AUGUSTA, Ga. — A few years ago, Bernhard Langer began to wonder when the end would come for him at the Masters.
The course had grown longer. His game had gotten shorter. And while youngsters were beginning to overpower Augusta National with their prodigious drives, the two-time champion was left trying to match them by hitting hybrids into greens.
“I asked the chairman of the club, ‘Is there a time limit?’” Langer recalled asking Fred Ridley on Monday (Tuesday, April 8, 2025, PH time), shortly after a rainstorm had swept through Georgia and washed out practice. “Do we age out when we’re 60? Or what is it?”
“You will know when it’s time to quit,” Ridley replied. “It’s totally up to you.”
Langer decided it will be this year.
The 67-year-old from Germany is following in the footsteps of his dear friends Larry Mize, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam in calling it a career at the Masters. Langer will stride to the first tee for the 41st time on Thursday, try one last time to make the cut and play the weekend, all while knowing full well that the emotions will flow at some point — probably the 18th green on Friday, should he play poorly, or Sunday, should he add one more memorable week to a career already full of them.
“It’s very emotional,” he said. “You can tell already my voice is breaking a bit, just realizing it’s going to be my last competitive Masters. After four decades, it’s going to be bittersweet. I think I knew it was time to call it quits as a player.”
In truth, Langer wanted to call it quits last year. But when the 1985 and ’93 champion tore his Achilles tendon while playing pickleball just over a year ago, Langer was forced to delay that swan song to this week.
If there were any second thoughts about it, they evaporated on the first hole of a practice round Sunday. Langer hit a drive that couldn’t reach the crest of the fairway, where most of the field will be this week, leaving a blind approach. And in place of a mid-iron into the green, Langer had to hit a hybrid, one that he thought “looked pretty good.”
“It hit the middle of the green and took off,” Langer said, “and I was over the green. That’s no place to chip from. You don’t ever want to go over that green. That’s what happens when you have those kinds of clubs into the greens. It’s time to quit.” / AP