PHOENIX — Bernhard Langer won the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship and in doing so, kept his streak alive. He also did something for the first time.
Langer made a long birdie putt on the par-5 18th hole, throwing his arms up in the air and tossing his hat to the ground in celebration to close out a final-round 66. He finished his day at 18 under and then watched as Steven Alker missed a birdie putt to end his week at 17 under, tied with Richard Green for second.
For Langer, it’s his PGA Tour Champions-leading 47th victory and his first this season, giving him at least one win on the senior circuit every year since 2007, his first year on the tour.
Langer, 67, shot his age Saturday to take the 54-hole lead. In Friday’s second round, he beat his age by three after posting a 64. He turned the trick one last time on Sunday with a 66 that marked the 23rd time he has shot his age or better.
Bernhard Langer plays a tee shot on the first hole during the final round of the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Langer started the final round with four straight birdies and led by five at one point. He did run into a spot of trouble on the back nine with back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11, which cut his lead over Steven Alker and Richard Green to three.
Langer made birdie on the par-3 13th hole to nudge his lead back to three over Green but then on 17, Langer banged his second shot out of the rough off a tree and had it come right back at him. He then put his third on the green but left himself a long putt for par. Moments later, Alker stuffed his third on 17 to less than a foot, setting up a tap-in birdie. Green then drained a long birdie on 18 to finish at 17 under and wait. Langer then made a two-footer for bogey, and suddenly there was a three-way tie for the lead.
On 18, he laid up with his second but hit his third deep, leaving himself a long putt but he made a perfect stroke on it, the ball curling right at the end before dropping in for a birdie.
“It felt like a good stroke, but from that distance you never know until it actually disappears,” he siad. “When I looked up, it looked like it was online more or less and tracking where I wanted to be and then it was just a matter of would it have the right distance and would it actually break because I played it two cups left. It did just perfectly what it needed to do and disappeared. Then all hell broke loose kind of emotionally, so…
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