Bernhard Langer still wants to win tournaments. Paul Azinger thinks he still has a few thoughts to share, a lifetime of experience that broadens his commentary. It will be interesting to see how the season treats each of them.
Both have been on winning and losing Ryder Cup Teams. Both have major championship titles and an encyclopedia of stories about their friends and foes – if anyone even knows what an encyclopedia is anymore. And both will be involved with the Chubb Classic this week.
Langer, who already has the record for PGA Tour Champions titles with 47, is playing. He hopes to win more tournaments and likes his chances this week at Tiburon.
“I won it five times, which doesn't happen very often,” he said about the Chubb Classic, adding that his victories came on different golf courses with the same title sponsor. “I truly love Tiburón because it's not the average course we play on on Tour. It's very tight, very narrow. You have lots of trouble on many of the tee shots.”
The golf translation for this is Langer is not known for his length, but he is known for his accuracy, and so, the course may play into his hands. Age is apparently a non-factor for Langer who won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship last November at age 67 after coming back from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon earlier in the year.
The man may be bionic.
Even Azinger, who was in Hawaii for the initial tournament of the year, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, is impressed by Langer’s longevity and dedication.
Paul Azinger recalled seeing Bernhard Langer practicing on the putting green in the dark.
“There was nobody else around, just you and Terry ( Langer’s caddie) were out there. It was virtually dark out. I don't know anybody else that was doing that,” Azinger said in a conference call that included both of them. “I wonder, if deep down inside, Bernhard wants to win a tournament in his 70s?”
Langer did not answer that. He still has three years to consider it.
However, in 2025, Langer still wants to play about half the year, which would be 22-25 tournaments.
“I don't see any immediate need or reason to quit,” he said. “But life can throw something at you, and things can stop in a heartbeat. I'll take it one day at a time or one week at a time.”
While Azinger is doing the commentary on 12 events, about half the PGA Tour Champions schedule, with all the advances in television and in communications, he won’t actually be AT the tournament. It was a technique that the various networks learned during COVID and turns out, it’s probably money-saving. Azinger will do his commentary from the new PGA Tour Productions studios next door to the new PGA Tour HQ building, often called “Death Star” for its resemblance to some kind of Star Wars spaceship.
“This is almost limited, 12 events, I think,” he added. “I'm pretty happy that -- you hit that fork in the road, and you just got to take it sometimes -- and I did.”
(Many may remember Yogi Berra’s book with a similar title.)
The biggest news for both could actually come at the end of this season when Tiger Woods turns 50 and decides whether or not to play PGA Tour Champions events. Azinger thinks he will.
“I feel like there's going to be great anticipation for Tiger Woods,” he said, making the understatement of his commentating career. “The big question is whether or not Tiger is going to play, what's that going to do to this tour. You've got all those giant names on this tour, and you bring Tiger in, I think the global media shows up immediately. I'm talking about the global media. Then all of a sudden the focus is on this tour.”
Hughes Norton, who was one of the early superagents in golf and at one time a protégé of Mark McCormack as well as Woods’ first agent, agrees. Norton recently did interviews, after 25 years of silence on the topic. Norton’s book, Rainmaker, chronicles his time as Woods’ agent as well as representation of other prominent golfers ---Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Mark O’Meara, Curtis Strange and to name but a few -- that he represented for IMG.
Azinger thinks Woods will feel an obligation to participate in the over-50 events because of all the PIP money he’s received, which was a thank you to him for continuing to be visible even if he’s not playing often right now.
“I'm sure he's going to give back, and it's going to be to all the benefit of these guys out here that are over 50,” Azinger concluded.
Norton, in interviews for The Golf Show 2.0, thinks that Woods will simply want to break Langer’s record because he is so competitive. We will have to wait a few months to find out who is right.