By: Global Golf Post

For all of his accomplishments, including being the second-winningest senior player of all time behind Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer never had won the Senior PGA Championship. So it was appropriate that this would be the victory that pushed Langer past Jack Nicklaus as the all-time leader in senior major wins with nine.

Langer won this Senior PGA Championship the way he’s played the game his entire career, with a methodical plan from which he never wavered no matter what his challengers did. Last week’s main competitor was Vijay Singh, looking to win an individual title for the first time anywhere since 2008. Singh pounded tee shots past Langer and striped towering iron shots toward the flags all day. But Langer never flinched, even when he fell two shots behind early in the final round. He picked Trump National Washington apart, making birdies at Nos. 3, 5, 9, 13, and 16, and holing a champion’s share of putts between 6 and 12 feet in length. Even the short par putt he missed at No. 6 was a misread and not a mistake of strategy.

Meanwhile, Singh’s putting varied between mediocre after hitting putts like he was firing a 12-guage. Even the 2-footers looked iffy.

Nothing exemplified the final round like the drivable par-4 ninth. Singh hit a drive 299 yards to within 6 feet of the hole, the best tee shot from anyone all week. Langer laid up with an iron and hit a wedge that spun 18 feet below the hole. Langer made, and Singh missed. They both walked off with birdies. The two were tied from the third through the 15 holes until Langer made a 12-footer for birdies at 16. Then Singh three-putted 17, essentially handing Langer the title.

“To have surpassed Jack Nicklaus in majors on this tour is something special,” Langer said afterward.

Indeed it is.

Republished with permission from Global Golf Post.