Bernhard Langer - Part 3 (The 1985 and 1993 Masters)

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

So let's talk about the the first of the two uh Masters wins. This is 1985, and this was fight two over we talked about Steve Biastero. Of course, Raymond Floyd and Curtis Strange were in that rounds of 72-74, 68-68 on the weekend for a six under total. Uh you were uh T3, two back of Floyd after three rounds.

Bernhard Langer 0:41

Yeah, there's a couple of things I remember. I don't have the greatest memory, but I remember changing my irons. Uh for some reason I brought a new set of irons with me. And Augusta has wonderful practice facilities, beautiful golf balls, nice grass and turf and all that. So I had a spare set of irons, but I'm I'm not one to change equipment easily. But I shoot 72-72. I made the cut, and I but uh but I'm not really in the hunt. And I I felt my iron game wasn't quite as good as it could, and I thought, well, this is maybe this is an opportunity to change my irons and try this new set, which seemed to be going okay on the range. So I put a whole new set of irons into play, which may have been the only time I've ever done that. Uh in the middle of a tournament. And uh had a really good round on Saturday with a 68, moved up, as you said, to I believe two behind Curtis Strange. It was the crazy year when Curtis Strange, I believe he shot 80 the first day, or something like that. Hacked suitcases, came to the course thinking he's gonna miss the cut, and then he went all out and goes whatever he shot, 65, 67, 66, I don't know. And he finds himself in the lead. So here we go Sunday now. Um I'm in the second last group playing with Savvy. Uh and behind us in the last group is Raymond Floyd and Curtis Strange. Uh so we tee off, and you know, we wish each other good luck. And Savi, we all know he didn't really like uh the Americans to win the Ryder Cup or the or major. So on the first tee, he goes, Hey, good luck today, Bernard, and let's keep let's keep this green check it amongst us, you know, something like that. Let's not the Americans beat us. So uh that's something you normally wouldn't say uh, you know, on the first tee. But but that was his mindset and all and off we went. Um so I I played the first nine quite well on Sunday. I thought I did, and because I always thought the first nine at Augusta, and the old days were a little tougher than the back nine for me. And so I think I went around in in about even part or something, and I was trying not to look at leaderboards. Um, and I'll tell you a quick story because I think we have time for this. So I ended up winning as we know, and I go to Butler Cabin, right? And they take you right there, and sit sit you in the chair for the green jacket presentation for the uh uh TV. And the first question, uh, I think it was Jim Nance, if I'm not mistaken, uh, says, Well, Bernard, were you watching the leaderboard at all today? And I said, some literally said, Well, I you know, I learned watching the leaderboard too much is really not good. Because if you're on top of the leaderboard, you're gonna play cautiously and defensively and try to protect your lead. And and if you don't see your name at all, and you know you're 10 or 12 shots behind, you kind of get down on yourself because you know you have no chance and and you're just playing at the bottom range. And so that doesn't help either. So I said my mindset was really to just play the best round I could possibly play and see where my chips fall at the end of the day. But there was one time on the night as I came off this nine screen, I said I was even par. I thought I might have made up a little ground on Curtis and Floyd. And I looked at this leaderboard and I literally said, and Jesus Christ, I couldn't believe I'm four shots behind Curtis Strange. So I was, you know, by some people's standard, I was using the name of God in vain and swearing on national television. And uh I wasn't a believer at the time. I really didn't know what I was saying, it was just sort of a powerful expression uh to make a point. But um, anyways, it was not good, and I'll tell you why. I get hundreds of letters later, which I thought were fan mail when I got home a few weeks ago. I had stacks of letters, and I thought, well, that's a lot of fan mail, and about 70% of them were letters from people saying, Who are you to swear on national TV? And so um, you know, I had to apologize for that, and and rightly so. But uh again, so move on the story. Um, or let's finish this story real quick. In 1993, I won again, as we know, and go to Padla Cabin. Jim Nance asked, Well, which win was more important, the 85 or the 93 to you? And I said, something like, you know, uh Jim, it's they're both very important. One was my first major, but this one means more to me because today is Easter Sunday and we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. At this point in time, I became a follower of Christ, a believer. And so I'm I believe I'm the only one that mentioned Jesus Christ twice on a uh life in life interview at Butler Cabin during the presentation, one in a bad way and once in a good way. But let's let's uh go back to 85. We're uh on the tenth T, and literally I saw that I'm four shots behind. So I I just remember I I didn't care whether I'd finished second, third, or fifth, or twentieth. I I wanted to win a major and I said, okay, I'm gonna go all out. You gotta go for every shot, you go for every pin, and either you have a chance of winning, or wherever you finish, you're gonna finish. Um so I I was fortunate enough to play a really good next eight holes. I think I was 500 for the next eight holes. Uh hit a lot of quality shots, made a bunch of putts. And I still didn't look at the leaderboard after the uh ninth hole experience I just told you. And and I but I heard, you know, you can read the crowd, okay? So behind me, Curtis Range and Floyd. I I hear some oohs and ahs and some murmurs and and people are cheering me on all of a sudden more and more as I get around 14, 15, and I knew Sabi was a few behind me. He was still there, but but he was a couple of or so behind me. And I had a feeling there's some issues with Curtis Strange and Raymond Floyd. So I but I didn't look. I buried 17 to go 500 for the those whole the back nine, and that's when I had another glance at the leaderboard, and I saw that I'm two shots ahead now. So I went from two behind on the tenth tee to two in front on the 17th screen. And uh so now we walk off the 17th screen, and Sabi makes an effort to walk next to me as we go to the 18th T box, and he puts his hand on my shoulder, taps me, and says, This is all yours. You know, go get it. Uh and I'm thinking, well, hold on, I still got a number 18 to play. You know, all sorts of things can happen in in golf. I've heard it, I've read it, it's happened to me. And and he was only uh two or three behind me. So, you know, if he makes a birdie and I make a bogey, a double bogey, he can still tiny. But it was a beautiful gesture from Sevi and always appreciated that. And so I I managed to you know play safe and hit in the greenside bunker and didn't get it up and down, but made bogey and ended up winning by two. So it was a life-changing moment uh for me and my career. Uh, my wife later said uh something like she felt now. We can have kids.

Bruce Devlin 9:14

Now we can have kids.

Bernhard Langer 9:16

Now now we can have kids. That was her interpretation of uh me having success. That now we can have kids. And um so yes, we did. We had uh started having kids, had won the very next very next year, our first one. And uh so, anyways, those were the memories that I have from 1985. There's actually one more memory. I I won the Australian Masters in uh Melbourne, I think it was in February or March, just a few weeks before I won the Masters. And the two guys that were running this tournament down in down under, they always treat themselves to come to the uh US Masters because they're running the Aussie Masters. So, anyways, they came a couple of weeks later and they were always betting, they were betting people. They put money on certain players to win the tournament, this and that. And they looked at the odds, and uh they saw they're saying, they told me this story themselves, so I know it's true. So they they said, well, we look at all the odds, and here is Langer, you know, great odds, and he just won our tournament. He played great, and he finished uh second or third in the players' championship just 10 days ago. Let's put some money on Langer and make a long story short, uh, they won more money in their Calcutta than I won winning the Mastership. That's right. And they threw a huge uh Aussie barbecue party on Sunday night. So after Vicky and I had dinner with the members at the Gasta, that's what you do when you win the tournament. You have dinner with them, and then it was like 10:30 or something, we were done. Uh, we were invited to come to the Aussie house and celebrate with them, and that went on for a couple more hours. So it was it was a fun evening.

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Mike Gonzalez 11:23

Well, it was the first win, uh, obvious win by a German and a major. And uh, as I recall, uh another German, probably better known because it wasn't uh I mean, the the sport was probably a bit more popular at the time in Germany than golf. Boris Becker won Wimbledon right after that, right?

Bernhard Langer 11:42

He did, yes. Uh he won Wimbledon uh in in July, and that was much bigger in the media because tennis was uh a better known sport and than golf. Um and uh Steffi Graf came along and uh those were the big headlines, yes. Uh you know, Becker won Wimbledon several times, but that was his first win, and he called it his living room or something like that. He felt very comfortable on the grass on the grass courts at uh Wimbledon. Um but yeah, we we ran into each other several times at different functions. He also loved the game of golf and played it any any time he could. Um and you know was uh a great ambassador for tennis uh for Germany.

Mike Gonzalez 12:31

Yeah, well well with that great master's win that you had uh in 1985, there's always uh a yin with the yang, and and uh uh there's winners and there's losers. And you mentioned Curtis Grange. I I I vividly recall when we visited with him as we talked about this particular Masters. Um I think he opened up Sunday uh after making the cut let's say uh close to the number eight five. He opens up, I think he's got four hundred on the front, but you find yourself four behind, four hundred the back nine. And then of course he had some uh struggles coming in at the keyboard. Bogey the two par five, the bogeyed eighteen. And uh I vividly recall him talking about coming home and getting home the next day, walking in the door, uh greeting his wife, and they just sort of sat on the floor and cried. He said it was by far the toughest toughest defeat he ever faced as a professional.

Bernhard Langer 13:31

Yeah, I I believe it too, because it it is meaningful to us, and you know, you don't get a lot of chances, and I guess he never won the Masters, and he and he was in a in a very good position to do so. You know, if he hadn't hit those two balls in the water, it would have been uh maybe his tournament. It would have been certainly a very close race uh coming down this the stretch. And I'm sure he's had nightmares, maybe certainly, if not nightmares, he certainly played those last nine holes over and over in his head. And uh, you know, what did he do wrong here? And why did this happen? And why did I make this decision? And that's that's what we do. We uh you know, we learn from our mistakes, hopefully, and so it it won't happen again in the future. And uh we replay some of the great moments, but we also replay some of the terrible moments, and uh it's not always fun, that's for sure. And I'm I'm sure it uh it was a big big dagger in Curtis's uh you know heart in a way from a negative standpoint, but he's he's won two US opens. He's one of the you know greatest champions that's ever played the game and had a very successful career.

Mike Gonzalez 14:50

Yeah. I I wanted to fit this in uh quickly. I think we've got the time because uh before we get to the 93 Masters win, you go to the Heritage, you you come here close to where I'm at right now at Harvardtown the following week after that 85 Masters win. Uh you you and and you won that tournament, by the way, in a playoff with Bobby Watkins. But the the real point of the story is you mentioned Jesus Christ earlier. And that was really your first encounter in a Bible study, wasn't it?

Bernhard Langer 15:19

Yes, it it was. So if if we have the time to talk about this, uh as I mentioned Jesus Christ in in Butler Cabin in a bad way, uh there was uh Scott Simpson, who used to be a skeptic. He would come to the Tours Bible study and say, You guys are just nuts. How can you believe in God and how can you believe Jesus is the Son of God and all this kind of stuff? He literally came to the Bible studies for about two and a half, three years on a regular basis to prove everybody wrong, to prove we're all idiots and and have a false belief. And after he got all his questions answered and all the things about Christianity that he thought was wrong, he he learned that they were true, and he became a believer. So now he's going to the Bible study as a believer, not as a skeptic to prove everyone wrong. Anyways, he was playing in the Masters. He had staying with him in his house that he rented, he had Larry Moody, the chaplain of the PGA tour. They were both watching me accept my green jacket in Butler Cabin back at their house on TV. And as I mentioned Jesus Christ, this and that, they literally went on their knees and said a prayer like uh for me, saying, Wouldn't it be great if this guy would become a believer and a follower of Jesus Christ? Yeah, and left it like that. And here we go, three days later, actually, two days later, um, I'm playing a practice round with Bobby Clampett at Hilton Head. We kind of looked alike, we were both young, upcoming uh, you know, players on tour, and we were friends. So we played a practice round. Bobby was already a believer, and he goes at the end, says, Hey, Bernard, what are you doing Wednesday night? And I said, Nothing really, just find some dinner as usual, and you know, my wife is with me, and that's about it. And he goes, Well, we have a tour Bible study from 8 till 9 p.m. or something, and I'd like to invite you and Vicky. And I'm going, Well, tour Bible study? What exactly is that? I've I mean, I had an idea, but I played dumb. And uh I was going to church actually, but I didn't have a personal relationship with God, and I didn't know I could have forgiveness of sins right here. I always thought I had to be a good person to hopefully earn my way to heaven. Anyways, I told him, well, thanks for the invitation. Um, I'm not committing right now, one way or another. Uh, let me talk to my wife and I'll get back to you. So mention it to Vicky, and we both decided, well, let's go. You know, let's see what exactly they're doing. We don't have real plans, anyways. We can have dinner beforehand. And so we went. And I can only uh imagine what Scott Simpson and Larry Moody were thinking when I walked uh through those doors, you know, and three days earlier I'm swearing Jesus on national TV, and now I'm walking into this Bible study group, uh, and Larry Moody was teaching. Make a long story short, um Larry was teaching on the book of John, uh the Apostle John, and it was the third chapter and the and um the third verse, and uh there was a religious leader, a Jewish religious rabbi that came to Jesus at night. His name was Nicodemus, and Nicodemus was having a personal conversation with Jesus that that night, and in this is in the Bible, in John 3 3, Jesus told Nicodemus, You have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Uh the kingdom of God is heaven. So and then two verses later in John 3 5, Jesus told Nicodemus, who is a religious leader, you have to be born of water and the spirit to enter the kingdom of God. Uh and Nicodemus was an older man already, and he said something like, Well, how can you be born again? I'm an old man, you know, I can't be born again. And and Larry Moody went on to explain that this was a spiritual birth, that's what it means. We all are born once out of the wombs of our mothers, or uh when we come into the world, but not all of us are born again in a spiritual sense. Only those that are according to the Christian faith will go to heaven and be in the presence of God and not separated from God, whether it's hell or any other place. And he went on to what exactly that means. You know, what does born again mean? And most people really don't understand it or don't know the true meaning, it has a lot of misconceptions. And I was sitting there in this room and I'm going, wow, I've never heard this in the church before, not the church where I went to. And I was all ears, and uh and he was explaining that born again just means there's a point in your life, hopefully, not before you die, uh, where you come to realize that God created the world, he created us in his likeness, in his image. He wants us to love him and serve him and uh use our gifts and talents to honor him. Um but he wants us to realize that we're born in with a sin nature. We're born of Adam and Eve, who he created, and they took from the the apple from the forbidden tree. They had all of paradise available to them, all of it. Only one tree, they couldn't touch the fruit from the tree in the center of the of the Garden of Eden, and and they did. Uh I guess the the devil uh enticed them, the fruit looked good, she ate, she gave it to Adam. Anyways, sin entered the world, they realized they were naked, all naked all of a sudden, which they never had a problem with till that moment. Sin entered the world, and we were all descendants from them, so we all have a sin nature. And some people say, uh, you know, you look at children, they're they're just they're so pure and natural and wonderful. But hey, I have four kids and I have now three grandkids. They have a sinful nature. You tell them not to do this, they don't do it. There's a way about all of us. Absolutely. I think we all know we are not perfect. Okay. And heaven is a place of perfect. God is perfect. He can't allow imperfection in heaven. So you again to come back to what born again means, uh, I realized weeks and weeks later that this was missing. Actually, the one thing I didn't tell you guys was when I won my first master's, and that evening, I had an emptiness in me, inside of me, that I couldn't explain. I should have been overwhelmed and joyful. I mean, I was, as you said, the number one player in the world around that time. I was certainly one of the best. I just won my first major's. I just got married a year ago to a beautiful young wife. I had it all going. I had money, cars, houses, fame. I was a member of the PGA Tour, the European Tour, on and on. I was healthy. I was had everything a 26 or 7-year-old could dream of. But there was something inside of me, and I couldn't put the finger on it. Uh, anyways, I'm telling you this because weeks later, uh, I gave my life to Christ. I said a prayer and I said, God, I recognize that you exist. Uh, you had a problem with sin, with sin nature. I'm a sinner. Uh, the only way for me to have forgiveness is accept Jesus as the perfect sacrifice, dying on the cross, dying for my sins. He was resurrected three days later. I believe that too. There were 500 eyewitnesses who saw it, and said that prayer, and I'm now a born-again Christian or a follower of Christ. From that very end of the prayer, I said the emptiness I had felt for years was gone. Like this. And and it hasn't returned, and this was in 1985.

Bruce Devlin 24:08

That's a wonderful story.

Bernhard Langer 24:10

Uh, anyways, yeah, that was that was uh an interesting um moment in my life, maybe the most important decision I ever made in my life. It wasn't who I was gonna marry, that was maybe the second most important, but it was following uh you know being a follower of Christ and and having that faith in my life which impacts everything that I do.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Bernard, uh thank you very much for sharing that.

Bruce Devlin 24:38

So, Bernard, uh, thank you for that story. And uh in 1993 you won again at uh at the Masters, uh one by four over Chipbeck, uh, with uh 11 under par total. And you were you were right up the front uh throughout that entire tournament.

Bernhard Langer 24:54

Yeah, I was I had a very good week from the very beginning to the very end. And uh I believe playing an extremely good round on uh I think Friday and Saturday was windy conditions, very you know, you know, when you be playing strong winds and swirly winds like the wind does in in uh amongst the Augusta pine trees. Yeah uh corner is known for that, and not just that, there's many other shots. And you have you have to be so precise with your distance control around Augusta and those uh difficult greens. And when you have windy conditions, it's just very, very hard. Anyways, I seemed to be able to you know control my my ball flight and my distance fairly well, and probably got some good breaks and other things, uh, and ended up having a four-shot lead going into Sunday, uh, which was an unusual experience for me. I never led a major uh by four shots. I was tied for the lead at the British Open uh with David Graham in 1985, I think it was. We had a two-shot lead, but I never led by myself, as far as I can remember. And uh so I I'm sure I didn't sleep great that night, uh Saturday night. But uh, you know, and people think, well, four shots is quite a lot. Well, five shots. Not many. I've seen different leads go. We all remember what happened to Greg Norman when Nick Faldo was like six or seven behind, and he beat him by uh quite a number. So, anyways, I uh was able to play uh very consistent, solid round on Sunday. Uh and Chipbeck, by the way, is a wonderful playing partner. I always had the highest regards and respect for Chipek. Uh, he was one of the most positive, maybe the most positive human being you can ever be around. And there'll be thousands of others who would echo that because he would always see the good in everything. And and he was just fun. I was truly blessed by being paired with him on Saturday and Sunday that tournament. Uh, he was just so much fun being with. And I'm sure he had a positive impact on just me being around him. But uh it it got tight. I played the front nine fairly solid, but some guys closed the gap. Uh they came, I believe, within one of me. Uh, Dan Forsman was one of them, Chip Beck was hanging around, and there were one or two others. And I I remember playing the 11th hole. I hit my second shot on the green, and those of you who've watched the Masters have played, if the 12th T is literally 25 yards to the right of the 11th screen, and you can watch the whole the part three, the 12th hole, you can watch all of it. You see the T-shots where they go. And I stopped walking because I think Dan Forschman was teeing off, so I didn't want to him to either see me or hear me, so I stopped and watched. And I see his first t-shirt go in the water, and uh then he dropped a minute later or something and hit it. Is his second shot, the third shot now into the water again. I think. And I believe he might have been the closest to me at the time. And later, you know, I heard an interview of him saying, uh, yeah, I came to Amen Corner, and then instead of saying amen, I had to say oh hell or something like that. And but I I knew from watching him that he was literally he shot himself out of the tournament. He made a large number, uh, whether it was uh a six or seven. And uh so my closest competitor now, I believe, was Chip Beck, who I was playing with, and I could keep an eye on. Um and uh I I think I had about a two-shot lead playing 13 um the par five. Uh we we both hit good t-shots, Chip and I. Uh he was a couple of yards further away. And he went in there with a four-wood, I think, or five wood, I don't recall, and hit a phenomenal shot to about twenty feet. Um so now he put the pressure square on me. You know, if if I was thinking of laying up, uh I would definitely most likely lose a shot, maybe two, if he makes the eagle putt. Uh, but I wasn't thinking of laying up. I pulled out a three-iron and I had this hanging downhill, side hill lie with a three-iron, having to carry race creek to a front right pin. So it's a lot easier shot when the pin is back because you have some green to work with. But but this time, and and I sometimes, you know, people say, What was your greatest shot you ever hit? And I'm going, well, just you know, it's hard to say one. I've hit a lot of great shots from putts to chip-ins to hold buncture shots to whatever. But under the circumstances, I would say that three-iron was one of my best shots ever. I hit the three-iron so crisp, and it started directly on line with a flag with a gentle draw, and it came, landed on the green, stopped pretty quickly, and I was about six feet inside of Chipbeck, or eight feet, I don't recall, maybe ten feet. And I was on his line. So I saw him pott. His pot didn't break as much, I think, as he thought, or maybe more. I can't recall. So I but I had a really good idea what this pot's gonna do, and the speed and the break. And he misses his, and I make mine. So I'm now increasing my lead by one where initially a few minutes early looked like I might have lost a shot. I now increased it with an eagle, and now I got a three-shot lead, and then I birded another one, and and 15 was another crucial hold of par five. Uh chip back, um hit a beautiful t-shot. I I missed mine slightly. I was in the fairway, but I was too far away, it was into the wind, so I was forced to lay up. I couldn't go for it. I laid up, and now chip had a shot, I think it was like 240 yards or something, you know, in its place, maybe 10 down or something like that. But he had swirling winds into him, and it it took him longest decision I've ever seen on a golf course. And and Chip is not a slow player, but but he you could tell he was fighting within himself. Should he go with it for it? Should he lay up? Should he he talked to Scaddy, he pulled out one club, put it back in, pulled out another, put it back in. And and it took a long time till he till he finally decided to lay up. So he laid up. Uh, he got criticized, by the way, big time by the media, his thing, how can you lay up? But you know, we Bruce, you know that we have to make decisions. Uh some are good and some are not so good. And and you know, we're professionals, uh, we still make mistakes. But Chip later said he felt like he played to his strengths. He had a distance where he had to absolutely crush a three-wood, and if Augusta Wind comes up, he's in the water, then he has definitely lost the tournament and it's over. He felt his wedge game was really, really good, and he's a good putter. He felt laying up, he could make a four, maybe eight out of ten times or something like that. Well, he laid up, he then did not hit a good wedge, he went over the green a little bit. I hit a great wedge to about six or eight feet. He made par, I think. I made Birdie. So I now have a four four-shot lead. And at that point, it was really the tournament, unless I hit it in the water on 16 or or make any other mistakes, which which I didn't. And so it it enabled me to uh come to the 18th T, I think, and I had a four-shot lead, if I'm not mistaken, and I could really this time enjoy the walk, uh enjoy the walk up towards the green, got a standing ovation uh from all the patrons, and really soak it in what it means, you know, to be winning the masters and getting another green jacket and be a part of this prestigious club for the rest of my life. Uh and and all of that, which you know, first time around I had a two-shot lead. I still had to really focus on on all of that.

Mike Gonzalez 34:23

Well, it was a wonderful win for you. And um the did the second one f feel much different, Bernard? I mean, obviously you were able to enjoy it because of that cushion coming up 18, but in the aftermath, did it feel different?

Bernhard Langer 34:38

Like I told you before, um, you know, I was a believer now, so I was really almost uh overwhelmed to have been blessed with another master's victory, and especially on Easter Sunday, that that was very, very touching and meaningful to me emotionally. Um and just kind of proven to the critics, maybe who you know sometimes you would hear, well, the first one it was really Curtis Strange losing it, not Langer winning it. Uh I think this time I proved very clearly that I won this. I was leading most of the week uh and played the best golf by four strokes. I beat the whole field by four, which hadn't happened very often to that point in time either. Uh so I was clearly, you know, putting put telling those critics that I deserve to win a mastership.

Mike Gonzalez 35:35

Bruce Devlin, uh two-time masters champion, but uh what a what a record.

Bruce Devlin 35:43

And what a record, what a what a series of great stories today, too. And uh Bernhardt we're gonna get a chance to chat with you again when you have enough time to be with us. And uh first of all, say thank you so much for joining us today. It's been it's been our pleasure having you.

Bernhard Langer 36:01

Privilege, Bruce and Mike. Thank you very much. I had fun doing this, and uh we'll do it again in the near future.

Mike Gonzalez 36:09

Thank you for listening to another episode of 4 The Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends. Until we teat up again for the good of the game.