Two-time Masters Champion and 2015 Charles Schwab Cup winner, Bernhard Langer, is the recipient of the 2015 Confederation of Professional Golf Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements in golf, topping-off a fantastic year for the German professional.
Langer has been held in legend status for many years since being one of the ‘big five’ of European golf in the 1980s, a figurehead of the sport in his native homeland, and one of the most consistent and resilient professionals to have ever played the game.
“I am so honoured and blessed to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Confederation of Professional Golf,” said Langer during his acceptance speech shown at the Annual Gala Awards Dinner at Gloria Hotels & Resorts in Turkey. “I also want to congratulate all of the 21,000+ Professionals across the Confederation of Professional Golf’s membership for what [they] do…and I really appreciate what the Confederation of Professional Golf is doing for the game.
Hailing from Bavaria in Germany, Langer turned professional in 1972 – eight years later he became a winner on the European Tour with the Dunlop Masters title, the first of 40 European Tour wins and 98 professional wins in total to date. His Masters victories came in 1985 and 1993 at Augusta National and became the world’s first number one player shortly after that first major in 1986 when the Official World Golf Rankings were introduced.
More recently Langer has been a record-breaking stalwart of the Champions Tour earning five senior major championship wins since joining the tour in 2007, and earned 13 top-10 finishes in 2015 on his way to his second consecutive Charles Schwab Cup, also becoming the first player to win it three times in their career.
Whilst his individual victories were numerous he has also been a prolific team player representing Team Europe on no less than 10 occasions in the Ryder Cup, and also captained the team to a record 18½-9½ victory over the United States at Oakland Hills Country Club in 2004, receiving world-wide acclaim and an honorary OBE.
The Hall of Famer was also quick to recognise the influence that PGA Professionals have had on his extensive career:
“[PGA Professionals] have been extremely important in my life – I was very fortunate to meet Heinz Fehring at the young age of 15 – he was like a second father to me – and taught me not just golf-related stuff, but also things I needed to learn about life and character. Then I met Willy Hoffman who has become my swing coach and golf coach over the last 40 years and helped me a great deal. They both are still very good friends of mine.”
For more information on Bernhard Langer visit www.bernhardlanger.de.
For More Information On All of 2015’s Award Winners Visit http://eur.pe/2015AnnualCongress
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For more information and news visit the Annual Congress Hub Page (http://eur.pe/2015AnnualCongress), follow @PGAsofEurope on Twitter and search the hashtag ‘#AnnualCongress’ or like the Confederation of Professional Golf Facebook Page.
The 2015 Annual Congress and Gala Awards Dinner are supported by Rolex and the Ryder Cup European Development Trust and hosted by Gloria Hotels & Resorts – for more information on the event partners visit http://eur.pe/2015AnnualCongress.
