Sometimes, when you really want to find out what makes an athlete tick, you have to ask his peers or competitors.
Take Bernhard Langer, for instance.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a great player. He鈥檚 won two Masters and he had a great career prior to the Champions Tour,鈥� offered Paul Goydos, the defending champion of the Pacific Links Championship, which this week is at Bear Mountain Golf Resort where Langer is clearly the favourite.
鈥淎s we get older we tend to forget. We鈥檙e already forgetting how good Tiger [Woods] was. People don鈥檛 remember how good he [Langer] was for the 30-odd years before this,鈥� added Goydos. 鈥淗e鈥檚 mentally stronger than I am, I know that.
鈥淗e doesn鈥檛 seem to let things bother him. He doesn鈥檛 play perfect golf by any stretch of the imagination, but bad shots don鈥檛 bother him. Good shots don鈥檛 get him overly excited either.鈥�
With Langer, what you see is what you get. He鈥檚 a stoic 59-year-old, who doesn鈥檛 show a lot of emotion on or around the course. He simply exhibits a tremendous peace of mind, is in outstanding shape and has great patience.
鈥淗e just seems to have the right amount of patience. He鈥檚 focused on the task at hand. All good players are able to do that and he seems to be able to do that 24/7, which is a very rare skill,鈥� said Goydos. 鈥淗e鈥檚 been doing it for 40 years and he never seems to get off kilter or have a bad day or be in a bad mood.
鈥淓verything is about the task at hand and that鈥檚 focus. He seems more focused than everyone else, in a superhuman kind of way.鈥�
That, in a nutshell, describes the leader of the Charles Schwab Cup, which ranks players on the PGA Tour Champions money list.
Langer, of Anhausen, Germany, has won that title three times, including the last two years. This should be his third as he stands No. 1 by a country mile. His $2,432,659 US in earnings over 17 events is ahead of second-place Joe Durant at $1,337,662 in 19 tournaments played. Miguel Angel Jimenez is third with an impressive $1,304,362 in just eight events.
鈥淕olf is a lot about confidence,鈥� Langer said Thursday before heading out for the pro-am on the Mountain Course, which has received rave reviews so far this week. 鈥淢y game has been, for the most part, very good this year and the last three weeks have been pretty special with a win and two seconds.
鈥淢y confidence is high. I feel really comfortable about my ball-striking and putting and looking forward to this competition and hoping to put another W behind my name.鈥�
Asked just what makes him tick, Langer wasn鈥檛 shy in his assessment.
鈥淭here鈥檚 not one or two secrets, it鈥檚 a puzzle and a lot of pieces have to fit together to be good or extraordinary or just be a little better than most,鈥� he began. 鈥淚 still have the drive to compete. I still enjoy practising. I love the game of golf and to compete.鈥�
Urged on a bit more, he then added: 鈥淚 can鈥檛 pinpoint it, I just know that some people embrace pressure and excel in it and others crumble, and I鈥檝e had a bit of both in my career.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檝e had tournaments where I鈥檝e excelled in it and I鈥檝e had one or two where I felt the pressure was overwhelming. So you have to learn to live with it and deal with it. Most of the time I think I鈥檓 excelling in it. Look at Tiger Woods. In his prime the more pressure there was, the better he got. I sometimes have those moments, not always, but I have a few.鈥�
Which is unfortunate for the rest of the field that tries to bring him down a peg on a weekly basis. Paul Broadhurst, who is also here, did it last week, edging Langer and Kevin Sutherland by a shot at Pebble Beach.
But Langer has four wins this season, two seconds and 14 top 10s. Overall, he鈥檚 won 29 times on PGA Tour Champions; claimed three PGA Tour victories, including the 1993 and 1985 Masters. He has won two other international events and added 59 other wins over his career. He has won $20,337,691 over his senior career, just about double what he earned on the PGA Tour at $10,513,044.
CHIP SHOTS: Langer tees off in Round 1 today at 12:55 p.m. with Jimenez and Vijay Singh, the second-last threesome of the day. The first group goes out at 8:20 a.m.
