How does a 67-year-old beat 33 players in the Masters? He explained

Augusta, Ga. – For Bernhard Langer, it has not been a fair fight on this golf course for years.

He is now 67 years old, removed from the second inning of the two Masters for 32 years, and this week, you may have heard of him for the last time he played. He averaged more than 250 yards of hair on Thursday, lagging behind markings by “short batsman” Zach Johnson and 70 and 90 yards for mashers like Ludvig Aberg and Cameron Young – 3-short! – Behind the category head Bryson DeChambeau. On the 4-bar, Lange has only one method that is less than 150 yards, and there are two in the north of 225 yards. He only played five greens.

However, he earned only three bogeys on the way to the cool 74, with 33 players on the field not being able to match.

Not many golfers miss 13 greens and shoot two in this course in master’s degree conditions, which begs the question: How did Lange do it in the world? and Keep Do this? His explanation was immediately simple and incredible.

“The idea is more like where I have to land to stop it from green?” Lange said Thursday afternoon, wearing a red shoulder to foot dress, a tribute to the thread he won here in 1995.

The battle was fully demonstrated in the first round and watched as always. It’s easy to get lost in the events of Rory, Scotty and Brooks in these big competitions, but Bernhard’s performance is another spectacle, and equally exciting: Masterclasses in course management.

Consider Langer’s approach yard for the first round 4-shot 4: 186 yards; 121; 215; 157; 171; 227; 235; 195; 172; 188. It’s all busy with his hybrid and Fairway Woods as Langer does in this course. You can’t hear a lot Hit Echoing on the pine tree as you follow the 18 holes of Langer, more subtle THWACKSwhich makes this slippery course difficult. “You can’t control 3 wood or 2 hybrids,” Lange said. “You don’t know how much it will run when it hits the green.”

His first trouble Thursday was on the 3rd 444, where he shot the tee across the green, sending himself out a tight short side chip 30 feet above the hole. The nightmare thing, but not Langer, who rammed his chips into 5 feet and drained the left. This is another key to his success: He opens the putt you have to insert. On Thursday, he only needed 1.33 putts, and his average hit rate was one-third of the stroke.

In 4 par-4 par-5th, he had 215 people entering the green. He missed the Green Left, but in Correct Spots make yourself a two-point shot that can be achieved. At 7 o’clock, another missed the green, this time very short. Flip wedge to 7 feet, hole push rod, rod. At 9, another missed the green, but in an easy-to-manage area: 50 feet below the hole, two rods. 10 years old, yes, other Missed Green – This time left, but there are a lot of greens to work. Chip to two feet, excellent. He went. In his marks 11, 235. Two thirty-fiveWhat about the terrifying green in the water? NBD, as the kids say. The wood of the fairway is 60 feet below the hole, then – yawn – Another two cards. Have you got the picture?

Langer’s only tactical error was in the third stroke of 12 (“Club Misc Club”) for a long time) and gave Rae’s Creek a brief approach at 13, both of which resulted in a bogie. “Then I recovered my calmness and started to do well from there,” he said.

“Overall, a 67-year-old guy played with me in Club 2 hits here and it’s a great round.”

good? That was a miracle.

Langer will fight and paws try to advance in the second round of Friday. If he doesn’t, he will play his final round in this legendary game.

“You can say my voice has been broken a little, just realizing that this will be my last competitive master,” Lange told the media on Tuesday.

But he also knew that time was right.

“I’m no longer competing on this course,” he said. “What are we playing, 7,500 yards and I’m used to taking classes of about 7,100. I can still compete there, but not at this distance.”

Still, it was fun to watch him try.