Two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer announced in January that he would play Augusta National one last time at this year’s tournament, saying: “I don’t want to make a fool of myself” competing against younger players. But alas, another sport got in the way and spoiled his plan for one last walk around Amen Corner: pickleball.
Langer, 66, told the “Musings on Golf” podcast this week that he tore his Achilles' tendon playing pickleball and not in the “training exercise” he claimed last month in announcing the injury, which will keep him out of the Masters for only the second time in the last 40 years.
“I play all sorts of sports to stay fit, and this was part of my fitness regime,” Langer said. “I was playing pickleball and somebody was trying to lob me. I did a few steps backward and hit an overhead, and as I landed on the ground with my feet I heard this huge ‘pop,’ very loud, like a gun shot. I knew right away it was a torn Achilles.”
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Langer said he had surgery the next day and hopes to return to the PGA Tour Champions circuit — for golfers 50 and older — in early May. He also has qualified for this year’s U.S. Open by virtue of his victory at last year’s U.S. Senior Open, his 12th major win on the Champions Tour (he said in January that it would be his last U.S. Open appearance “unless some miracle happens”). It’s unclear whether Langer will attempt to play in the 2025 Masters — former winners get lifetime invitations — but he did say he would still attend the champions’ dinner this year at Augusta National.
The growth of pickleball as a sport has corresponded with a steep increase in pickleball injuries. An analysis of a large government injury database by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons showed that pickleball injuries have risen by at least 200 percent over the last 20 years. The actual increase is likely much higher because the government database only listed fractures and not the soft-tissue injuries and ligament/tendon tears that can happen during play.
“While pickleball is a great sport, nothing is without risk,” Yasmine Ghattas, a medical student at the University of Central Florida who led the AAOS database study, said last month.
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Though Langer — the 1985 and 1993 green jacket winner — has missed three straight cuts at the Masters, the German remained competitive at Augusta National well into his 50s and 60s. He tied for 29th in 2020 and is only 10 years removed from his most recent top 10, an eighth-place finish in 2014 at the age of 56.
“It’s exciting,” Langer said in January of his hoped-for final Masters start. “At the same time, I am aware that I’m going to be hitting 3-irons and 2-hybrids when the guys are hitting 9-irons into the green, and that’s tough to compete against.”
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