AUGUSTA, Ga. – As Bernhard Langer hit the final shots of his 41-year Masters career on Friday afternoon, a German film crew captured every moment. The material will be part of a documentary on the 67-year-old Langer’s life, with release expected next year.
“This is the final part of it,” said Langer, an assistant pro turned prolific winner, at all levels, including twice here at Augusta National Golf Club.
Langer nearly kept the red light on for a couple more days. He stepped on the 18th tee box right on the cut line, but after his 3-hybrid into the green never faded, Langer failed to get up and down, finishing at 3 over, a shot shy of his first weekend at Augusta National in four years.
Eating at Langer in the moment was the 86-yard wedge shot that spun back into the pond at the par-5 15th hole. But years from now, he’ll remember these last walks with his youngest son, Jason, on the bag, and his wife, Vikki, three other kids, two grandchildren and many friends watching from outside the ropes.
Langer almost cried while walking to the first tee on Thursday morning before telling himself, “Get it together, you’ve got some golf to play.” He knows now that that golf just won’t cut it here anymore.
“I love the game of golf, but I love to compete,” Langer said, “I'm a competitor. I want to be in the heat. I want to be on the leaderboard. I want to have a chance to win. On this golf course, I don't feel I can win anymore. I can maybe make the cut if I play really good, which I did play really good today, and just didn't get rewarded. … But I'm hitting such long clubs into these greens, where I can't stop the ball where I need to stop it. It's a golf course designed to be hit with medium to short irons.”
When Langer slipped on his second green jacket in 1993, it was Fred Couples who did the honors. Couples, now 65, also had a shot at making this year’s cut with one hole to play on Friday, but he bogeyed three of his last five holes, almost whiffed his tee shot on No. 15, and then followed an opening 71 with 77 to miss his sixth weekend in the past seven years.
Unlike Langer, though, Couples has at least one more Masters in him.
“They made that clear they wanted me to come back, so I'm coming back next year,” Couples said. “As soon as I get in that car and drive out Magnolia Lane and come back tomorrow and have a nice lunch, I'll be fine. … The goal is to make the cut at my age. I didn't, and I'm kind of spinning my wheels thinking just why it was so mediocre.”
Other notables to miss the cut included Brooks Koepka, Will Zalatoris, Tony Finau, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Cameron Young, Russell Henley, Sepp Straka and all five amateurs in the field.
Johnson closed in bogey-double to miss by one.
“If you drive it in the fairway, it's not tough,” Johnson said. “You miss the fairway, it's difficult.”
