Speaker 1: Welcome to the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Shane Bacon. This week's Clubhouse episode with Bernhard Langer is
Speaker 1: brought to you, of course, by o Geo and the
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Speaker 1: Gio dot com right now. An impressive weekend. Justin Thomas
Speaker 1: seventh win in his last thirty win starts now number
Speaker 1: three in the world. I'm not really sure how he's
Speaker 1: number three. I feel like he should be near one.
Speaker 1: He should definitely be ahead of John rom at least
Speaker 1: in my opinion, but the last number three in the world.
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods twelfth place, finished best in nearly three years.
Speaker 1: He looked really solid. He looked like he was strategically
Speaker 1: playing this golf course, which is something we've seen Tiger
Speaker 1: do successfully over the course of his career. I liked
Speaker 1: a lot of the choices he had off the tea,
Speaker 1: didn't seem to be leaning on the driver as much.
Speaker 1: A couple of bad swings on the part of Three's
Speaker 1: during the bear Trap, but everybody struggles with those wholes.
Speaker 1: They're really really hard. But good signs from Tiger, that's
Speaker 1: for sure. A lot of positives coming out of these
Speaker 1: three weeks that he played. I know he missed the
Speaker 1: cut at Riviera, but I just feel like he's building
Speaker 1: towards something impressive, towards something that can actually work in
Speaker 1: this world, in this two thousand eighteen PGA Tour, and
Speaker 1: that's what he needs. So if you can keep finding
Speaker 1: fairways with fairway woods and stinger irons and maybe the
Speaker 1: driver out a bit, the putting seems to be there,
Speaker 1: the iron place seems to be there. And if that's
Speaker 1: the case, I mean, I guess I have to say it.
Speaker 1: Tiger Wood's probably going to be a PGA Tour winner
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eighteen. Exciting stuff. If you missed
Speaker 1: the Clubhouse newsletter this week, make sure you signed up
Speaker 1: for that. Just go to my Twitter page at Shane
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Speaker 1: there up top. You can sign up for it. You
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Speaker 1: It's just an easy way to get information that you
Speaker 1: need that you don't have to go search the internet for.
Speaker 1: Who wants to go searching websites, websites with pop up
Speaker 1: ads and all that stuff. It's no fun. That's that's
Speaker 1: that's a lace. Um. Well enough of me. I was
Speaker 1: excited to get the talk to Bernhard Langer, the two
Speaker 1: time Masters champion now has ten champions Tour major wins.
Speaker 1: Just seems to be defined age and father time and
Speaker 1: all that stuff that seems to get anybody that spent
Speaker 1: four or five six years out on the Champions tories
Speaker 1: sixty years old, and he's still the best player in
Speaker 1: that regard. Plus he thinks he could still compete at
Speaker 1: the Masters, he he said, he thinks that in the
Speaker 1: right conditions he could maybe at a three third green jacket.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's sixty. That seems absurd, especially with the
Speaker 1: distance that Augustin National is these days. But hey, he said,
Speaker 1: firm and fast, he's got a chance. He'll talk about
Speaker 1: that and plenty more up next, and we welcome into
Speaker 1: the clubhouse for the first time. Two time Master champion
Speaker 1: and now a record ten, yes, ten Champions Tour Major wins.
Speaker 1: Is that weird to hear Bernard Longer? Well, it's it's
Speaker 1: a little weird. But it's been a lot of fun,
Speaker 1: you know. It's it's always fun to do something no
Speaker 1: one else has done before, and I'm certainly very blessed
Speaker 1: to still be at it. Well, my first question for you,
Speaker 1: I've been asking some players that have jumped on this
Speaker 1: and and you're gonna have to rack your brain, so
Speaker 1: this will be a hard one to start. What are
Speaker 1: the what was the first full set of like adult
Speaker 1: golf clubs you ever owned? Do you remember? Yes? I
Speaker 1: certainly do, because I paid for him myself as a
Speaker 1: twelve year old. So there were Croydon's. Most people don't
Speaker 1: probably haven't never that name, but make a long story short.
Speaker 1: I was caddying from nine years old, and UH saved
Speaker 1: some money that we only had four clubs as caddies.
Speaker 1: It was a two woods three seven iron and I
Speaker 1: thought it with a bench shaft, and so I always
Speaker 1: wanted my own clubs and eventually had saved enough money
Speaker 1: to buy those, and that was you know, it's like
Speaker 1: Christmas and needs to come by. And how much would
Speaker 1: you make back in the day for those loops? How
Speaker 1: much would they pay you for eighteen holes? It was
Speaker 1: then German. It was like two toutch marks and fifty
Speaker 1: clinics for nine holes, which is about a dollar for
Speaker 1: nine holes. Not very much, but it was. It was
Speaker 1: a lot for me at the time. You were happy
Speaker 1: with it. I've caddied before. Any money you get, any
Speaker 1: time they passed your money in your pocket, you gotta
Speaker 1: be happy, will you? You turned professional professional at fifteen
Speaker 1: years old, is that correct? That's correct? Yes? What were
Speaker 1: you thinking going? Going pro that early. What what was
Speaker 1: the motivation to go at fifteen? Well, it's actually it's simple.
Speaker 1: I finished school, uh basic schooling after nine years, and
Speaker 1: I had to go to work. So the only way
Speaker 1: for me to stay in golf was actually working or
Speaker 1: to play golf, was to work in golf because I
Speaker 1: didn't have the money. Uh you know, if I just
Speaker 1: do an average job. There were all private clubs in Germany,
Speaker 1: I couldn't have afforded it. So I watched the golf instructor,
Speaker 1: the golf coach we had at our local club, and
Speaker 1: and enjoyed what he was doing, helping people to play
Speaker 1: better golf. So I became a assistant golf professional, learning
Speaker 1: the trade, you know, working in the pro shop, giving
Speaker 1: lessons and running events and fixing golf clubs and learning English,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. And you've been a winner
Speaker 1: in a in a staple on the European tour since
Speaker 1: really the mid seventies. At what point through the process
Speaker 1: did you think to yourself, Hey, I'm pretty good at this.
Speaker 1: I've got a chance to make this a serious, you know,
Speaker 1: a serious long career. Yeah. I was weird because in
Speaker 1: Germany there was really never anybody that's done anything on
Speaker 1: any tour in the seventies and even in the early eighties,
Speaker 1: so I really didn't know what to expect, but I
Speaker 1: wanted a few events amongst the German pros as an
Speaker 1: assistant pro and a businessman from Cologne watched me when
Speaker 1: the German National Close Championship when I was seventeen, and
Speaker 1: he said, but do you have any aspirations to go
Speaker 1: on the tour. Let me know, I might help you financially,
Speaker 1: and I said, well, I certainly would, and about a
Speaker 1: year from now so he financed me a little bit
Speaker 1: and that was you know, I figured, well, I'll give
Speaker 1: it a few years. If it doesn't work out, you
Speaker 1: can always go back to teaching, and thankfully it worked
Speaker 1: out pretty decent. Yeah. I mean it's so much different now.
Speaker 1: I mean when you look at the way young players
Speaker 1: go through the processes now, I mean, it is completely
Speaker 1: different than than what you went through. Paul Easinger has
Speaker 1: told me numero times when he went to college to
Speaker 1: play golf, he couldn't break eighty. I mean, now you're
Speaker 1: seeing these junior players, you know, that have all the
Speaker 1: game in the world. I mean, what was your game
Speaker 1: like when you were fifteen years old, seventeen years old.
Speaker 1: What was it like compared to maybe a seventeen year
Speaker 1: old aspiring professional today. Yeah, you know, it was weird
Speaker 1: because I was never an amtor. I never had a handicapped,
Speaker 1: So I was caddied till fifteen, and I would I
Speaker 1: would be able to play a few caddy tournaments with practice,
Speaker 1: and I would probably shoot around even part when I
Speaker 1: was fifteen, and then I gradually got better. And you know,
Speaker 1: so when I was eighteen, I broke part on on
Speaker 1: a regular basis. But what exactly what my handicap would
Speaker 1: have been, I really have no idea. Well, I mentioned
Speaker 1: golf changing when you talked to young players, When you
Speaker 1: talk to somebody, say a fifteen, seventeen, twenty year old
Speaker 1: European player that that is thinking about taking on the
Speaker 1: PGG Tour, I mean this, this has really turned into
Speaker 1: kind of a global golf world that we're in right now.
Speaker 1: What's the advice you give them as they start to
Speaker 1: move outside of their comfort zone and prepare to play elsewhere. Well,
Speaker 1: I would first of all tell them to finish their
Speaker 1: education because it's such a fickle game. You know, so
Speaker 1: many things can go wrong. And there's no guarantee you're
Speaker 1: going to be successful, and it's very few that are.
Speaker 1: And it's an extremely difficult profession if you're struggling, if
Speaker 1: you if you're not very very, very good. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: tough because you're traveling, you're always away, you have expenses
Speaker 1: at home, expenses away, you keep missing cuts, you know,
Speaker 1: have no income, and it's just no fun when you're struggling.
Speaker 1: But if you think you can be one of the best,
Speaker 1: then I would certainly recommend it to you know, pursue
Speaker 1: the dream, give it a few years and see how
Speaker 1: it all develops. Well, you you won the Master's in
Speaker 1: it was your third started Augusta. You were a known
Speaker 1: entity in Germany, you were known entity around the European tour.
Speaker 1: How different did life become following that win considering it
Speaker 1: was on you know, it was on United States soil
Speaker 1: and it was a major championship. Well, it certainly changed
Speaker 1: a lot in my career. I mean I was maybe
Speaker 1: not that well known in America, but I did finish
Speaker 1: second in the British opening eighty one. I won the
Speaker 1: European money List in eighty four, so you know, people
Speaker 1: should have heard of me. If they watched some of
Speaker 1: the bigger events. But at the time golf wasn't as global,
Speaker 1: and you know, most people saw that all the best
Speaker 1: golfers come from America, which which was probably true. You know,
Speaker 1: we had you know, Tony Jackman and Savy Byasnaros had
Speaker 1: already won British Open and one or two Masters, so
Speaker 1: he's heard the first on scene. But it was a
Speaker 1: big break through for me. I'm married in American Women
Speaker 1: in eighty four, and then one of the Masters which
Speaker 1: in eighty five, which gave me a ten year full
Speaker 1: exemption on the tour at the time, which was huge.
Speaker 1: I could choose to play in the US or continue
Speaker 1: play in Europe and worldwide, which I did for the
Speaker 1: most part, but I also played a little bit more
Speaker 1: in the US, and uh I had a second home
Speaker 1: over here, which was great for me because growing up
Speaker 1: in German in the winter, you know, I was basically
Speaker 1: no golf for four or five months. Would you you
Speaker 1: started the day back at eighty six, I mean, you
Speaker 1: win the Masters in eighty five, you're just a shot
Speaker 1: back of Greg Norman. Of course, everybody knows what happened
Speaker 1: in six, you know, Jack Nicholas wins arguably the greatest
Speaker 1: final round in the history of of of a Master's
Speaker 1: not necessarily the best memory for you, But take us
Speaker 1: back to that day, being on the golf course, being
Speaker 1: in the mix there, What was the buzz like around
Speaker 1: that final round? What were the fans like? I could
Speaker 1: only imagine it was. It was as crazy as it
Speaker 1: could be considering what was going on around you. It
Speaker 1: certainly was. You know, there were loud cheers as you
Speaker 1: would ever here around Augusta, and you could just send
Speaker 1: something special was happening, and I wasn't sure what it was,
Speaker 1: but when I looked at the lead board, I could
Speaker 1: see Nicholas creeping up near the top. And the amazing
Speaker 1: thing is everybody else kind of faltered. You know, you
Speaker 1: had Savy Bias, there's there. You had Greg normanal he
Speaker 1: needed was part on the last to go on a playoff.
Speaker 1: You had Tom Kite who had about an eight foot
Speaker 1: pot on the last to tie as well. There were
Speaker 1: all sor two players in the mix and nobody, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of finished it off in the very end, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the bear came through, and he came through roaring,
Speaker 1: and obviously everybody was thrilled as an amazing fee too
Speaker 1: to win his six Masters at and I was very
Speaker 1: very blessed to just slip the checket on him and
Speaker 1: then shake his hand and say, well done. This is incredible.
Speaker 1: When you go back to Augustine, you play practice rounds
Speaker 1: with with young players, how do you describe the golf
Speaker 1: course to them? Because it is a place it seems
Speaker 1: like that either it fits your aim or it doesn't.
Speaker 1: I mean we saw Lee Travino struggle there for a
Speaker 1: long time throughout his career. Of course, we have guys
Speaker 1: like Jack Nicholas, You, Tiger Woods, Nick Voulo, these types
Speaker 1: of players that it seems to really fit their golf game.
Speaker 1: What do you tell them? What's the advice you give
Speaker 1: players when you play with them for the first time
Speaker 1: to get around Augustine hopefully to have similar successes that
Speaker 1: you've had. Well, the first thing I was telling is
Speaker 1: really pay attention to the greens where and what you
Speaker 1: want to miss the green or miss your shot. If
Speaker 1: you if you miss it, you know so you have
Speaker 1: an apple pot. Or if you missed the green, you
Speaker 1: need to miss it on the correct side where you
Speaker 1: can get it up and down. Because if you miss
Speaker 1: it on the wrong side, there's no way you're gonna
Speaker 1: get it up and down unless you make at sixty
Speaker 1: pot and that's the key. But Augusta has changed dramatically.
Speaker 1: I think the golf course has really changed in the
Speaker 1: In the eighties and nineties, before they made all the changes, um,
Speaker 1: the fairways were extremely white. It was really I mean,
Speaker 1: you were upset if you missed the fairway. Literally, they
Speaker 1: were very generous, and it was all about or mostly
Speaker 1: about the second shot. And uh sort did the angle
Speaker 1: of the second shot, but then also mostly the second
Speaker 1: shot and putting in the short game. And now it's
Speaker 1: then they planted five thousand trees, made it much more
Speaker 1: narrow and much longer, and now it's a tough driving
Speaker 1: course on on top of you know, second shot is
Speaker 1: still crucial and we all know how difficult these greens are.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the greens. Do you think that people overrate
Speaker 1: putting when they talk about the Masters, because we've seen
Speaker 1: guys that have struggled with they're putting win there. I
Speaker 1: mean Bubba Watson not a historically great putter, Sergio Garcia
Speaker 1: not a historically great putter. Adam Scott, you know, recently
Speaker 1: one and not always great on the greens. You you said,
Speaker 1: you know it's a second shot type of golf course.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like we had there? Everybody the media
Speaker 1: always says, you know, you gotta put well, you gotta
Speaker 1: put well. But it seems like you don't necessarily have
Speaker 1: to be a great putter. Almost the greens, you know,
Speaker 1: make it, make it an equal plane old for everybody.
Speaker 1: You still need to you still need to make some
Speaker 1: putts and uh, you need a voice tree putting and
Speaker 1: tour putting, and you gotta make some putts. But the
Speaker 1: greens are so pure. Uh. And all these players you mentioned,
Speaker 1: they may not be the greatest potters weekend and we
Speaker 1: got but they all have weeks when they do put
Speaker 1: very well. Um, and you know that that was their
Speaker 1: time when they wanted there. They they potted well on
Speaker 1: top of hitting the ball grade and that's what it takes.
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Speaker 1: smartest way to hire. Okay, back to Bernhard. You're sixty
Speaker 1: years old. You've been in contention recently at the Master,
Speaker 1: So here I'm gonna give you a platform to say it.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you still have the game to
Speaker 1: compete and maybe get yourself in the mix again? In
Speaker 1: two thousand, eighteen and beyond. Yeah, I definitely feel I
Speaker 1: have the game to compete. Um. Yeah. At the same time,
Speaker 1: it is very difficult for me because I'm hitting some
Speaker 1: guys hit eight and nine irons and uh, I can
Speaker 1: reach some of the top five's which they can reach.
Speaker 1: So I I really need to in my as game
Speaker 1: either green and on the greens, and you know, I've
Speaker 1: got to be really precise, not make any mistakes so
Speaker 1: very few. If if I just play mediocre, I got
Speaker 1: no chance. While some of the bombers, they can get
Speaker 1: away with a bunch of you know, not so great
Speaker 1: shots as they have lots of opportunities for birdies. If
Speaker 1: if they have a wet tonight and in in the end
Speaker 1: for the second shots, or if they can reach the
Speaker 1: path fives into they're gonna make a few eagles or
Speaker 1: a bunch of birdies. When you get to the Masters
Speaker 1: every year, it's six years old. Now, what conditions do
Speaker 1: you hope to see? I mean, what conditions do you
Speaker 1: feel like fits your game the best? You needed to
Speaker 1: be firm and fast, you needed to be wet. What
Speaker 1: what do you hope to see when you get there
Speaker 1: to bring out the best in your game and to
Speaker 1: give yourself a chance. But I'd like to see it
Speaker 1: firm and fast. It's gonna make the golf course much harder,
Speaker 1: and it's going to make the golf course a little shorter,
Speaker 1: which I think it favors my game. I'm still gonna
Speaker 1: a few greens because I'm still hitting longer clubs in there,
Speaker 1: but I I hopefully will miss them in the right places,
Speaker 1: as I said, where I have a good chance to
Speaker 1: get up and down. But if if the golf course
Speaker 1: is wet, it plays extremely long, and you get a
Speaker 1: lot of mud balls because they mode the fairways from
Speaker 1: green to tea, so it's like hitting into the grain
Speaker 1: on every T shirt and it digs up that Georgia clay,
Speaker 1: and you know that's no fun when you're hitting three
Speaker 1: or four and with a little clump of third on
Speaker 1: the side and you don't know how much it's going
Speaker 1: to affect it. You turned fifty a decade ago, you
Speaker 1: won your first season on the Champions Tour. You then
Speaker 1: started to reel off multiple win seasons. It's been ten years.
Speaker 1: How are you able to keep doing this? And most
Speaker 1: people don't do this like you're doing it. They normally
Speaker 1: have four or five good years and then they kind
Speaker 1: of ride off into the sunset. That's not been the
Speaker 1: case with you. Now. I'm trying to defeat the odds.
Speaker 1: You know, there's always been there's always been a few
Speaker 1: that stood out, whether it's Tom Watson tailor in there's
Speaker 1: there's was a few that are just a little bit
Speaker 1: better than than the good average. And I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be one of those, and so far it's it's worked out.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to stay healthy, and I really enjoyed um
Speaker 1: to play the game of golf. I know the clock
Speaker 1: is ticking and my years are numbered, so I might
Speaker 1: as well have fun while at lasts and see what happened.
Speaker 1: You mentioned you like to you you're trying to stay fits,
Speaker 1: trying to stay healthy. What do you do in that regard?
Speaker 1: I mean, are you a gym rat, just eat healthy,
Speaker 1: lucky with genetics. What are you doing to stay in
Speaker 1: the best shape you can stay in? Yeah, probably a
Speaker 1: little bit of everything. I'm I enjoy working out. I've
Speaker 1: I've done that all my life, even though when I
Speaker 1: was younger, I enjoyed you know, in the early days,
Speaker 1: I would go for runs in the in the woods
Speaker 1: in Germany, and I loved that till my back was
Speaker 1: so bad that I had to quit jogging. So then
Speaker 1: I had to, you know, find the stationary bike or
Speaker 1: something where I wouldn't have the pounding. But I just en,
Speaker 1: you know, moving and uh, just stretching. I feel better,
Speaker 1: I have more energy, I'm not as stiff, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think it just also creates long chevity. It's good
Speaker 1: for you. Yeah, I mean, if you were working out
Speaker 1: early in your career, you had to be one of
Speaker 1: the few guys that did it. Of course, Gary Player,
Speaker 1: who has been preaching this forever, loves to tell people
Speaker 1: what they should do with their bodies, what they should
Speaker 1: do around the game. Tell me your best Gary Player
Speaker 1: workout story that you have. Well, it's, uh, it's a
Speaker 1: bit off color, so I can't tell that one. But uh,
Speaker 1: there there's a bunch of I mean, every time you
Speaker 1: you're running too, Gary, it's something, you know, the latest
Speaker 1: thing that's been baking. You can't eat any bacon, it
Speaker 1: will kill you, man, don't eat bacon. And then every
Speaker 1: time I see him, he goes, look at me, you
Speaker 1: know now, I'm eighty two. I just saw him a
Speaker 1: week ago and we were we were doing a fundraiser together,
Speaker 1: and he says, yeah, morning, I did a thousand push
Speaker 1: ups and sit ups. Look at me. Just sit as
Speaker 1: a whistle. And then he picks his leg and makes
Speaker 1: a fold turn. And the guy is amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you compare him with most other eight year olds,
Speaker 1: he can still make a very big shoulder most people
Speaker 1: couldn't do. Yeah, it's it's incredible. He cracks me up
Speaker 1: every time he talks about it. I've had him on
Speaker 1: a couple of times. And and my last name is Bacon.
Speaker 1: He yells at me just about my last name. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can you do anything about it? Man? There's nothing
Speaker 1: I canna do. Yeah, I mentioned you you're you're sixty.
Speaker 1: You've been doing this for a decade. Some guys go
Speaker 1: to the tour, go to the Champions Tour, and they
Speaker 1: never have any successes. Some guys don't want to go
Speaker 1: at all. A name comes to mind is Greg Norman.
Speaker 1: Why is it that some players want to keep pushing
Speaker 1: and some players hang it up when they basically don't
Speaker 1: feel like they can compete on the PGA Tour. It
Speaker 1: just seems like they don't really have a ton of
Speaker 1: interest to go to the next level. You know. That's
Speaker 1: that's a great question. I think that in the case
Speaker 1: of Greg Norman, he probably just some want to put
Speaker 1: into the work anymore and and uh, you know practice,
Speaker 1: he's he's had a great career and he's got other interests.
Speaker 1: He wants to do other things in life. Uh, and
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to be beating balls and playing tournaments.
Speaker 1: I guess, I don't know what you know, Paul Aising
Speaker 1: and maybe similar he just I thought, like, what, I've
Speaker 1: been doing this for thirty years and I've I've had enough.
Speaker 1: I'm not willing to be grinding on the driving range
Speaker 1: and putting in the work. H to be at the
Speaker 1: level they want to be, and they don't want to
Speaker 1: be just mediocre. They were, you know, some of the
Speaker 1: best there ever has been, and and that's if they
Speaker 1: play golf. I think they wouldn't want to play at
Speaker 1: any other level than to be one of the best.
Speaker 1: And that takes a bit of work, no matter how old. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it seems like, at least in my years of being
Speaker 1: around some of these older players, it seems there's really
Speaker 1: two roads. One is they love golf and they'll always
Speaker 1: love golf. And the other one is golf was their
Speaker 1: job job. And I feel like you were in the
Speaker 1: in the grouping of you love golf. I mean, do
Speaker 1: you still really enjoy getting out there and playing, even
Speaker 1: if it's just eighteen holes, you know, your home course.
Speaker 1: I mean, is it still a passion for you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Most most of the time. I mean, I take a
Speaker 1: lot more time off now than I ever have in
Speaker 1: my life because I have other interests and I need
Speaker 1: a break from the game. I've been doing this on
Speaker 1: tours and for forty two years. It's a very long time,
Speaker 1: so I'm learning to pace myself. I don't love the
Speaker 1: game enough to I would want to play every single
Speaker 1: day of the year. I couldn't do that. I need
Speaker 1: to get away and take breaks. But I love to compete,
Speaker 1: so I want to get out there, you know, a
Speaker 1: few times a year and playing tournaments until the adrenaline
Speaker 1: and and see if I can pull off the shots.
Speaker 1: And you know, I see that little bit in Nixaldo.
Speaker 1: He's got to obviously his main focus is television, but
Speaker 1: he when he comes out, he still loves to. He
Speaker 1: still thinks you can do it, you know, and and
Speaker 1: he works at it and and prank this is and
Speaker 1: and he still has a lot of the game. You're
Speaker 1: you're a real calm guy on the golf course. I
Speaker 1: followed you during practice rounds. I've been out there. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're playing in major championships and your demeanor doesn't
Speaker 1: change much. What's the maddest you've ever been on the
Speaker 1: golf course? Well, that's just to the outside. On the inside,
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on. There's there's some storms happening
Speaker 1: inside at times. But yeah, on the outside, I don't
Speaker 1: fairly column and I try to be even keel. You know,
Speaker 1: take the good in the bad because it's it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Once or of colleague of mine say, you know, you've
Speaker 1: got to forgive yourself for the bad shots, uh, even
Speaker 1: before they happen, because they will happen. And and I
Speaker 1: thought about that, and I thought it was very wise. Um,
Speaker 1: and it's no good, you know, just once you make
Speaker 1: a double bogue bogue and then you're mad at yourself
Speaker 1: for the next hour. That doesn't help you. You've got
Speaker 1: to get over it. And as as they say, the
Speaker 1: next shot is always the most important. You were never
Speaker 1: a a thrower. I mean, you never in your early twenties,
Speaker 1: you chuck the seven iron. I threw a club. Yeah,
Speaker 1: last time I really threw a club in anger. I
Speaker 1: was about seventeen, and uh, I was paired with I
Speaker 1: was playing just for a little money. Was my best
Speaker 1: friends and I was I just three parted from six
Speaker 1: feed or whatever, and I threw the I had the
Speaker 1: pottery in my left hand at the short potter, and
Speaker 1: I was trying to, you know, throw at eight yards
Speaker 1: down the fairway or something, and the potter got stuck
Speaker 1: on my glove and it wouldn't release down the fairway.
Speaker 1: It released, you know, twenty degrees later, and it was
Speaker 1: heading straight at my two friends. They were standing about
Speaker 1: six ft from each other, and it went right between him.
Speaker 1: And at that point I said to myself, I swore
Speaker 1: I would never throw a club again, very far. Just
Speaker 1: you know, I tossed it at that at the back,
Speaker 1: but I would never throw it again. And I haven't
Speaker 1: because I could have killed one of them. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna throw a club but a friend, at
Speaker 1: least mean to be throwing it at your friend. You
Speaker 1: don't want to acident. Only thought of that that's a
Speaker 1: bad thing. You You brought up putting. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to ask a couple of questions about putting with you,
Speaker 1: because it's always, uh, I don't know if you want
Speaker 1: to call it a hot button issue, but it's always
Speaker 1: something that people talk about, something that I've heard about
Speaker 1: you from a lot of people that have played a
Speaker 1: lot of golf with you. They always talk about your integrity.
Speaker 1: Does it bother you internally if you hear people murmuring
Speaker 1: about the way you put considering you know in your
Speaker 1: brain that what you're doing is completely fine. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: bothers me a little bit, to tell you the truth,
Speaker 1: because first of all, I would never break the rule.
Speaker 1: That's just you know, we played by the rules of golf.
Speaker 1: That's how we're brought up. And I know when the
Speaker 1: rules changed that I had to change my putting stroke
Speaker 1: from anchoring to non anchoring, and I found a way
Speaker 1: to not anchor it and and still use the long potter,
Speaker 1: and I my first thing was to talk to the
Speaker 1: rules officials and show them how I putt and explained
Speaker 1: to them what it what I'm doing and what it
Speaker 1: looks like and this that you're totally within the rules.
Speaker 1: You're not anchoring You're fine, and the same thing with
Speaker 1: you know, I play in the Masters every year. There's
Speaker 1: some of the best rules officials in the world. And
Speaker 1: I've played in the British Open and the Senior British
Speaker 1: Open and and the p g A Senior p g
Speaker 1: A Championship. So I'm I'm constantly on TV because I've
Speaker 1: been playing fairly well. So I'm always under screwed me
Speaker 1: and I mean, I would be stupid to be breaking
Speaker 1: the rule. Um plus, that's not me. I try to
Speaker 1: be a man of integrity and as I said, I
Speaker 1: would never do that, and I'm not. I know, I'm
Speaker 1: not anchoring and I can show it to anybody who
Speaker 1: wants to see it. Yeah, do you do you have?
Speaker 1: I mean, have you ever had an open dialogue with
Speaker 1: with other players that that maybe have have just come
Speaker 1: up to you and asked, I mean, is that something
Speaker 1: that that happens ever with you that somebody says, just
Speaker 1: show me what you're doing. I mean, again, like you said,
Speaker 1: you're on TV all the time. You're basically you're basically
Speaker 1: the Tiger Woods, if you will. Of the champions too,
Speaker 1: were always on TV. They're showing your shots all the time.
Speaker 1: Whether they be good or bad. Mean, do you have
Speaker 1: an open dialogue with people if they come up to
Speaker 1: you and just ask what's happening? Of course. But it's
Speaker 1: the funny thing is it's never the players, you know
Speaker 1: that I play with. It's it's people I don't know
Speaker 1: that that are writing stories or commentating on TV or
Speaker 1: I don't know who it is. But it's really not
Speaker 1: the players because they can watch me. They can stand
Speaker 1: next to me, you have six feed away, and they
Speaker 1: they're paired with me, and they can see that I'm
Speaker 1: not angry. Do you do you ever mess around with putting?
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you you've been a guy that that.
Speaker 1: Earlier in your career you struggled a little bit with putty,
Speaker 1: and that's obviously why you went to the long putter.
Speaker 1: Do you ever pull out a short putter these days
Speaker 1: and just messing around with it on the green? Do
Speaker 1: you ever pull out other methods and just see how
Speaker 1: they feel? Oh? Yeah, I did a lot of that
Speaker 1: over the years. Um well, I had the yips four
Speaker 1: times in my career and went to different putting grips,
Speaker 1: you know, cross ended. Then I put it against my
Speaker 1: forearm like kuture does now for years. UM. I started
Speaker 1: that long time ago, actually won my second Masters that way.
Speaker 1: And then eventually, even though I thought I would never
Speaker 1: go to the long potter, UM, I tried it eventually
Speaker 1: and persevered with it and finally learned how to do it. UM.
Speaker 1: So yeah, every once in a while, certainly about two
Speaker 1: years ago, when the anchoring band came into effect, I
Speaker 1: tried all sorts of potters, short, medium, different groups, different ways,
Speaker 1: different styles, and actually played a few competitive rounds with
Speaker 1: different ways. But at that point I was already using
Speaker 1: the long potter for seventeen years and put thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands of hours into that method. So it felt easier
Speaker 1: for me to not anchor with a long potter than
Speaker 1: to go to the short putter. But you know, I
Speaker 1: could probably work out a short potter if I would
Speaker 1: put thousands of hours, and but that's hard to do
Speaker 1: it at my age. You don't want to be messing
Speaker 1: around with that at sixty. That's no fun. You don't
Speaker 1: want to be on the plating green for for two
Speaker 1: hours a day messing with a new putter. Do you
Speaker 1: ever yell at Matt Coucher when they call it the
Speaker 1: Coucher method? You tell him. I want the Master's doing
Speaker 1: this before you were even born. I've talked to him
Speaker 1: about it, you know. And I see him at the
Speaker 1: Masters and the Players Championship or a couple of other
Speaker 1: events in there, and uh, I'll talk to him a
Speaker 1: little bit and see what he's thinking and about how
Speaker 1: much loft he has and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: How long he's Potter is but he's a lot taller
Speaker 1: than me, so he's he's aware that I've I was
Speaker 1: the one started it, and uh, but it works very
Speaker 1: well for him. And there's another guy who does it
Speaker 1: very well. That's Soaring Kielsen from Denmark. He's had a
Speaker 1: lot of success and he's thought it that way for probably. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you need you need to tell Kucher he's gotta give
Speaker 1: you some royalties. Tell him you need a percentage of
Speaker 1: every check he makes. Have he's doing that. Tell me
Speaker 1: you you laid the ground. Yeah. Uh, last question for
Speaker 1: you want to I want to play ping pong with him.
Speaker 1: I do not want to play ping pong against that guy.
Speaker 1: Are you a ping pung player? Can you compete with him? Oh?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I hear it's really good, so I
Speaker 1: would probably lose thought it would be fun just to
Speaker 1: see how good he is. Well. My last question is
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we've gone twenty six minutes and
Speaker 1: I haven't mentioned Tiger Woods. That's got to be a
Speaker 1: record Tiger backplane. Do you pay attention to that? I mean,
Speaker 1: do you do you watch and see how he's done?
Speaker 1: Are you interested to see, you know, if he's able
Speaker 1: to come back, if he's able to compete At this
Speaker 1: point of course, I love golf and I'll watch it
Speaker 1: on TV, and you know, I hear the news and
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and uh, you know, when Tiger plays,
Speaker 1: it's news. He's been away from the game for most
Speaker 1: of the last few years, and it's great to have
Speaker 1: him back and to have him healthy. And I hope
Speaker 1: he does well. I you know, earlier on I always
Speaker 1: thought he would win a few more majors or the tournaments,
Speaker 1: and lately, with all the injuries, he said, it's becoming
Speaker 1: more and more of a question mark. But there's still
Speaker 1: signs of millions there. So it's just a matter of
Speaker 1: whether he thinks he can do it and whether you
Speaker 1: can put four rounds together at the right time. All right,
Speaker 1: I'll live This is my last question. You said, you
Speaker 1: watch golf on TV. I do commentating for golf. Um,
Speaker 1: I do some of the usg events and such. What's
Speaker 1: your biggest pet peeve the golf broadcasters do or say
Speaker 1: that you wish they would change. They kind of focus
Speaker 1: on the same guys all the time. I would love
Speaker 1: to see them do what they do in Europe where
Speaker 1: they show thirty forty different players. Um. You know, they
Speaker 1: sometimes just focus on three or four guys and they
Speaker 1: show him standing around waiting for the group I had
Speaker 1: to get out of the way or to line up
Speaker 1: a pat or whatever it may be. When they could
Speaker 1: show two or three other guys that have shot somewhere
Speaker 1: else and just show more people. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty guys playing. Why are you just focusing
Speaker 1: on four or five of them? Uh? That's always been
Speaker 1: one of my issues over here. And if you paid
Speaker 1: fifty dollars for a ticket, you're gonna go out to
Speaker 1: a golf turning by yourself on a day, maybe have
Speaker 1: a beer, maybe have a hot dog, and follow a guy.
Speaker 1: Who are you paying fifty dollars to go watch? Who's
Speaker 1: the one player you want to see in person play?
Speaker 1: That all depends um. You know, in the in the
Speaker 1: years ago, I would I would watch Gary Player, who
Speaker 1: was my golfing idol, and obviously Arnie and Jack Trevino.
Speaker 1: I thought it was fascinating. I thought he was one
Speaker 1: of the greatest ball strikers ever nowadays. You know, I've
Speaker 1: when I missed the cod at the Master's I would
Speaker 1: go out with my kids and watch Rory a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, and because they wanted to see him,
Speaker 1: I've I've seen him. I've seen most of these guys,
Speaker 1: so but you know, there's there's some that are just
Speaker 1: like Justin Rose or Adam Scott have beautiful golf swing.
Speaker 1: So it depends what you want to see. You know,
Speaker 1: you want to see technique and and a pure golf swing,
Speaker 1: or you want to see Jim Fury who does it
Speaker 1: a little bit different but still very successful. Well, Bernard,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you taking the time. Good luck this week.
Speaker 1: I know you're headed to Tucson. That's where I went
Speaker 1: to college, by the way, So have some fun. It
Speaker 1: always brings back good memories for me and and have
Speaker 1: a great year. It'll be exciting to watch again. I know,
Speaker 1: I know you you have goals and expectations for the season,
Speaker 1: So we'll be watching you and hopefully we'll catch up
Speaker 1: at the end of the year. Yeah, look forward to it.
Speaker 1: Thanks very much for having me on Take Care it
Speaker 1: looks like I'm a wreck. Big thanks to Bernhard Langer
Speaker 1: for joining me on the Clubhouse first time. He's been on.
Speaker 1: Very interesting. Crazy to think how professional golf used to
Speaker 1: be and how you could be a club pro and
Speaker 1: come up that way and now it's you know, sponsors,
Speaker 1: invites and collegiate golf and getting known and being seen
Speaker 1: on multiple channels. It's just a different time, in different age.
Speaker 1: Of course. I love the I love a couple of
Speaker 1: points he made about some of the older guys that
Speaker 1: have decided not to uh keep playing as they got
Speaker 1: closer to fifty. Maybe not as much of a passion
Speaker 1: of theirs as it is for Bernhard, but he continues
Speaker 1: to be impressed. It'll be fun to watch him at
Speaker 1: the mass and beyond. Just a reminder to check out
Speaker 1: osio dot com. I mentioned the Mutant travel bag. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, the thing is awesome. It's huge, it's safe,
Speaker 1: it's lightweight, the wheels are great. I get it around
Speaker 1: airports easily, keeps my clubs safe, have it at one
Speaker 1: issue with it, and I love how big the compartments are,
Speaker 1: so you can pack a whole bunch of stuff in
Speaker 1: that thing. Sometimes, if I'm traveling to a place and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be there for a couple of days for golf,
Speaker 1: I'll just throw all my stuff in my golf bag.
Speaker 1: I'm sure the airlines hate that, but o Gio provides
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Speaker 1: mutant travel bag. Use the Clubhouse at check out. It'll
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Speaker 1: thanks to you guys for listening. If you love the
Speaker 1: podcast today, make sure you write a review and tell
Speaker 1: your friends about it and let me know I've been
Speaker 1: sitting out some clubhouse couzies lately. All you really gotta
Speaker 1: do is go to the Instagram account at the Clubhouse
Speaker 1: pod and send me a message and I'll send you
Speaker 1: a couzy. You don't have to do anything nothing. It's free.
Speaker 1: It's no offer code or cupon code or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Just email me your address and you'll get it. I
Speaker 1: hope you guys have a great week. Exciting stuff with
Speaker 1: the WGC headed up, and then we got some bigger
Speaker 1: events through Florida over the next few weeks. Get out
Speaker 1: and play a little golf this week and make a
Speaker 1: birdie or two. H