER: Well, as I said, my game has not been that great the last couple of weeks, so my confidence is not where I'd like it to be. That's why I'm still trying to go out for another hour or two and practice and find something that may help me tomorrow to do better.

Q. I know you don't know for sure what the rain situation is going to be in the coming days, but do you think even par or slightly --

BERNHARD LANGER: I'm not even going to go there. I have no idea what the winning score will be. A lot of that depends on the wind. If it's high winds, the scores go up. The long hitters will love these conditions because they can stop the ball and still reach all the holes comfortably.

It probably hurts more the shorter or medium hitters because we hit so much club into these greens, which comes in flatter, the ball flight, and it's just harder to control a 4-iron than it is to control an 8-iron. There's no doubt about it.

Q. What makes the greens comparable to Augusta National?

BERNHARD LANGER: Well, I think they're -- Augusta has severe greens, but there's always flat areas. Here there's hardly any flat areas. The ball is constantly moving either sideways or back to front or front to back. There's so much movement. A lot of false fronts, a lot of false sides, where you think you're on the green and you start walking and all of a sudden you see the ball rolling off the green and you're facing even a bunker shot or a chip shot, things like that. And the rough around the green is pretty thick, as well, where it's hard to control the spin and how the ball reacts out of there.

Q. At 67, I assume you still think you can win this event?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, I would like to think I can win any event I play. There's certainly some venues I feel more comfortable with my lack of distance, let's put it that way, and these are more challenging because we play a long golf course here. So I have to be spot on with all my -- with the whole game.

If we play a little tighter, shorter golf course, that may suit me better. But it is what it is, and I've beaten the odds before. Century was a long golf course, and I won there a few years ago, so you never know.

Q. Your memories of 2008 and that legendary bear encounter?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, that was a scary moment really. Until then I had never experienced a bear this close to me. I was walking down the middle of the fairway with Tom Watson and we hear this commotion, so we look over there, and about 100 yards away this bear was coming straight at us, and I'm thinking, what am I doing now?

I said, well, if I run away from him, he's faster than me. I don't want him to jump on my back and maul me apart. So I just stood still and tried to be non-threatening, and Tom tried to do the same thing, and he still kept coming at us, and he literally ran 10 feet from us into the trees on the other side of the fairway and went up the tree.

But I had no idea, and I didn't know the difference between a grizzly and a black bear, either. Now I do. I have a home in North Carolina, and we have black bears in our neighborhood. They're not that dangerous, so I'm not too scared anymore.

Q. If you see a bear coming towards you now, you're not scared? You're fine now?

BERNHARD LANGER: I'm fine now unless they have little ones, then I would be worried.

Q. Are you faster than your caddie?

BERNHARD LANGER: As I said, I would never outrun a bear, so I'm not even trying.