THE SENIOR OPEN PRESENTED BY ROLEX

July 21, 2021

Bernhard Langer

Sunningdale Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Your thoughts on being at the Senior Open?

BERNHARD LANGER: It's fantastic to be back. We were very fortunate on the PGA TOUR Champions in America. We got back pretty quickly and been playing full-time ever since.

But it's wonderful to be here again. And it feels weird to be defending a title when it was two years ago, but that just shows what a crazy year and a half we've been through.

Q. You've had many accolades in your career but to be a four-time Senior Open winner, the only player to have that to his name, how does that rank among your achievements?

BERNHARD LANGER: It's one of the best accolades you can have, and I'm very happy and proud that have achievement, and on some wonderful golf courses, as well.

So really thrilled, especially I've never won The Open Championship, which was always my dream as a European player. Everybody wants to win the only major we have, The Open, and so I came close. Never done that. But was able to win this championship four times and hopefully there's one or two more left in me.

Q. What are your memories of 2019?

BERNHARD LANGER: Well, they were great memories. I remember I always loved the golf course, Lytham and St Annes, it's a true test and the weather was decent at first and then it got really foul on Sunday. We just had rain forecast all day and strong winds.

And so we were all hunkering down under the umbrella, and just playing more so the elements on the golf course than anything else and got off to a good start and played very solid to really all day and hit two beautiful shots on 18, a wonderful, I think was it a 2-hybrid off the tee and a perfect 2 hybrid into the green to make sure I don't make bogey or double-bogey and let anybody else in. I had my wife there and a bunch of friends, and it's always more fun when you can celebrate with some of your loved ones.

Q. You mentioned we play some fantastic courses. This week, Sunningdale, is by no means not a tough test but it's a little different to the links we would normally be playing. A justifiable venue?

BERNHARD LANGER: Absolutely, it's one of the greatest courses you have in this country I think, and it's withstood the test of time. I was paired with Gary Player today in the Pro-Am, and he's telling me stories about this place from 60 years ago, and I've been coming here 40 years ago, and the place really hasn't changed dramatically.

But even that tree we're kind of standing under, he remembered 65 years ago he saw that tree for the first time, and it's still doing well, and so is the golf course. The clubhouse hasn't changed dramatically. The golf course hasn't changed at all and it's been good all through these years, and it's still good.

So I played today and yesterday, and I'm hitting a lot of 4-, 5-, 6-irons into these par 4s. It's by no means a chip-and-putt golf course.

Q. Great roster of players out here, it's never easy to win, but with players making their debut like Thomas Björn, Jim Furyk, Robert Karlsson is now 50; how much fun is it to be competing against, call them rookies, but seeing some old friends again?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, that's the great change about the Champions Tour or the Senior Tour is that we've all known each for well 30, sometimes 40, 50 years and competed against each other throughout all that time, become friends not just with each other but with the whole families, and some of us are grandpas now.

So there's wonderful stories, and we've been involved in this fantastic game of golf. To have rookies sounds strange, but there are rookies on this tour and they are very, very good. Most of these rookies now, and I'm 64 soon, they hit it a ton further than I do. So it's a challenge for me it try and keep up with them and try and be more precise and makeup for the lack of distance that I have compared to them, which is a real challenge. But I like challenges and it's great to be out with them and compare my game to theirs.