Tag: 2022 TimberTech Championship

Bernhard Langer dominates TimberTech Championship for 44th PGA Tour Champions win, one back of Hale Irwin’s mark

There’s not supposed to be homefield advantage in golf. Try telling that to Bernhard Langer.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — There’s not supposed to be homefield advantage in golf. Try telling that to Bernhard Langer.

The Boca Raton resident won the TimberTech Championship on Sunday, marking the third time he has won his hometown event in 15 tries.

Not even shifting the tournament from Broken Sound to Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club while the Old Course is being renovated could stop Langer’s local dominance.

The biggest impact? Langer’s daily commute to work was 25 minutes instead of 10.

Not much else changed, Langer lifting the trophy in front of family and friends for his 44th career victory on the PGA Tour Champions.

And it wasn’t close.

Langer fired a final-round 66 to pull away for a six-shot victory over Paul Goydos and Thongchai Jaidee at 17-under 199. Langer was 1-over after 15 holes Friday, but played his last 39 holes in 20 under. That’s better than a birdie for every other hole.

“I wish we had 10 tournaments around here,” Langer said with a smile. “That’s probably not going to happen.”

2022 TimberTech Championship
Bernhard Langer celebrates with the trophy and his family on the 18th green after the final round of the 2022 TimberTech Championship at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo: Raj Mehta/Getty Images)

Sunday’s win means for the rest of his career, every time Langer tees it up on the PGA Tour Champions, he will have a chance to make history.

Langer’s next win will tie Hale Irwin’s once-thought untouchable record of 45 career titles on the 50-and-older circuit. The one after that will break the record, and more wins after that will make Langer’s mark seem untouchable.

You’re not supposed to be winning tournaments at 65. Try telling that to Langer, too.

“I’m getting closer and closer, but I’m also getting older and older,” Langer said. “The clock is ticking. I may have another two or three years where I could win. I’m not sure how much longer that will continue, but I will keep trying.”

Langer broke his own record for being the oldest champion on a major tour. Age is just another number for Langer. He bettered his age by two shots in Saturday’s second round for the sixth time in his career.

People often ask what’s the secret to Langer’s success. There’s no secret – he just outworks his peers.

Langer was one of the few players who had played Royal Palm before this week, but those were corporate outings, not tournament conditions.

He struggled on Royal Palm’s greens in the first round, like most of the players. So he arrived at the course hours before his second-round tee time to try a new putter that eventually allowed him to take only 21 putts while shooting the 63.

Langer’s career is remarkable. He turned pro earlier than most, at age 15, and he’s still winning tournaments later than anyone. Fifty years is the minimum age to join the PGA Tour, not usually the length of someone’s career.

$1.74 million in hometown tournament

They should eventually re-name this tournament the Bernhard Langer Invitational. Then again, he already owns it inside the ropes.

Consider: In his 15 starts at the TimberTech Championship, he has finished in the top three in more than half his starts (eight). The $350,000 first prize he pocketed Sunday pushes his earnings at his hometown event to—get this—$1.744 million.

That’s a career for most folks.

He isn’t ready to call it a career, either.

“I always said if I feel good, if I’m healthy, if I enjoy what I’m doing and somewhat successful, I’ll continue,” Langer said. “There’s no reason to stop. Hopefully, I know when to quit and I don’t go way beyond.”

Even then, he can always play in his hometown event. And probably win it.

“It’s always awesome to win anywhere in the world, but to win in your hometown in front of family, friends is that much more meaningful and special,” Langer said.

And, for Langer, quite often.

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TimberTech Championship: Harrington’s second-round 67 a testament to perseverance

Padraig’s round started with a snowman.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Padraig Harrington may have shot one of the best 67s Saturday in PGA Tour Champions history.

He started the second round of the TimberTech Championship with a big, fat 8.

That’s right, you can make a snowman in 85-degree weather.

“It was a good 8,” Harrington said of his triple bogey on the par-5 first hole at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club.

He’s not kidding.

His opening tee shot went out of bounds to the left. His second tee shot should have been out of bounds to the right.

“I got a lucky break,” he said. “My third shot was going out of bounds, but it hit a tree, then hit a fence and was in bounds by an inch. I had to hit the next one left-handed, and that went behind a tree.”

He went for the green with his fifth shot, the ball landing in the water in front of the green. He dropped and hit his seventh shot to 6 feet and one-putted for the “good” 8.

Now what?

“After that, it turned into a practice round,” Harrington said. “When you feel like the tournament is gone, I reset it and let’s get the game in shape for next week.”

Most pros would have mailed in the next 17 holes. Not Harrington. He’s tougher than an IRS agent.

He birdied the fifth, sixth and ninth hole to get those three shots back and make the turn at even. He gained revenge on the two par 5s on the back nine, making eagles at the 13th and 18th holes, and added a birdie at the 16th.

No surprise Harrington finished his comeback round in style, holing a bunker shot at the 18th for an eagle. What a contrast it was to his struggling start.

Harrington went from a guy who couldn’t get off the first tee — sound familiar to the rest of us? — to playing his last 17 holes in 8 under.

The Irishman has little chance of winning the TimberTech Championship — he’s six shots behind ageless Bernhard Langer, who fired a 63 Saturday as he hopes to move within a win of Hale Irwin’s career mark of 45 PGA Tour Champions titles.

But still … What Harrington did Saturday earned the three-time major champion a ton of cred from his peers, especially on a course where he has zero confidence.

“I find this course exceptionally hard,” he said. “I’m swinging in a straitjacket out there. I wish I had more confidence on this golf course. I was struggling to get off the first tee box. That’s no fun.”

The 67 was meaningful because Harrington is the only player who can deny TimberTech Championship defending champion Steven Alker from winning his first Charles Schwab Cup. Harrington entered this week in second place in the standings, needing to earn $375,000 more than Alker in the last two playoff events to win the CSC.

Alker is in a tie for fourth place after a 68 Saturday and can clinch the title with a runner-up finish or better. Harrington’s amazing recovery left him a shot behind Alker, tied for ninth place.

So you’re saying he’s got a chance?

“Look, (5 under) is better than being 3-over par,” Harrington said. “It gives me a chance if I can shoot a good one tomorrow.”

Harrington was asked how proud he was of his 67, considering the start.

“Doesn’t often turn around like that, but if anybody knows me, they know that when bad things happen to me, I dig deeper,” he said.

It was like he had an excavator in his bag.

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Bernhard Langer beats his age yet again, takes lead at TimberTech Championship

Langer is the only two-time winner of the tournament.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — After posting a 2-under-par 70 in Friday’s opening round, Bernhard Langer said it would take “two very good rounds” Saturday and Sunday for him to have a shot at winning the TimberTech Championship.

He exceeded his expectations Saturday, firing a 9-under 63 at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club to take a one-shot lead over Paul Goydos heading into Sunday’s finale.

“I knew it would take a very good round, but this was a special round,” said Langer, 65, who began the day with three consecutive birdies and added two more birdies and a bogey to go out in 4-under 32 to beat his age by two shots. He also had five birdies on the back nine to come home in 31 for a two-round total of 11-under 133. “Nine under in windy conditions on this course is not easy.”

Langer is the only two-time winner of the tournament, with victories in 2010 and 2019, and he’s also had three seconds and two thirds. Saturday’s 63 was his lowest round in the tournament, which had previously been played at the Old Course at Broken Sound.

“Today actually wasn’t necessarily my best ball-striking day,” Langer said, “but I made a bunch of putts and shot 9 under, two better than my age, so that’s pretty exciting.”

Goydos shot a 66 with five birdies, a bogey and an eagle-2 on the short par-4 16th when he pitched in from just off the green. The Californian, 58, who won this event in 2015, opened with a 68 and played in the final group Saturday with Rod Pampling and first-round leader Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Pampling, of Australia, shot a 69 with three birdies and no bogeys and was alone in third at 7-under 137. Jimenez shot 72 after his opening 67 to fall into a tie for ninth at 5 under. The Spaniard birdied his first two holes Saturday and got to 8 under through nine holes to lead the tournament, but two bogeys and a double bogey dropped him to 4-under before he birdied the 17th hole.

Irishman Darren Clarke, who won the 2020 TimberTech title and the Senior Open Championship this summer, started off as hot as Langer on Saturday after opening with a 72. Clarke had five birdies on the front nine and was seven under through his first 12 holes, which at the time gave him the lead over Langer, who was playing four groups behind Clarke.

Clarke bogeyed the par-4 14th when he failed to get up and down after his lob wedge approach plugged in a greenside bunker. He came right back with a birdie at the par-3 15th to return to 7 under.

At the par-5 18th, which was tied with the par-5 13th as the easiest hole with a scoring average of 4.673, Clarke hit his second shot into the water. After a drop, he hit his fourth shot onto the green and missed his par putt to finish with a bogey and a 6-under 66 to move from a tie for 23rd place into a tie for fourth with four others.

“Making six on the last is inexcusable,” said Clarke, who downplayed his eight birdies and solid putting. “I just rolled it nicely and a few went in. I got lucky today, my speed was good for the most part, that’s why a few went in.”

Langer switched putters Saturday and had only 21 putts, which was helped when he holed a bunker shot for a birdie on the par-4 third hole.

“Same model, same everything, but a little different blade, a little different look to it,” he said of a putter that he has used before for many years. He said he also read the greens better Saturday than he did during the pro-ams Wednesday and Thursday and on Friday.

“I don’t know what I did different, I just read them correctly.”

Langer tees off in the final threesome Sunday with Pampling and Goydos, who admitted that Langer has the advantage.

“This is a course where you just need to plod along. You’ll make birdies and also bogeys and double bogeys out here,” Goydos said. “(Langer) is a plodder, he doesn’t make mistakes. He very rarely beats himself, so it’s no big surprise that he’s playing well on this particular golf course.”

So it probably wouldn’t surprise Goydos if Langer has one more very good round.

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