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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, January 22, 2009

Langer now an old pro

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Bernhard Langer was a teaching pro at 15 and made the pro tour three years later. He will tee it up tomorrow at Hualalai.

DAVID DUPREY | Associated Press

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TODAY

Pro-Am, 7:30 a.m. at Hualalai Golf Club, Big Island

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2009 MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CHAMPIONSHIP AT HUALALAI

WHAT: Champions Tour season-opening event featuring 34 past champions

WHEN: From 9:45 a.m. tomorrow and 10:45 a.m. Saturday and Sunday

PRO-AM: Today, 7:30 a.m.

WHERE: Hualalai Golf Club, Big Island (Par 36-36—72, 7,107 yards)

PURSE: $1.8 million ($315,000)

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Fred Funk (21-under 195)

TICKETS: $10 daily, $25 tournament pass (all week). Children 16-under free with ticket-bearing adult.

TV COVERAGE: The Golf Channel, 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow and 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

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Bernhard Langer was a teaching pro at 15 and playing on the pro tour three years later. Does any of this sound familiar?

Langer will help celebrate the start of the 30th Champions Tour season tomorrow, when the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai tees off on the Big Island. The 34-man field has won a combined 483 times on the regular and senior PGA tours.

Langer, 51, got three of those last year in his first full season with the seniors. The two-time Masters champion was the tour's Player and Rookie of the Year, and edged Jay Haas by one one-hundredth of a stroke to win the Byron Nelson trophy for lowest scoring average with 69.65.

He is also the only German in the World Golf Hall of Fame, and one of eight Hall of Famers at Hualalai, with Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, Gary Player, Curtis Strange and Bruce Lietzke. That last foursome was given an exemption by first-year sponsor Mitsubishi.

Langer, who has won 66 times on five continents, is worlds and decades away from playing on the European Tour as a teenager. He is also a world and three-plus decades away from Hawai'i's Tadd Fujikawa, who turned pro at 16 and just made his second Sony Open in Hawai'i cut at the tender age of 18.

The father of the world's greatest German golfer settled in Bavaria after jumping from a Russian POW train bound for Siberia. And Langer characterizes himself as a "scratch skier."

But, like Fujikawa, who shot a 62 in the third round at Waialae Country Club last week, Langer fired a 62 to win his fourth start as a senior in 2007. And, he turned pro before he got his driver's license. He has a better sense than most of what must be going through the Moanalua High School senior's head.

"It had to be an exciting week for him, playing in front of his home crowd," Langer said. "And especially the 62 he shot had to be a wonderful feeling for him. It gave him the assurance that he can do well. He got off to a little difficult start as a pro."

Langer finished third in his third pro start, which is where he ended up at Hualalai last year. He missed his first two pro cuts.

One of the major mulligans of the senior tour is that there is no cut and everybody cashes in every week; last place was worth $10,000 at Hualalai last year. That was also one of the toughest things for Langer to get used to when he started playing with the 50- and 60-somethings — and Gary Player, who is 73.

"It makes a difference in how aggressive you play," Langer said. "I had to adjust a little. The first couple weeks guys were hitting driver on every hole and going for everything. If it works out, great. If not, there's always next week."

NOTES

The injury list for the season-opening tournament resembles something out of the NFL. Fred Funk cannot defend his title because of recent knee surgery. Peter Jacobsen is out because he needed rotator cuff surgery Friday. Scott Hoch won't play because of a hand injury.

On the bright side, Tom Watson is making his first official start after having left hip replacement surgery Oct. 2. Jerry Pate, who won last year's Turtle Bay Championship, is back for the first time since May. He had shoulder and knee surgeries.

Among the exempt players eligible to debut this year are major winners Tom Lehman (March 7), Bob Tway (May 4) and 2009 Presidents Cup Captain Fred Couples (Oct. 3). Steve Jones, winner of the 1996 U.S. Open, turned 50 at the end of 2008, but is not expected to debut until sometime this spring or summer following recent injuries.

Also on deck are Olin Browne (May 22), Keith Clearwater (Sept. 1), Tom Pernice Jr. (Sept. 5), David Frost (Sept. 11) and Tommy Armour III (Oct. 8).

Golf Channel will show an hour-long Champions Tour Season Preview at 3 p.m. today.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.