Bernard Langer just keeps on keeping on

I have written about this guy before but I am going to do so again because of his astonishing feats.

His name is Bernhard Langer.

Last month Langer became the oldest winner on the PGA Tour’s senior circuit when prevailing in a playoff of a $US2 million tournament in Virginia in the United States.

He was aged 64 years, one month and 27 days.

The previous oldest had been Scott Hoch who, in 2019, was aged 63 years, five months and four days when he won on what is now known as the PGA Tour Champions.

Langer’s win in Virginia was his first on the PGA Tour Champions for just over 18 months but he has been the standout performer for more than a decade.

The PGA Tour Champions is for golfers aged 50 or older and the likes of Phil Mickelson are now playing it but Langer just keeps winning.

Langer has topped the prizemoney list on the PGA Tour Champions an amazing 10 times. Following is that amazing list.

2008: $2 million (three wins).

2009: $2.1 million (four wins).

2010: $2.6 million (five wins).

2012: $2.1 million (two wins).

2013: $2.4 million (three wins).

2014: $3 million (five wins).

2015: $2.3 million (four wins).

2016: $3 million (five wins).

2017: $3.6 million (seven wins).

2018: $2.2 million (three wins).

They are mind-boggling figures but Langer has been a great golfer all of his career.

He has won The Masters twice. The first of those wins was in 1985 when he won by two strokes over runners-up Seve Ballesteros, Raymond Floyd and Curtis Strange.

His second win in The Masters came in 1993 Masters when he won by four shots.

Langer, from Germany, made his name on the European Tour before venturing to the United States and once again he was an amazingly dominant figure.

He has 42 wins on the European Tour which is the tour’s second highest total. He is three behind Hale Langer on 45 wins.

Langer’s list of achievements are just too many to record in this column but underline the phrase that golf is a game for life.

Another golfer making his mark on the PGA Tour Champions, to a lesser degree, is New Zealand’s own Steve Alker.

He turned 50 three months ago and has earned nearly $US600,000 in prizemoney from eight starts on the PGA Tour Champions with a best finish of third.

Alker, from Hamilton, is another long-time performer. He won the Fiji Open in 1995.

The following year he added the Tahiti and Queensland Opens and in 1997 he won the South Australia Open.

In 2009 he won the New Zealand PGA Championship in Christchurch when it was part of what is now called the Korn Ferry Tour, the second-top tour for men in the United States. Alker has also won three other Korn Ferry Tour equivalents.

In the year 2000 he won three times in Canada.

All those wins are not in the same ballpark as Langer but they remain an impressive record.