A remarkable 50-year career on the European Tour has come to an end for German Bernhard Langer.
By Rob Willis
The curtain came down on a European Tour career spanning 50 years and 513 tournaments when Bernhard Langer played his final DP World Tour event at the BMW International Open in his native Germany.
Langer, who began his professional journey as a teenager before evolving into one of the premier players in world golf and was twice a winner of the US Masters, announced his retirement from the DP World Tour (European Tour) after missing the 36-hole cut at the BMW event played in Munich.
At 66 years of age, Langer teed it up in his 513th tournament in Europe, fittingly at a Golfclub München Eichenried venue which was just a 60-mile drive from his hometown of Anhausen.
In a celebrated career, Langer claimed 42 victories in those 513 tournaments, two European Order of Merit titles and played on 10 Ryder Cup teams, to go along with his two wins at Augusta National.
Langer became golf’s first World Number One when the Official World Golf Ranking was launched in 1986, while his 42 wins makes him the second most successful in the history of the European Tour, behind only Spaniard Seve Ballesteros who won on 50 occasions.
Outside of Europe, Langer won three times on the PGA TOUR and is one of just five golfers to have won professional events on all six continents where golf is played.
Since turning 50 and joining the senior ranks, Langer’s dominance is unparalleled, the German winning a record 12 Senior Major Championships and 50 titles in total, including a record-setting 46 victories on the PGA TOUR Champions.
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