Bernhard Langer of Germany walks off the 18th green after winning the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship following the final round at Phoenix Country Club on Nov. 10, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, the United States. (AFP/Getty Images/Christian Petersen)
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olf is often regarded as a sport that reflects life’s complexities, where it tests your skills, perseverance and inner-strength. If successful, it is a game that can be played for decades and reward those who excel at the highest level.
In contrast, the sport also serves out stark reminders as to how fragile and challenging life can be, and it often calls on human resilience and sheer determination to shine through adversity.
Germany’s Bernhard Langer, who at 67 years young is a winner of 124 tournaments around the world, and Chinese-Australian Jeffrey Guan, who turned pro a year ago, offer glimpses as to how our Royal and Ancient sport may be the very fabric that shape the lives of those who dedicate themselves to the game.
From his maiden professional triumph in 1980, the evergreen Langer has shown he is built as sturdy and performance-driven as those fine cars that his country is so famous for. He is the second-most winningest golfer on the DP World Tour with 42 wins, including two Masters titles, and as he pushes toward 70, the grandfather of four is showing no signs of winding down on the fairways.
On PGA Tour Champions, a circuit for players age 50 and above, he continues to show an insatiable appetite to keep winning against men much younger than him. That, too, despite requiring surgery earlier this year to repair a torn Archilles on his left heel following a pickleball mishap.
The German maestro was in his element at the season-ending Charles Schwab Championship earlier this month, firing three brilliant rounds that matched his age or lower en route to a 47th victory on PGA Tour Champions. His latest triumph extended his streak of winning at least once in each season for the past 18 years, and prolonged his proud record as the oldest winner in Champions history.
“Winning never gets old,” Langer responded when asked what motivates him to push his body to maintain a high level of fitness. “People say why am I still playing […] well, this is why, because I enjoy the adrenaline, I enjoy being in the hunt and I still feel like I can win. You need to have the drive and discipline to put the work in.”
While Langer cements his legacy, on the opposite spectrum, a rising star from Australia with Asian roots had his world crash down on him following a sickening injury that cost him complete vision loss in his left eye. Jeffrey Guan, 20, was touted as Australia’s next great hope after sweeping all before him during his amateur days but he will now have to defy the odds and dig deep into his inner soul to get his career back on track.
Born to Chinese immigrant parents who worked hard to provide for the family in a new country, Guan joined the play-for-pay ranks a year ago and enjoyed his PGA Tour debut via a sponsor exemption at the Procore Championship in mid-September. He returned home a week later and tragedy struck during a pro-am tournament after he was hit by a stray golf ball that led to serious multiple fractures to his left cheekbone and eye socket. He is not expected to swing a club for at least another six months.
The accident left the young Aussie, who represented the International Team at the Junior Presidents Cup in 2022 at Quail Hollow, reeling both physically and emotionally as dreams of a promising golf career are now in tatters.
He shared details of his plight in a recent social media post. “I was utterly distraught […] It has come at a tremendous cost and has significantly affected me and my family. How in the world am I supposed to recover, return, and be the same player I was?” Guan wrote. “These four weeks have been the toughest of my life. But I am stronger mentally and will be ready to conquer any obstacle in the future. I will be back,” he added.
The Aussie golf community has rallied behind Guan, the Australian Sports Foundation started an online fund-raiser to support him financially, and anyone who knows the likeable youngster is rooting for him to rise against the odds. He does not need to be reminded of how his idol, Ben Hogan, had staged a remarkable comeback from a life-threatening car accident and subsequently won six more major championships when many didn’t think he would be able to walk again.
Or perhaps, Guan only needs to look at Langer’s perseverance in the game to fuel his fire once more and set him on a comeback trail despite his tragic circumstances.
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The writer is senior director, marketing & communications – APAC for the PGA Tour and is based in Malaysia
