THE MODERATOR: Bernhard Langer with us now at the 2026 Senior PGA Championship. A 6-under 66 for you to start this week. How would you summarize your round?
BERNHARD LANGER: My round was really good, except for the double bogey I made there, which was a bad break, but I played really well. Drove it phenomenal for me. Very straight. Hit a lot of greens in regulation and made a couple of putts.
Yeah, I only made one bogey and one double bogey, and that kind of hurt, but overall, pretty happy with 6-under.
THE MODERATOR: Absolutely. Questions.
Q. You mentioned the double bogey. The yin and yang, so if you could describe the double bogey but also the eagle on 17.
BERNHARD LANGER: Sure. The double bogey was on 11. I hit 6-iron. Came out of it a little bit and hit the bunker and rolled onto a down-slope lie to a short pin. So I had very little to play with, and I tried to be fancy and, you know, open up the blade on a down-hill lie is tough anyway. The ball came out low and went over the green almost onto the road. Chipped it about 12 feet by and missed the putt.
So it happens that fast. If that 6-iron is this much further left, then I'm putting for birdie.
The eagle was a perfect drive and then 3-hybrid to the right edge of the green and made a long putt. It's probably 60 feet, maybe 65-foot putt, something like that.
Q. Not only the putt on 17, but it looked like you had a couple of other lengthy putts. How good was your putting today, especially on the greens as undulating as they are here?
BERNHARD LANGER: I didn't make any other lengthy ones. It was a couple of medium putts from --
Q. I guess that's what I was referring to.
BERNHARD LANGER: -- 15 feet, 12 feet, whatever. Then missed one short one maybe from 4 feet somewhere earlier in the round. I think that par-3 that I bogeyed, that was about a 4-, 4 1/2-footer. Otherwise, but, yeah, I putted okay. You know, if I would putt like that the rest of my career, I would be extremely happy.
Q. Bernhard, do you ever find yourself disappointed when you do not shoot better your age?
BERNHARD LANGER: Oh, yeah, that happens more than I'd like it to be, but it's fun to shoot my age. 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.
Like 18, for example, I hit as good a drive as I could. I had 5-iron in. Hit the middle of the green. Rolled to the back edge. Then I had an extremely tough putt. I had to go through the fringe 20 feet left of the hole. Through the fringe up and then over and up and then down and away.
If I hit it a little bit too hard, it goes off the green down in the rough. It's that kind of golf course where great and mediocre are just inches apart.
Q. Bernard, to be playing an event of this caliber, especially at your age, how do you kind of still find the drive, motivation to keep doing what you do and kind of bring your talents here to The Concession this week?
BERNHARD LANGER: I don't have much trouble with whatever, coming out here and giving my best. It just comes natural to me. Motivating myself is not an issue. I've always been motivated, and that's why I time myself. I don't play three or four, five in a row anymore. I just take breaks so when I do come out, I'm eager and somewhat fresh.
You know, since my Achilles surgery, it's taxing to walk 18 holes and do that seven times in a row or six times, six days in a row with a pro-am and the practice round and all that.
It's more of a physical challenge for me right now than anything else, because on the Champions Tour I've been riding a cart most of the time just to manage it.
Q. Bernhard, you have played well on plenty of golf courses, but as a long-time Florida resident playing on a Florida golf course of this nature, is that any sort of advantage for you?
BERNHARD LANGER: It probably is. You know, I hear from guys who live out on the West Coast, they struggle with the grain. Well, we are used to grain. If you live in Bermuda grass, you're going to have grain. You learn how to deal with it. You learn how to read the greens with it and all that kind of stuff.
It probably is an advantage, yes, and I've done fairly well in Florida.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports