AUGUSTA, Ga. — At age 67, two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer is playing in his 41st and final tournament at Augusta National. “The course is just getting too long, and I’m getting shorter and shorter, and I’m hitting hybrids where the other kids are hitting 9-irons and 8-irons, maybe even wedges,” he said earlier this week.
Yet after a solid opening round two-over 74, Langer remains in contention to become the oldest player in Masters history to make the cut. In fact, after 11 holes on Thursday, Langer was one under and creeping up on the first page of the leaderboard before three late bogeys dropped him back. The top 50 and ties after the second round will play the weekend. At the time of writing late Thursday, the cutline is around two over.
“Overall, it was a pretty good round for a 67-year-old to get around here at two over with the clubs I’m hitting into [greens]—sometimes 3-woods into par 4s and 2-hybrids and 3-hybrids,” said Langer, who wore all red in the first round in a tribute to his 1985 Masters-winning outfit. “So overall I’m very pleased with the performance. If I want to make the cut, I’ve got to do better tomorrow.”
Langer’s 2025 outfit (right) was inspired by the all-red look he wore in the final round of his 1985 Masters victory (left).
How can Langer, who only averaged 253 yards off the tee in the first round, compete with the best players in the world when he spots them 50 yards on every tee shot?
After his round on Thursday, Langer explained his key to scoring despite not hitting it far. But before we get there, first some context. As mentioned, Langer averaged 253 yards off the tee (two holes record driving distance at the Masters, Nos. 5 and 15) on a course that plays approximately 7,555 yards. When we take Langer’s distance as a percentage of course yardage, that is the equivalent of a player who averages 300 yards off the tee playing a course from … 8,958 yards.
The key to scoring well despite such a length disadvantage, Langer says, is in approach play. “The thought is more like where do I have to land it to maybe stop it on the green? And if it doesn’t stop on the green, where can I get it up-and-down from? That’s the constant battle,” Langer said. “What’s the easier up-and-down? Left, right, short, long.”
Langer concedes he won’t be able to hit a lot of greens when coming in with long clubs (he hit five of 18 greens in regulation on Thursday), but leaving the ball in the easiest place to get it up-and-down is critical to scoring on a long course. How does he do that? Let’s analyze three examples from his round.
At 495 yards, the fifth hole is regularly one of the toughest on the course. After a 268-yard drive, Langer had 223 yards left for his approach to a green with treacherous slopes. Coming in with fairway wood, Langer had little chance to stop the ball on the putting surface.
Looking at StrackaLine’s green book, we see that with Thursday’s hole location cut on the middle-left portion of the green, the easiest up-and-down would be from left of the green. For reference on the image, green and blue represents modest amounts of slope, while red denotes severe undulation.
And left is just where Langer hit his fairway wood, hole-high just off the green. A fairly straightforward putt from off the green led to a par on a hole averaging well over par.
On the 10th, Langer’s 286-yard drive left him 227 yards off a downslope to a hole situated in the back right of the green. Again looking at the StrackaLine book, we see that any right miss would be short-sided and a likely bogey. With plenty of room left of the hole and green, Langer kept his approach well left. (In fact, his approach was about 10 yards more left than this shot-tracker indicates.)
Had Langer landed his ball on the green, he likely wouldn’t have been able to keep it on. By choosing to miss left, he had a simple pitch up the slope, which he hit to two feet and made par.
Another option when you can’t stop a long approach on the green? Land it well short and use the slope, just as Langer did on the 520-yard 11th. After a 272-yard drive, Langer had 256 yards left. Using hybrid—a club Langer typically uses for much shorter shots—he landed the ball well short of the green to use the severe downslopes to kick the ball onto the surface.
After rolling out, his approach eventually finished about 30 feet from the hole, the result not of a towering long-iron shot that others in the field would have been able to hit, but a well thought and well executed tumbling approach.
And therein lies the lesson for anyone taking inspiration in Langer’s impressive play at 67 years old. If you know you can’t hit the “proper” shot to land and stop the ball on the green, consider how you can run it up. And if that’s not an option, think about where the easiest chip would be from.
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