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Champions Tour - Toshiba Classic
AN INTERVIEW WITH BERNHARD LANGER
Newport Beach, CA, March 05, 2009
PHIL STAMBAUGH: We're joined this morning by Bernhard Langer,
the defending champion of the Toshiba Classic. Bernhard, you've
gotten off to a nice start in 2009 with a win and two third
place finishes. You're currently leading the Charles Schwab Cup
race. Maybe just a few thoughts about coming back to Newport
Beach for this event.
BERNHARD LANGER: I'm excited to be the defending champion. I had
a wonderful week last year here. It was a long finish with the
seven hole playoff. Pretty exciting. I was the fortunate one to
end up on top last year. It's a thrill, and it's great to be
back this year. I think we're going to have some pretty good
weather. The course looks in fantastic condition. We usually get
big crowds here. A lot of people come out to watch. The
community really embraces this event. I think it raises more
money for charity than any other event on our whole tour. I'm
really thrilled and it's really exciting for everyone involved,
because it's all about charity. I'm glad to be a small part in
the whole picture to raise money for charity.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: You had a chance to go around the course. Is it
about the same shape wise?
BERNHARD LANGER: Shape wise it's very good, very similar. I
think last year we had a little bit less rain and might have
been a little bit more bouncy and a little firmer. This year
they had some rain, and last week I think and yesterday. So it
played a little bit softer and maybe a little bit longer, but it
might dry out pretty quick the next few days.
Q. I noticed yesterday during the rain you were out there on the
putting green, no umbrella. Does that kind of reflect your work
ethic? And has that changed over the years? You're still just as
serious and dedicated as you always were?
BERNHARD LANGER: I put a pretty good amount of work into it. I'm
a strong believer in preparing very well. If you don't prepare,
you can't expect anything. I have high expectations, so I try to
prepare accordingly. You know, usually if it rains real hard
I'll have an umbrella. But I was covered up pretty good and it
was more of a drizzle than a rain, so I felt I was OK without
the umbrella. Yeah, I'm still not working as hard as I did in my
20s and 30s because my body can't take it. You know, I can't
take pounding balls for four or five hours. I spent a little bit
more time on the short game and in the physio truck working out
and stretching. It seems to work pretty good.
Q. Was that your son with you on the green? Is he going to be
caddying for you?
BERNHARD LANGER: He'll be my full time caddie until June, and
then he'll go to college and I'll have my other caddie back.
Q. You mentioned the high expectations. When you came out here,
what were your expectations in terms of winning? You won 5 out
of 28 events, which is a pretty good percentage. Did you expect
to win as much as you have?
BERNHARD LANGER: Well, I was hoping to be one of the dominant
players on this tour. I was trying to win tournaments. That's
really what we practice and play for. The thrill of being in
contention and winning never gets old. So my expectations, I
knew this tour had some very, very good players and the
competition would be tough. It was a little bit of an adjustment
at first to play three rounds instead of four, and you have to
be extremely aggressive from the beginning to the end if you
want to win. But that didn't take me long. I think I've done
well. I've continued to work hard at it to try and stay healthy
and hopefully win some more events.
Q. I've seen various numbers attributed to your career wins. Do
you have a ballpark figure? I saw 75 around the world. What's
accurate?
BERNHARD LANGER: Well, I think internationally it's about 82,
but I had maybe about 30 wins in Germany alone that haven't been
included in that number. So, you know, it always depends. They
were professional events, but they were mostly just German
players. I don't know if they count or not. It all depends. If
you include every single event it would be in the triple digits.
If it's just international stuff, it's probably more between 70
and 80, but I'm not totally sure.
Q. You touched on the charitable aspect of this tournament. Is
it just a coincidence that this tournament raises as many funds
as it does for charity and you get the top field and the top
players to come out for this event? Just wondering how closely
players look at what the tournament does for the community and
whether that impacts the schedule and the events they choose to
play?
BERNHARD LANGER: I'm sure it has something to do with it as
well. I think the players like the golf course. They like the
two tournaments here in L.A. It's convenient to come for two
weeks. A lot us live in Florida or on the East Coast. So if you
come this far, it's about six hours in the air, so probably 10
hours in total. It's nice to play two events in a row in the
same area. That's another thing. I think most tournaments now
get a pretty strong field. We looked at the last two events we
played in Boca Raton and Naples, and they had very strong
fields. So it has a lot to do with the schedule, and also the
golf course and the community and how the tournament is run and
everything. A lot of things play a part in it.
Q. What's the name of your son and his age?
BERNHARD LANGER: Stefan and he's 18. Stefan with an F. 18 years
old.
Q. You've been out here a little while now. Do you think you're
developing a rivalry with any particular players? I know Jay is
near the top a lot of the time. Are there certain players you
expect to be near the top with you?
BERNHARD LANGER: Well, I think, you know, the past few years it
has been proven that Jay and Loren Roberts have been two of the
dominant players. Obviously there's a few others as well, Tom
Watson would definitely be one. If he would play as many
tournaments as some do he would be up there. There's another
handful that can be dominant. If I'm correct, the Schwab Cup has
been won by Jay Haas and Loren Roberts the last three years.
Similar with the Money List. I'm trying to be part of that was
group and mix it up with them.
Q. Talk about the players coming onto the Champions Tour this
year. What kind of challenge do they pose?
BERNHARD LANGER: We're going to have Tom Lehman could be a big
factor. Fred Couples will be joining us, and he's still playing
extremely well. Numerous others. There's more and more guys
coming out every year. You know they're going ready, because
they heard so many good things about the Champions Tour. Not
like 20 years ago when they thought, Well, I'm basically retired
when I'm 40, 45, and I might play a couple events just for fun.
The guys are staying in shape and trying to practice. They know
they could have another good five or ten years on this tour at
least.
Q. As far as the schedule this year, besides the Champions
events, Masters...
BERNHARD LANGER: I'm planning on playing about 20 on this tour,
and then the Masters, two events in Germany, the European Tour,
and one European senior event. That's it. And the Father/Son. So
about 25 in total.
Q. Obviously guys like Tom Watson and Gary Player, Lee Trevino
are not playing a full schedule on the Champions Tour anymore,
yet all three of them are here this week. I know you're very
fond of Gary. Does that still do anything? Give you sort of an
excited vibe, the fact that you're playing against guys like
that when it doesn't happen too often?
BERNHARD LANGER: It's not so much playing against them, it's
more spending time with them and picking their brains a little
bit. I was fortunate enough to be good friends of Gary Player.
He was my golfing idol growing up. We played the Champions Skins
Game together a couple months ago. I sat on the plane with him
flying over by chance, believe it or not. We were sitting next
to each other for six hours flying over here, and we had some
good conversations. It's just fun being around guys like him and
Lee and Tom Watson and many of the other greats in the game.
Q. Can you let us in on any of the topics on the plane?
BERNHARD LANGER: Some of it is about golf. A lot of it is about
fitness and what we eat and what we should eat and what we eat.
We talked about how rampant cancer is, and that it can actually
being treated most sufficiently by changing your eating habits
and starving the cancer and not by having radiation and
chemotherapy. Things like that. Also politics and other stuff.
Golf course design. We both design golf courses. We both have
several kids. He has grandkids. I'm not there yet. Things like
that.
Q. Do you have an idea how inspirational Gary might be to other
guys on the tour still? I think he finished top 30 first event
of the year.
BERNHARD LANGER: He's awesome. Everybody looks at him and says,
Man, it really shows it pays off when you work out all your
life. He was probably the first guy who really took fitness to a
different level as a golfer. Most golfers, years ago, they don't
need to be that fit. As long as I can walk and turn and
whatever, I feel not too bad, I'm okay. He realized he was
shorter and smaller and he didn't have the power some of the
other guys had, so he just worked on his body. It shows now. The
guy is 73 years old and he still makes a 90 degree shoulder turn
on the backswing. He's healthy. He's got energy and he still
flies all over the place. There's not many 70 year olds around
that do that, you know. And he eats well. He takes care of his
body, not just in fitness, but also the intake.
Q. As far as the field goes, who do you expect to see at the top
the next three days?
BERNHARD LANGER: It's hard to say. I would guess Loren Roberts.
His confidence is high after winning two weeks ago. Probably
John Cook. He's contending in a lot of events, and he's a local
boy. Maybe Tom Watson. Could be anybody. I mean, out of the 78
guys, there's probably 50 or 60 guys that could win. Gene Jones
had a chance, you know, there's a lot of good players out here.
Just depends who is hot.
Q. Is it fair to say you're the guy to beat?
BERNHARD LANGER: That's up to you. I would like to think if you
asked the whole field that I would be mentioned a number of
times, but there's a lot of other guys, too.
Q. They have some new products in the new trailers. Have you
been using those? I also heard that you used the Golfgym Power
Swing Trainer to warm up.
BERNHARD LANGER: Which one, the power...
Q. The Power Swing Trainer. The rubber corded one with the golf
handle on it.
BERNHARD LANGER: I'm not aware of that right now, because we
have different trailers this week than we did the last few
weeks. We exchange them, and there's a little different
equipment on some of them. I use a lot of equipment in there. I
haven't been able to work out in this one yet because I didn't
have much time this week. I just got in on Tuesday. I was busy
the last couple days, so I will have to familiarize myself with
the new equipment. We just got new tables and new other things.
They're certainly very helpful to all of us. The equipment in
there, giving us a chance to work out and get some physical
therapy help or some chiropractor help when necessary, it's been
extremely beneficial to my career and my well being over the
years. I'm not sure I would still be out here and feeling as
good as I am without the fitness trailers traveling with us.
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Outside the Ropes Video
Name: Bernhard Langer Geburtsdatum: 27.08.1957
Geburtsort: Anhausen, Deutschland
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