There’s a long-running joke in professional golf that Bernhard Langer is not actually a human being. His skill and longevity have forced many to jokingly question if he’s man or machine and that debate will only rage on further after the performance he put on at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic on Sunday.
Trailing Scott Verplank by one stroke heading to the 72nd tee, Langer knew he needed a birdie to tie or an eagle to win outright.
Trailing by 1 to Scott Verplank, Bernhard Langer stripes his drive on the par-5 18th at the @DECCGolf.#SchwabCup Playoffs pic.twitter.com/YcRYdm21Ak
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 22, 2017
Clutch.
Bernhard Langer, trailing Scott Verplank by 1, has an eagle putt for the win at the @DECCGolf. Two-putt birdie forces a playoff. pic.twitter.com/HH5KFi5yXf
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 22, 2017
And there it is!@BernhardLanger6 makes EAGLE on the 18th to defeat Scott Verplank by 1 shot at the @DECCGolf.#SchwabCup Playoffs pic.twitter.com/VLMT1RjCnR
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 22, 2017
The Associated Press had the full recap.
Bernhard Langer didn’t find his putting stroke until it mattered most.
The 60-year-old made an 18-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th hole Sunday to shoot a 2-under 70 and win the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, the first of three event in the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs. He beat Scott Verplank by one shot.
Langer was even par for the day before getting to the easiest hole on The Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course.
“I was missing so many putts today and finally I made one,” Langer said after his sixth victory of the season and 35th on the tour for players 50 and older. “The confidence wasn’t that high, to tell you the truth. I had a very similar putt just on 17 that was about 7 or 8 inches left to right and I made a really good stroke but I left it an inch short, or two inches. I was going to make sure I got this one to the hole.” The victory clinched the top seed in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix for Langer, and the eagle winner was a career first. “I think it’s only happened one other time in my career when I holed a bunker shot for eagle” on the final hole to win, he said.
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