KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 23, 2023

Bernhard Langer

Press Conference

PGA Frisco

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to the 83rd KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. We're joined now by 2017 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship Bernhard Langer. Welcome to Frisco. What are your thoughts on the East Course so far?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, I think I like it. It's got a lot of possibility. It's a little bit different in the sense of the tee boxes to start off with, whether they're not really separated. They're just built into the landscape or whatever you call it part of the fairway.

Then you have some huge greens, some small greens. You have some big fairways, some small fairways. It's a bit of everything.

It can be very, very challenging, especially when the wind blows.

Q. I think you won I believe earlier this year at the Chubb Classic. How do you feel coming into this championship?

BERNHARD LANGER: It felt good. I had a week off, feel rested, and eager to go. The game is pretty close. Didn't putt very well the last couple of months, but working on that part, and hopefully we'll get it better this week.

Q. You're a man who loves preparation and preparing for tournaments. What's the challenge of learning a place like this in such a short window?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, it's not easy because it's trying to take it all in in a couple of looks basically, a couple of -- probably most players play it two times, whether that's Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or whatever. So you have probably on average two good looks, and there's a lot to be looked at, let's put it that way.

The wind will make it play very different if the wind switches. If you have the same kind of wind every day, you get used to those conditions, but if that should turn around then you're playing a whole different golf course altogether.

That's the challenge. It's just getting used to the grasses. The greens are still very firm because the course is brand new. All of that, the run-outs, how much the ball releases, and the little subtleties you don't really see at first, and then all of a sudden there's a pin there and you hit a good shot and the ball doesn't stop or does stop.

Those are the surprises that come up during the tournament, and you don't want too many surprises.

Q. You played so nicely at the Chubb. As you look at your game since then, what can really spark you and get you going?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, as I said a minute ago, I think my long game has been pretty good. I had one or two other chances since to get a W. But the putter has held me back lately, and I'm just trying to improve in that area.

Q. I'm just wondering if there's any features to this course that remind you of other places.

BERNHARD LANGER: No, I think every course is unique to itself, and whatever you learned from somewhere else is not going to help you a great deal here.

I think there's one hole out there, I don't remember the holes yet, but it reminded me of the third hole at Augusta. The green is almost a copy of it, almost. As soon as I saw it, I'm going, wow, that looks just like the third green at Augusta. Things like that. But that's not going to help me in whatever I've learned there in the past.

Q. You start this stretch of the season where the majors come at you pretty fast. What's the role of momentum in this stretch?

BERNHARD LANGER: Well, you want to play well all year-round, but we often have ups and downs and some weeks where we're in top form and other weeks where we struggle a little bit. So yeah, this would be a great stretch to get some momentum going and have some confidence because I think all our five majors are, from here on to within two months kind of thing. It would be a good two months to play well.

Q. As you've traveled around, now that you have a share of the all-time record, what's been the reaction where you go, to hold this record at 65 and inspire people, what's it like as you go city to city?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, it's a lot of that, just people telling me they're inspired by my play and by me still hanging in there at age 65 and keep going and patting me on the shoulder, that kind of thing. A lot of tournaments say, well, why don't you try and make this No. 46. We'd love to be known as the tournament that broke the record.

All that is very encouraging and very positive, and I'm excited to play.

Q. Will No. 46 be a different celebration than 45?

BERNHARD LANGER: Probably not. 45 was pretty special because I never thought I would get there really until maybe the last three years. I had a feeling I could, and I had chances to get there before I even did in the end.

When you reach the age of whatever it is, 62, 63, 64, 65, and my age, in my case, you never know if you're going to win again. Every win is very special, and certainly when you tie a record like that, it's extremely special.