April is a month packed with great sport, be it the Grand National, the London Marathon, the FA Cup semi finals or the start of the domestic cricket season. There is also action from plenty of other sports, with F1 underway, rugby league’s Challenge Cup hotting up, some excellent tennis and much more besides. But for many, April puts Georgia on their mind. More specifically, Augusta, Georgia and even more specifically, the first Major of the golf year, the US Masters.
Packed with tradition, and as the only one of the big four to have a fixed venue – the outrageously beautiful Augusta National – the Masters is, at least in the eyes of some fans, the game’s number one tournament. However you rank it, there is certainly something special about the Masters and every year there are always plenty of fascinating subplots and stories to pique the interest of golf fans.
Those in the UK and Ireland – and many across the world in general – will inevitably focus on Rory McIlroy and his quest to both end his 11-year Major drought and also to land the career Grand Slam. He has won the Open, US Open and USPGA Championship (twice) and would give almost anything to land a Green Jacket. But there are many great stories to think about ahead of the 2025 Masters.
The LIV/PGA divide is always present, there is the return of former champion Angel Cabrera after a spell in prison, there are the many great players, including Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay, to have never won a Major, and so much more. However, in this article we want to look back at the career and Masters victories of a man who is set to appear at this iconic tournament for the last time.
Bernhard Langer, European Great
It’s been an incredible journey for Bernhard Langer. This week, he embarks on his 41st and final Masters start. #themasters https://t.co/YKPrE9jE0x
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 8, 2025
Bernhard Langer is a true icon of European golf and one of the game’s greats. He may have “only” won two Majors, both at Augusta, but no European has appeared in more Majors than the German and that is testimony to his incredible longevity and how long he has been able to compete with players 40 years and more his junior.
He first mixed it at golf’s top table in the 1976 Open Championship and first played at the Masters back in 1982 (he missed the cut). That means his Major career has spanned fully 50 years and a whopping 112 events (including the 2025 Masters). It is one of the remarkable things about golf that it allows older players to compete – and beat – athletes in the prime of their lives.
How Langer Compares to Golf Icons
That is not to say that what Langer has done is normal – far from it. A look at the list of players to have played in more Majors than the German reveals just nine names above him and almost every single one is one of the all-time legends of the sport. In terms of longevity he is up there with Jack Nicklaus (the record holder with 164 appearances at Majors between 1957 and 2005), plus the following icons:
- Gary Player – 150
- Tom Watson – 145
- Arnold Palmer – 142
- Ray Floyd – 127
- Phil Mickelson – 125
- Sam Snead – 118
- Ben Crenshaw – 117
- Gene Sarazen – 115
Langer was due to play his last Masters in 2024 after missing the cut in the preceding three editions of the tournament. Prior to that, in 2020, he finished T29, also making the cut in 2019 and 2018. However, as he approached his late 60s – the German will be 68 in August this year – he decided that it was time to call it a day.
Injury in 2024
However, life had other plans and the still-fit two-time Major champion managed to snap his Achilles tendon ahead of the 2024 Masters. He suffered the injury playing pickleball and whilst he could have decided that was fate telling him to quit, he has – rightly we feel – decided to come back and have a proper goodbye in 2025.
Langer, the first German to win a major, has had a hugely successful career on the Senior Tour, landing an incredible 12 majors. No player can get close to that tally, and Langer, who won the US Senior Open in 2023, is the only player to have won all five of the current Senior Majors. In many regards he still has the game to take on today’s young guns but age means he just does not have the distance to be competitive in an era when 300-yard drives are pretty much mid-pack.
An Incredible Career
However, back in 1986, he was the first player to top the newly created world rankings. As well as his incredible personal career, which includes 125 professional wins on six different continents, Langer has also been a key figure for Europe at the Ryder Cup. Only two players (Sergio Garcia and Nick Faldo) have won more than his 24 points and he has been on the European team 10 times as a player and once as a winning captain.
A true gent, a brilliant player and a calm, composed leader, Langer will bow out with his 41st appearance at Augusta. He has nine top 10s in the Masters and has made the cut 27 times, and we can’t rule out him making one last appearance at the weekend this time around. Adding to his two wins though might just require a miracle!
1985: First Major
Langer’s first win at the Masters came in 1985 when he became the second European, after Seve Ballesteros, to win at Augusta. He started slowly, with a 72 and then a 74, but a brilliant pair of 68s at the weekend saw him see off Seve, Raymond Floyd and Curtis Strange. His six under total was two better than the four under that trio managed, the 27 year old showing he was a force to be reckoned with after finishing as runner-up at the Open in 1984.
1993 – Masters No. 2
Langer would eventually have six top-three finishes in Majors but his only wins would come in Georgia. Eight years after his first win he added more European glory to the Masters story, following on from Seve’s two wins, Sandy Lyle’s success, two for Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and then, in 1994 Jose Maria Olazabal, and in 1996 a third triumph for Faldo.
Langer’s second and last Major saw him shoot 277, 11 under, claiming the winner’s cheque of $306,000. He won easily in the end, finishing four clear of Chip Beck and six or more shots ahead of the rest. Always brilliantly consistent, the German shot 68-70-69-70 to claim a typically unflustered, unflashy victory.