Bernhard Langer continued to defy Father Time, beating his age by two strokes to earn a share of the first-round lead at the Senior PGA Championship on Thursday in Bradenton, Fla.
The World Golf Hall of Famer from Germany, 68, posted his 6-under-par 66 in the morning wave and erased a back-nine double bogey with an eagle at the par-5 17th hole at Concession Golf Club.
Langer is tied with Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez and Australian Steve Allan for the lead, one ahead of Brian Gay, Retief Goosen of South Africa and Thammanoon Sriroj of Thailand. Gay had two holes to play as of 7:20 p.m.
It marked the 43rd time Langer shot his age or better in a round on the PGA Tour Champions.
“It’s fun to shoot my age,” Langer said. “So whenever I shoot my age or better, usually I’ve played some good golf. Yeah, that’s one of the goals these days. Especially, you know, when you play a difficult golf course, and these greens here are very difficult.”
At the par-3 11th hole, Langer found a bunker off the tee and hit his second shot over the green, leading to his double bogey. He recovered by birdieing Nos. 13, 14 and 16 before coming to the 17th and draining a mammoth putt that had some speed.
“The eagle was a perfect drive and then 3-hybrid to the right edge of the green and made a long putt,” Langer said. “It’s probably 60 feet, maybe 65-foot putt, something like that.”
Langer is trying to extend his record of 12 senior major championship titles, including the 2017 Senior PGA Championship.
Allan, conversely, is aiming for his first and gave himself a promising start by going bogey-free.
“Any time you can do that, especially on a place like this, is very good,” Allan said. “Sometimes I find when that happens, I’m thinking about it too much with a couple holes to go. I just don’t want to give one up, but today I wasn’t really thinking about it. Luckily, I didn’t do it, didn’t give one up.”
Jimenez has collected three senior major victories to date, but the Senior PGA Championship is one of the two he is missing. He’s in contention thanks to an eagle-birdie-birdie stretch to close his front nine.
“I’ve been playing on the first nine very solid with chances for birdie almost every hole, apart from hole No. 6. That I recovered from the bunker,” Jimenez said.
“Then on hole No. 7 I hit a beautiful driver, but it was past the bank that always block you. This time I used to have a clear shot. I hit it with my 5-wood. I had 230 meters to the hole. A little wind to the east. Perfect for the 5-wood. Just on the front of the green and leave me like a 5-meters putt, and I hole the putt for eagle.”
