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THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY ROLEXJuly 25, 2014Bernhard LangerBRIDGEND, WALES THE MODERATOR: Bernhard, thanks for joining us today. 4‑under 65. It's Senior Open championship just take us through the day and give us your thoughts on another great round. BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, played very smart, aggressive, smart and, you know, fortunate to some extent, but played very well the last two days. Had a poor start today when I pulled my 4‑iron on the first hole and ended up in a bad lie in the rough, and hit it over the green and didn't get it up‑and‑down, so that was not the kind of start I wanted, but from that point on, I settled down, played some really good golf. Missed a couple of opportunities earlier on, but then started to play a little better as well and brought it home to the clubhouse with 6‑under from that point on after bogey the first hole, which I'm very pleased with overall. THE MODERATOR: We've seen some fine examples. How much are you enjoying the challenge of being at the top. THE WITNESS: Well, it's always enjoyable to be at the top. More fun being five in front than five behind or whatever number it is. Playing good golf is a lot of fun on a great golf course, you know, one that is really challenging. You really have to think. Every shot can grab you, and you know, one poor shot can cost you two or three, so you gotta be very careful, very smart and then hopefully execute properly and hit the right shots and then you've still gotta make a few putts. THE MODERATOR: We'll go straight to some questions. Q. Can you give us a couple of examples, you said you've been a bit fortunate. What you mean by a bit fortunate. Just lucky bounces? BERNHARD LANGER: Well, the odd one. There weren't too many. But one might be on 6, you know. I pulled my 5‑iron a little bit and out of bounds. The ball comes pretty close. Even though it was never out of bounds. It was always in bounds and everything kicked this way. But I caught a decent lie next to the green and was able to get it up‑and‑down. But at the same time I caught some bad bounces, too, so overall it hopefully equals out, where I might have hit, like No. 10 I hit a beautiful 4‑iron down the right side of the fairway and ended up in the left rough just because it veered off and never stops running. So I said that, and then I can't remember any other very fortunate bounces, but I'm sure there were some that I didn't even see, you know. You hit it over these hills and you don't know what happens down there. Q. You shoot 65 and 66 on a golf course that's playing as hard as it is. BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, I don't know. My memory is not that good. I can't remember if I've had any similar rounds in the past, but it's definitely very, very good golf. To make two bogeys, but more importantly, 16 birdies along with it is not easily done in these conditions. Q. Is this course even more and more (inaudible) because of the conditions as well than any other courses you've played over here? BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, I would agree with that just because it's so bouncy and so firm. Yeah, there's some holes where you probably almost know you're going to hold the fairway. Or you have options. You know, you can hit a 4‑iron off the tee and then you hit a 3‑iron into the green. Or you hit driver and hit a wedge out of the rough. So not a lot of holes, but there's a few of them. And you just gotta be always thinking ahead, you know, where best to land the ball to hopefully‑‑ even hitting into the green, where to land the ball so hopefully it sticks on the green or get pin high or something like that. And sometimes you want to land it short and use the undulations. It's really the small details come into effect in conditions like this. Q. You did say five or six. But you obviously six or seven strokes or something like that? BERNHARD LANGER: We don't know. There's a lot of other guys out there. Q. But will you approach it differently tomorrow or will you just go with the same strategy you had in the first two days? BERNHARD LANGER: No. I think my goal is to have the same attitude, the same game plan. Obviously that changes with the wind because if we have a wind switch, then every hole of the golf course plays totally different. So there will be some holes where I might not hit driver or whatever. So it just depends on the conditions more so than whether I have a one‑shot lead or a six‑shot lead. Q. Did you use the driver much today or were you playing irons on the tees? BERNHARD LANGER: No. I hit the driver on a number of occasions because I feel I'm driving well and I'm confident with that club, and hit a lot of good tee shots. Q. How long did it take you to get over what happened 12 months ago, and how much of an inspiration is that each week to make amends for what happened there? BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah. I don't need more inspiration. I always want to win and do well. But yeah, that one hurt. It still hurts when I think about it. I try not to think about it. (Laughs). It was, I think a little uncharacteristic, and certainly one that there was no excuse. If you put me in that situation a hundred times, I think I would win 98 or 99 times. But that one time I didn't. So it hurt, and it hurt for a while, and it's one of those things I'll never forget, but that's part of life, you know. If you want to win some, you gotta lose some in the process because you're putting yourself in that situation. Q. What clubs did you use on your birdies? BERNHARD LANGER: If I can remember all the holes. Q. 4, 5 and 6. BERNHARD LANGER: 4 was driver off the tee and I think it was a sand wedge to about six feet. 5 was the bouncer. Yeah. I hit 3‑iron there to about seven feet or something like that. Eight feet. Then the par‑5, 6, was a really good drive, 5‑iron, just left of the green on that hill side and chipped it down to about three feet, four feet. 11 was 2 hybrid, and I can't remember what club I hit in there. Sorry. I can't remember. 12, the par‑3, I think it was a par‑3; right? Hit a 5‑iron in there to about eight feet or so. Then had a really good save on‑‑ I think it was 13 or 14, the hole going down the hill. 14 maybe. 14, I think. I hit a good tee shot, but I hit my second shot fat and left and was stuck behind the bunker and played a really good lob shot to about 12, 15 feet past the hole and holed that putt, so that was big to keep the confidence going. And then 18 was driver, 5‑iron to about 10 feet and missed the putt. Just misread it a little bit. Q. Coming in here I think you were just one behind in the Charles Schwab Cup points. Is this putting the new boy in his place? BERNHARD LANGER: No. I was leading the Schwab Cup all year, literally from the very first tournament, and then Colin won two weeks ago, and that was huge prize money. I think first place was $630,000, which he doubled that in the Schwab Cup, so that was a lot of points. You know, he made 1260 points. You gotta win about five tournaments to do that, and he got that in one tournament. So yeah, it's my goal to win the Schwab Cup this year. I'm quite open about it. Fred Couples wants to win it, too, he says, and then there's about 200 other guys who would like to do the same. And so far Monty and I are‑‑ he's leading at this point but we're only about halfway through the season, so we'll see what happens. There's a lot of points at the very end. The very last tournament I think is like 900 points. So it'll probably come down to that, unless somebody plays extremely well. Q. (Inaudible). BERNHARD LANGER: Finish is November 3rd. Q. Just wondered what your thoughts are on the passing of Bob Torrance. He was very familiar with that great generation of European players which you are one. How well did you get to know him? What were your memories of him? How do you explain his loss? BERNHARD LANGER: That's a lot of questions. Obviously I've known Bob for a number of years. And he was teaching a number of players on the TOUR. We always shook hands. He always said hello and good bye, and stopped a few minutes to chat. To me he was always a great gentleman and a wonderful figure in golf to look up to. I think he was very giving. He helped a lot of people. Helped a lot of the young guys and a lot of the pros out on TOUR. So it's certainly a difficult loss for not just for the Torrance family but for a lot of friends he's made over the years, and he's had lots of friends. He was an outgoing personality and easy to be with person. I don't know anybody that doesn't love Bob Torrance, or didn't love Bob Torrance. Q. Thank you. BERNHARD LANGER: You're welcome. Q. Touched upon this once. Can you just tell us what that's doing and how long you've had that. BERNHARD LANGER: Well, it's a little bit of tennis elbow, whatever you call it, tendonitis, where the muscle attaches, the muscle goes into the tendon and the tendon attaches on the joints, and that's a very difficult place where a lot of people hurt. If you go up and down the driving range or look around the field, there's probably 30 of us having some kind of issue with that muscle. So I'm not the only one. Some wear that band that Jimenez wore it, and I think David Frost has it and a whole bunch of guys. My doctor who takes care of me just thinks that it's as good as anything else, and he recommended for me to wear that for a couple of weeks to get some relief, and then hopefully it disappears. It's a weird thing. Sometimes I've had it for six months, nine months and then it's gone the next day. I don't know why. Q. (Inaudible)? BERNHARD LANGER: It just supports it a little bit, like, you know, it's tight on there where the muscle attaches, and so certainly movements it just helps the muscle a little bit, but I don't know. I've played the last few weeks without it, and had the same issue. Q. (Inaudible)? BERNHARD LANGER: Well, I wouldn't blame it on that. I played some pretty good golf a few weeks ago when I didn't have that and I still had the pain. If it helps, great. Q. Will you wear it for the weekend? BERNHARD LANGER: Most likely, yeah. Q. (Inaudible). BERNHARD LANGER: Oh, yeah, yeah. Actually this hard ground, I mean every time you take a divot, it's shooting vibrations up the shaft and this is not the kind of turf you want to play when you have this thing. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thanks for joining us today. BERNHARD LANGER: You're welcome. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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