AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bernhard Langer confirmed Tuesday that 2025 will be his final Masters Tournament.
The 66-year-old tore his Achilles tendon on Feb. 1, and had previously announced that 2024 would be his last competitive appearance.
“I plan to play next year,” Langer, the 1985 and 1993 Masters winner, said Tuesday. “That’ll be my last.”
When Langer steps away, it’ll stamp a final goodbye to champions from the 1980s.
Jack Nicklaus was the first 1980s victor to cease competing in 2005, while Larry Mize and Sandy Lyle stopped in 2023.
At 48-years-old, Nick Faldo exited the stage in 2006 to commentate for CBS.
“My decision was easy,” Faldo said. “It was a cold, windy day (in 2006) and I had my son on the bag. I hit driver at the ninth hole and didn’t make it down the hill. So I’m hitting 3-iron into the wind and thought, ‘That’s it. I’m done.’”
Prior to his injury, Langer had faired well at Augusta lately, making the cut in 2020, while missing the weekend by two shots in 2023.
Still, Faldo believes the German is making the right call.
“Bernhard’s done an incredible job staying on top,” Faldo said. “But as time goes on, we start to lose touch, and you can’t play Augusta without touch.”
As for 1990s champs, four past winners have already ceased competing, including Faldo (1989, 1990, 1996), Ian Woosnam (1991), Ben Crenshaw (1984 and 1995) and Mark O’Meara (1998).
In the timeline of champions, Fred Couples would be next to depart, but the 1992 winner hasn’t announced plans to give notice.
After all, in 2023, Couples, then 63, became the oldest player to conquer the cut.
“I can’t compete with Viktor Hovland or Jon Rahm or anybody, but I can compete with myself, and that’s really why I come,” Couples said. “That’s what I like to do: make the cut here at an older age.”
Couples added: “The last thing I want to do is embarrass myself. I know I can hit the ball. What is that? I don’t know if that’s a 73 or 75, but I’m not shooting 80. There’s no way. I’m just not that kind of person.”
When Langer steps away next April, it will duplicate his contemporaries, in that no champion from the 1980s missed the cut more than 10 straight years before quitting.
In contrast, 1957 winner Doug Ford, either missed the cut or withdrew in each of his final 30 appearances.
“I’m not coming up the last at 18 over,” Faldo said. “When CBS called, I went straight to the tower.”
When 1980s champions played their last Masters
- 1980, 1983 Seve Ballesteros — 2007
- 1981 Tom Watson — 2016
- 1982 Craig Stadler — 2014
- 1984 Ben Crenshaw — 2015
- 1985 Bernhard Langer — 2025
- 1986 Jack Nicklaus — 2005
- 1987 Larry Mize — 2023
- 1988 Sandy Lyle — 2023
- 1989 Nick Faldo — 2006
