CONSTELLATION FURYK & FRIENDS PRESENTED BY CIRCLE K

October 7, 2026

Bernhard Langer

Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Joining us, Bernhard Langer. Bernhard, thank you. This is a few weeks off that you've taken, but you're coming back to a course that's a little bit familiar with you. So what do you think coming back here?

BERNHARD LANGER: It's very familiar. It's been 18 years, and we've played here one time and didn't get a chance to defend my title at the time, but what I do remember was very positive obviously. It's a beautiful golf course and I played well. The conditions were great, so we'll see if it has changed.

I heard they put the paspalum grass on it, which will play a little bit different from the Bermuda that we had before.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. There's no chance you still have your book from that tournament, do you?

BERNHARD LANGER: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Q. You keep all of them?

BERNHARD LANGER: I just looked at it actually, compared it with the new book. Can't use the old one because -- well, it's not legal anymore, but I just looked at some of the numbers and the green details and things like that.

Yeah, I usually keep them just in case I can use them again or I might, you know, glean some information from it.

Q. Could have never imagined waiting 18 years to pick one up again, I don't think.

BERNHARD LANGER: Well, you never know. You know, that's how it goes. Some of the courses, venues where we play, we come back to them.

Q. That's true.

BERNHARD LANGER: Even some that are played on the PGA Tour 40 years ago like Warwick Hills and others we're getting back to now, or next year, Honolulu, Hualalai.

Q. As soon as I asked that, I realize, yeah, you all do go back many years later. I was reminded, somebody reminded me, I was here in '08. Somebody reminded me, and I had forgotten about it, there was a shot you hit on Sunday, a wild short game shot from the tall grass, and you were choked down to the metal. Do you recall anything about that?

BERNHARD LANGER: I don't, sorry.

Q. You put it to within a few feet of the hole.

BERNHARD LANGER: I don't. I'm sorry.

Q. It was particularly rough shot because the ball was almost waist-high, and you had to choke way down.

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah. It could well be. There was a lot of wind that week, and you know, the ball gets easily blown sideways if you don't hit a proper shot. So we all ended up in a few awkward places, I'm sure.

Q. What's your best advice to these youngsters like Ryan Palmer that are going to be starting this new adventure with three-day tournaments and getting off to a fast start and things like that?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, you got to push the pedal to the metal right away. I remember when I first came out here I would hit a 3-wood off some tees just to avoid the bunkers or something. Everybody was hitting drivers. I'm going, why, what's going on here? But that seems to be the strategy out here. They just go for everything.

They know there's only three days, and if you screw up one day big-time it's hard to recover, so you need three good scores. There's always going to be five or ten in the field of 80 or 78 that have their A-game out that week, and they're going to go very low.

Q. With everything that you've accomplished, how much joy do you still feel being at the pinnacle of the sport, someone that they see his name on the leaderboard, and they know how well he's done on the Champions Tour?

BERNHARD LANGER: Well, it's still fun to compete. I still feel like I'm competitive, even though I'm getting a little shorter and a little older now to bang it out there with the 50-year-olds.

But on some of the courses I still feel like I could win actually. Some of the other courses it's a little harder because the lack of distance, but it's great to be out here and to have the camaraderie that we enjoy amongst each other. We've known each other for that many years, and just be getting into the competitive mode and get the juices flowing when Friday kicks in.

Q. You may've addressed this, but this course, how does it suit your game, this ocean course?

BERNHARD LANGER: Well, when I played here last 18 years ago I won, so I must have played well and I must have liked it, but I really don't know how it suits me now being a little shorter. I haven't been out yet. I haven't seen the course yet. I was supposed to play yesterday, but the forecast was so bad, I decided to stay in Boca and practice there instead of driving up here, maybe getting washed out.

So hopefully I get to hit a few balls this afternoon and then maybe get 18 holes in tomorrow in the pro-am.

Q. The wind can change everything here.

BERNHARD LANGER: Oh, I'm sure. That's what -- yeah, it's not necessarily a links course, but that's what happens when you're this close to the ocean. There's no protection from tall trees or a large housing community or any of that kind of stuff, so you're really exposed to the wind. And Florida is fairly windy place anyways.

Q. Bernhard, I promise not to use the word choke in the next sentence, but place your hands down the handle -- I'm just kidding. But, you know, you've done it all, okay? You may have answered this question earlier. What's your goals? What are you going to be -- what are you looking forward to? You've been out here a long time. You've won everything. You've done everything twice or three times. What's your goal going forward?

BERNHARD LANGER: I still have goals to win tournaments and to finish as good as I can week after week. I still enjoy competing. I think I have a little left in me and still enjoy seeing the guys, you know, and the caddies and the people that I've been pretty much playing golf with for many, many years.

We play great venues. We have wonderful sponsors. I might play, you know, three or five tournaments less now than I have in my prime, but I'm still playing enough to be competitive, and I enjoy it.

Q. Was 50 wins ever a goal?

BERNHARD LANGER: 50 --

Q. Was 50 wins on this Tour ever a goal?

Bernhard LANGER: Oh, yeah.

Q. And does it remain one?

BERNHARD LANGER: Once I got to, yeah, where I am, 47, that was a lofty goal, but you got to set goals, right? Yeah, it was one of them. You're right.

Q. Any more pickleball in your life?

BERNHARD LANGER: Not lately no. Not since the Achilles surgery two and a half years ago.

Q. Were you going backwards? Were you going for a ball, short ball, or what were you doing?

BERNHARD LANGER: Somebody lobbed me so I --

Q. Turned to go back?

BERNHARD LANGER: I went backwards. But that's not where it happened. I jumped up to hit the volley, right, and when I landed, that's when it happened. It's usually the landing, right? Or I don't know. I've only experienced one other Achilles turn, and it was a friend shooting hoops. He did the same thing, you know, jumping up and when he landed it --

Q. I've never heard anything good about it, so I hope to --

BERNHARD LANGER: No, there's not much good about it. It's very noisy, though, when it happens. Scares you.

Q. From the endomorph nation, how do you stay in such great shape?

BERNHARD LANGER: I enjoy working out. I feel better when I do, so I --

Q. What's a typical workout for you?

BERNHARD LANGER: There's nothing typical, but if you want to hear something typical, it's probably half hour to an hour of cardio and then about a half hour with weights, ropes, bands, body weight, you know, and a little bit of stretching.

In a nutshell, that's probably what it is.

Q. You are what you eat. What do you eat?

BERNHARD LANGER: I eat not too bad, but I have a sweet tooth, and that's not a good thing. I eat way too much sugar in my life, but that's a tough habit to drop for me at this point in time.

Q. You mentioned length a few times. Is it strictly swing speed-related with age, or is there some other factor that gets mixed in?

BERNHARD LANGER: No, that's pretty much it. The swing gets a little shorter. You lose strength. You lose flexibility. So I'm not as strong as I was 20, 30 years ago. None of us are, I think.

Yeah, I mean, I've been very good at slowing down the process of aging or losing strength and distance and all that. The number is probably about 10 yards, so one club with the iron and about 10, 15 with the driver.

Q. Can you put a number on the swing speeds? Have you measured them often enough throughout your life to know what they were and what they are?

BERNHARD LANGER: When I started probably 15, 20 years ago.

Q. So you don't know what it was at 35?

BERNHARD LANGER: No, we didn't have those things available.

Q. Around '90 or so is when they started. Later than that, wasn't it?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, much later. I can't remember seeing any of the launch monitors until maybe the last 20 years, 25 years.