Bernhard Langer determined to ease back into it on PGA TOUR Champions

Bernhard Langer, 66, will make his PGA TOUR Champions return at this week’s Insperity Invitational presented by United Healthcare at The Woodlands in Houston, a week in which he will also commence a new endorsement deal with Sketchers.

Oh, and he’ll also be wearing a size 10 shoe on his right foot and a size 10 1/2 on his left.

That’s not a new anti-aging secret, although Langer has done so much, so late in his career, he could probably sell it as one. The mismatched shoes are because the 46-time PGA TOUR Champions winner is playing just three months after he tore his left Achilles tendon, and he still has so much swelling and discomfort on his left side that he needed to go a half-size up.

“My biggest issue now is I can’t walk properly because I can’t flex my foot,” he told PGATOUR.COM in a phone interview Wednesday. “I can’t bend my leg the way I need to because it puts too much stress on the Achilles. I can’t walk, can’t run, can’t jump.

“What I feel is mostly the swelling in my foot, discomfort all day long, but I was told that was to be expected for another four to eight months.”

Langer tore the Achilles while playing pickleball on Feb. 1 at Woodfield Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida. He said part of his training involves playing other sports, and when an opponent lobbed him, he took a few steps back to jump up and hit the ball. Upon landing he heard a loud noise and felt pain his leg before crumbling to the court. He knew pretty quickly what had happened and underwent surgery to repair the tendon the next day.

The good news was that advances in medicine allowed for a fast recovery.

“The way they operate now is totally different than what they did several years ago,” Langer said. “They have something called a speed bridge where they put two anchors into your heel and they explained to me it’s almost like two rubber bands running up your Achilles, which they attach to the calf muscle to provide secondary protection for the torn Achilles, which is stitched together.

“And they do PRP, when they spin your blood,” he continued, “and they take some of that and put it in there when the wound is open, they wrap something around the wound with some of your own blood, to speed up the healing process.”

Suddenly housebound, Langer watched a lot of Netflix, plus soccer and golf on TV. He played with his four grandkids, who are all under the age of 4.

“There’s nothing better,” he said.

He spent more than a month wearing a boot but shed it in late March when he was able to stand on his own. Shortly after that he was cleared to begin working out and hitting balls.

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who underwent the same Achilles surgery last September, was throwing a football within three months, providing Langer a roadmap. He said it got him wondering if he could do something similar, lifting his spirits.

“The key is the speed bridge because that allows you to exercise immediately after surgery,” Langer said. “In the old days, you’d be in a cast for two months and immediately lose all your muscle strength. Your calf would go from, say, 15 inches to about 6 inches in diameter, and that makes a big difference. It takes a long time to come back from that.

“I’ve had extensive rehab, I did hyperbaric chambers, and I’ve been in the fitness center every day working out other parts of my party, and starting a couple months ago, my torn Achilles.”

Langer said he’ll play a full schedule on PGA TOUR Champions, where he can take a cart. Although he would have been eligible to play the U.S. Open at Pinehurst next month – he won the U.S. Senior Open last year – he has opted out of that tournament, where he’d have to walk. He also anticipated not being able to hold the greens with his hybrid approach shots.

He anticipates needing some accommodation and said he will petition to use a cart for the three tournaments on his schedule that do not typically allow them: the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, U.S. Senior Open, and The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex.

He hasn’t played since a T22 at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in January.

Asked if he would ever play pickleball again, Langer laughed.

“Maybe at some point,” he said with a chuckle. “But not the next year or so, that’s for sure.”