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DUBLIN, Ohio -- Germany’s Bernhard Langer, a two-time Masters champion and the all-time victory leader on the PGA Tour Champions, was announced on Sunday as the honoree for the 2027 Memorial Tournament. The World Golf Hall of Famer is the 88th person selected by the tournament’s Captains Club, and he will be the first active player to be honored since Tom Watson in 2012.
Langer, 68, will be honored on Wednesday, June 2, 2027, at Muirfield Village Golf Club. The 52nd edition of the Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus, which is scheduled for June 3-6, 2027.
“I first met and played with Bernhard in an exhibition in Munich when he was 16 years old,” Nicklaus said. “He showed a lot of promise then, and I followed him as he grew into becoming a world-class player. Bernhard has had as long and as successful a record of winning as probably any player who has ever played the game. It’s fantastic to watch him continue to compete at the level he plays. We are delighted that we have the opportunity to honor him here at the Memorial Tournament in 2027.”
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Born Aug. 27, 1957, in Anhausen, Bavaria, Germany, Langer is credited with 65 official worldwide wins, including Masters titles in 1985 and 1993, and 126 professional victories overall in a career that began when he joined the European Tour (now the DP World Tour) in 1976. He is still an active competitor on the PGA Tour Champions, the over-50 circuit on which he has captured a record 47 titles, the most recent at the 2024 Charles Schwab Championship. He has played eight times this season with four top-10 finishes.
Langer grew up in a family of modest means. His father, Erwin, had been a motorcycle courier in the German Army in World War II and had been captured by Russian troops near the end of the conflict in 1945. En route to a prison camp in Siberia, Erwin leapt from a moving train and escaped. “The Russian troops were shooting at him, but it was dark so they missed him,” Bernhard Langer said in a 2015 interview. “Had one hit him, there wouldn’t have been a Bernhard Langer for sure.”
Despite battles with the putting yips, Langer won 42 career titles on the European Tour, second-most behind Seve Ballesteros, with his breakthrough win coming at the 1980 Dunlop Masters. Later that year, he won the Colombian Open on the South American Tour. He is one of five men to win tournaments on six continents, joining Justin Rose, Gary Player, Hale Irwin and David Graham, who was the 2026 honoree, along with Allan Robertson (posthumously).
Langer won the European Tour’s Order of Merit in 1985 and 1993, the same years in which he captured his two green jackets. Making just his third appearance at Augusta National in 1985, Langer shot consecutive 68s on the weekend to post 6-under 282 and defeat Ballesteros and Raymond Floyd by two strokes. Eight years later, defeated Chip Beck by four strokes with an 11-under 277 total.
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Prior to the 1986 Masters, Langer became the first man in golf history ranked No. 1 in the world with the introduction of the Sony Ranking—now known as the Official World Golf Ranking.
Langer surpassed Hale Irwin for the most wins on the PGA Tour Champions with his 46th victory at the 2023 U.S. Senior Open at the age of 65, making him the championship’s oldest winner.
He was a fixture on the European Ryder Cup team, compiling a record of 21-15-6 in 10 appearances. Europe won five times in that stretch and tied another, and Langer went 3-1-1 for the Europeans in a 15-13 victory in 1987 at Muirfield Village Golf Club—the first European win on U.S. soil. In addition Langer served as the winning European captain in 2004 at Oakland Hills Country Club near Detroit.
Langer was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001. He and his wife, Vikki, reside in Boca Raton, Fla. They have four children: Jackie, Stefan, Christina and Jason.
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Langer, 68, will be honored on Wednesday, June 2, 2027, at Muirfield Village Golf Club. The 52nd edition of the Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus, which is scheduled for June 3-6, 2027.
“I first met and played with Bernhard in an exhibition in Munich when he was 16 years old,” Nicklaus said. “He showed a lot of promise then, and I followed him as he grew into becoming a world-class player. Bernhard has had as long and as successful a record of winning as probably any player who has ever played the game. It’s fantastic to watch him continue to compete at the level he plays. We are delighted that we have the opportunity to honor him here at the Memorial Tournament in 2027.”
RELATED: Jackson Koivun joins elite list of players in earning his second Nicklaus Award
Born Aug. 27, 1957, in Anhausen, Bavaria, Germany, Langer is credited with 65 official worldwide wins, including Masters titles in 1985 and 1993, and 126 professional victories overall in a career that began when he joined the European Tour (now the DP World Tour) in 1976. He is still an active competitor on the PGA Tour Champions, the over-50 circuit on which he has captured a record 47 titles, the most recent at the 2024 Charles Schwab Championship. He has played eight times this season with four top-10 finishes.
Langer grew up in a family of modest means. His father, Erwin, had been a motorcycle courier in the German Army in World War II and had been captured by Russian troops near the end of the conflict in 1945. En route to a prison camp in Siberia, Erwin leapt from a moving train and escaped. “The Russian troops were shooting at him, but it was dark so they missed him,” Bernhard Langer said in a 2015 interview. “Had one hit him, there wouldn’t have been a Bernhard Langer for sure.”
Despite battles with the putting yips, Langer won 42 career titles on the European Tour, second-most behind Seve Ballesteros, with his breakthrough win coming at the 1980 Dunlop Masters. Later that year, he won the Colombian Open on the South American Tour. He is one of five men to win tournaments on six continents, joining Justin Rose, Gary Player, Hale Irwin and David Graham, who was the 2026 honoree, along with Allan Robertson (posthumously).
Langer won the European Tour’s Order of Merit in 1985 and 1993, the same years in which he captured his two green jackets. Making just his third appearance at Augusta National in 1985, Langer shot consecutive 68s on the weekend to post 6-under 282 and defeat Ballesteros and Raymond Floyd by two strokes. Eight years later, defeated Chip Beck by four strokes with an 11-under 277 total.
RELATED: This is the most interesting stat from Nelly Korda’s U.S. Women’s Open so far
Prior to the 1986 Masters, Langer became the first man in golf history ranked No. 1 in the world with the introduction of the Sony Ranking—now known as the Official World Golf Ranking.
Langer surpassed Hale Irwin for the most wins on the PGA Tour Champions with his 46th victory at the 2023 U.S. Senior Open at the age of 65, making him the championship’s oldest winner.
He was a fixture on the European Ryder Cup team, compiling a record of 21-15-6 in 10 appearances. Europe won five times in that stretch and tied another, and Langer went 3-1-1 for the Europeans in a 15-13 victory in 1987 at Muirfield Village Golf Club—the first European win on U.S. soil. In addition Langer served as the winning European captain in 2004 at Oakland Hills Country Club near Detroit.
Langer was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001. He and his wife, Vikki, reside in Boca Raton, Fla. They have four children: Jackie, Stefan, Christina and Jason.
RELATED: New father Tyrrell Hatton fends off Jon Rahm, competitive rust, to close out LIV win at Valderrama
Continue reading...
