KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 29, 2022

Bernhard Langer

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores at Benton Harbor, Michigan. We are joined by Bernhard Langer who carded a final round 71, finished the championship so low third, six shots back. Front nine different much different than the back nine. Do want to ask you about 10, looked like you got a little buzzard's luck with a couple divots as you approached the green.

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah that was really bad luck. I hit a nice tee shot and I had a perfect distance with 3-wood to go for it but the ball, a half or third of it was on ground in a divot. Had to lay up and the lay up landed in another divot. So that was a really difficult shot because of the elevated green, the small pocket on right. So I tried to dig it out of there and went long in the rough. But managed to make par.

But really stopped the momentum. I was going very well, and you know, that was one of the easier holes today. Who knows what would have happened if I made birdie there. The next hole wasn't a difficult one either but I only managed par and then all things broke loose. Just three or four bad shots in a row and a couple of bad decisions, wrong clubs.

JOHN DEVER: Do you feel like this was a missed opportunity for you?

BERNHARD LANGER: It was absolutely a missed opportunity. I was 14-under leading by one I think with eight holes to go, and just didn't close it. I went backwards instead of continue to make birdies. I mean, the holes aren't that easy. Once you get past 11, it becomes a little tougher golf course today in this breeze, anyways, but there's no reason for me to make three bogeys and a double-bogey the last, whatever, seven holes.

Q. How would you describe the challenge of a golfer when you have great momentum going like that and it just kind of comes to a halt?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, it's like night and day, like somebody switched the light switch on and off or something like that. It's weird to explain. Yeah, I wonder if it has to do with age, whether I get tired or just not focused anymore. Don't have the stamina, I don't know what it is.

But I don't think that's what it is. I think I can easily spend six hours out there and have enough stamina and knowledge to do whatever I need to do. I just haven't felt comfortable with my swing all week. Yesterday it felt better but it showed up again.

To drive it into the water on 18 is mind-boggling. It's just terrible. There's no other word. I'm aiming at the left bunker and I'm hitting it in the right water and that just explains how -- whatever, I don't even know the words. I'm just not comfortable with my swing at the moment. When I'm swinging well, that would never happen. You could give me a thousand balls, I wouldn't hit it in the water.

Q. What does that say, you weren't comfortable with your swing and you were still in contention?

BERNHARD LANGER: That I need to improve my swing. Need to work on it. I've been trying but at times I've felt like, yeah, this is better but then it's still -- that right shot showed up too many times. Showed its ugly face too often this week and I'm going to have to find a solution to do better in the future. But that's the encouraging thing is that I finished third with my B or C Game at times. I had my A Game at times but there were a few other shots that I would rather forget quickly.

Q. Three bogeys in a row was that the swing or poor decisions?

BERNHARD LANGER: One was a bad shot and the next one was a pull hook and the wrong club. I hit a decent drive on 14 but it kicked left informant rough and from there I knew I can't go long left and I went long left. I hit 6-iron, got a flyer. I should have hit 7-iron and land it short of green and just run it to the middle of green and take the penalty and make par. I was trying to make birdie, pushing it too hard.

Q. You mentioned age. Do you find over time since you've turned maybe 60 that there are things that age has made a little difficult for you to do out here?

BERNHARD LANGER: Oh, absolutely. Every day, I get up, I feel my age, which you know, I used to not. So it's definitely not easier, let's not fool anybody. But it's still encouraging to me that I'm 64 and a half or whatever and can still compete with the young guys, guys that hit it way past me and guys that are 12, 14 years younger than me.

So there's no reason to throw in the towel. It's just a matter of working out the kinks that I'm experiencing and get my A Game back.

Q. Is it harder as you get older to work those kinks out?

BERNHARD LANGER: You can't practice as much as you did, or as I did in my 20s or 30s and I can't work out as much as I did then either because the body just doesn't allow me. In that regard, yes.

It's not that I can't hit a few balls every day to figure out -- I don't need to hit a thousand balls. It's there. It's just a matter of doing the right thing, you know what I'm saying. I don't need to hit a thousand balls to figure out my swing. I've had the right swing. It's just a matter of getting the right pieces and when the feeling is there, I know what it is.