goodbye

Bernhard Langer says goodbye, gives one more epic driver off the deck bernhard,langer,says,goodbye,gives,one,more,epic,driver,off,the,deck,sbnation,com,front-page,golf,golf-dp-world-tour

On: July 6, 2024 By: admin

Bernhard Langer said farewell to the DP World Tour Friday at the BMW International Open.

He missed the cut after he carded a 71-73 to finish at even par. Golfclub Munchen Eichenried in Munich, Germany, is a track about 45 minutes from where the 66-year-old grew up.

Langer is a two-time Masters champion, won 42 times on the formerly known European Tour and has 46 wins on the Champions Tour. After 52 years, he had one more first to experience — saying goodbye to golf, at least to the DP World Tour.

Things got emotional for him on Friday. He had to fight back tears throughout the 18th hole and while he spoke with the media after his round.

“It’s hard to put into words,” Langer said after his round. “It’s been a dream come true for me, growing up in a village of 800 people where nobody knew what golf was.”

“People had no idea, it was a strange situation. Even when I finished school and I tried to become a golf professional people didn’t even know what that was, it didn’t even exist as a profession in a way. It was very difficult and complicated, but it was my dream. I was able to live that dream for 50 years.”

Langer continued to put into words what his career and the DP World Tour mean to him.

“I have wonderful memories from all over the world, not just in Europe but Asia, Australia, Japan, America, South Africa. I was able to travel the world and meet with kings and queens,” he said. “I played golf with all sorts of people, whether they were successful businessmen or just the average butcher or bricklayer or whatever, it was fun, it was great.”

Once Langer finished, he took off his visor and received quite the cheer from the German faithful. The golf legend hugged Marcel Siem and Martin Kaymer, two fellow Germans, as they followed him.

He gave the crowd a thumbs-up, blew a kiss, and embraced his family and friends. Then he signed his scorecard.

It is a miracle to see him on the golf course after Langer tore his Achilles heel in February. He missed the Masters Tournament in March but returned in three months to play on the 50-and-over tour. The German golfer made his return at the Insperity Invitational at the end of April.

He also attempted to defend his U.S. Senior Open title at Newport Country Club in June. Langer finished T42 at 2-over.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.

Steph Curry shares heartfelt goodbye to Klay Thompson on social media steph,curry,shares,heartfelt,goodbye,to,klay,thompson,on,social,media,sbnation,com,front-page,nba

On: July 2, 2024 By: admin

The “Splash Brothers” Era has come to a close.

With the news that Klay Thompson is headed to the Dallas Mavericks for the upcoming NBA season, a run of over a decade for Steph Curry and Klay Thompson has ended. During that stretch Curry and Thompson combined for six appearances in the NBA Finals, winning four titles.

With their ability to shoot the three, the duo racked up triple after triple, earning the “Splash Brothers” moniker.

But after the news dropped that Thompson was headed to Dallas, Curry took to social media to say goodbye to his fellow Splash Brother. On his Instagram Stories, Curry posted a series of photos featuring himself and Thompson, as well as Draymond Green.

The series of photographs ended with a message from Curry that read in part “[e]ven though we won’t finish the journey together, what we did will never be done again … Changed the whole Bay Area. Changed the way the game is played … Go enjoy playing basketball and doing what you do.”

The NBA has not yet announced the schedule for the 2024-25 season. But that first game for Thompson at Golden State next year might be worth watching.

U.S. Open: Tony Finau, Ludvig Åberg kiss chances goodbye on 13 u,s,open,tony,finau,ludvig,berg,kiss,chances,goodbye,on,sbnation,com,golf,golf-pga-tour,golf-news

On: June 16, 2024 By: admin

One hole took down two contenders on Saturday afternoon at the U.S. Open.

The short, dogleg right 13th hole, which only measures 368 yards, turned into a beast—at least for Tony Finau and Ludvig Åberg.

When Finau stepped on the 13th tee, he had just dropped back down to 4-under for the championship, thanks to a bogey at the 12th. Bogies do not kill golfers in U.S. Opens, but anything worse does.

After finding the fairway off the tee, Finau had less than 100 yards into the pin, which sat on a little shelf on the front right corner of the green. A false front repels anything a tad short, while a slope beyond the pin knocks anything long into a sand trap that must be avoided.

Accuracy on this approach was paramount, and both Finau and Åberg wound up making a mess of things.

Finau’s second shot came up short, as his ball rolled all the way down the slope, settling 30 yards short of the green. He decided to bring the putter out, but that attempt failed miserably. Finau raced his putt well past the flag, and it ended up in the bunker.

The ping-ponging had begun.

“Didn’t have a very good lie. Didn’t really want to pitch it,” Finau said of his third shot.

“Ended up playing ping-pong there.”

His bunker shot then went too far, settling in an area not far from where his second shot had stopped. He wound up making a triple bogey seven, knocking him all the way down to 1-under.

“Thirteen is going to jump out at me as a hole that was the toughest pin on the whole championship, in my opinion,” Finau added.

“That green is pretty crazy right there where that pin is—just the wrong time to miss a shot. Anything can happen on this golf course. I’m just happy with the way I finished.”

Finau closed with five straight pars to card a 2-over 72.

Åberg, meanwhile, played two groups behind Finau and made a similar mistake.

“What happened to me on 13 is not ideal,” Åberg said.

Ludvig Åberg, U.S. Open — Ludvig Åberg hits out of the bunker on the 13th hole during the third round.

“It doesn’t necessarily change the way that you try to approach this golf course. I think there’s only a certain way you can play it. If you don’t play that way, you’re going to get punished. That’s what I did.”

Unlike Finau, the Swede tugged his drive on 13 into the native area left of the fairway. He then hit his second shot just short of the green, exacerbated by the severe slope in front. Then Åberg airmailed his chip into the back bunker, and he, too, began to play some ping pong.

When his game on 13 ended, Åberg penciled in a dreadful seven, sending him back to 2-under for the championship. Meanwhile, his playing partner, Bryson DeChambeau, had all the momentum in the world.

Now DeChambeau leads by three over Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, and Matthieu Pavon at 7-under. Åberg sits five back, while Finau is six. But if not for the unlucky 13th hole, they would still have a chance to win. And yet, their ping-pong games ended in disappointment, but they ended their shots at capturing that first major title, too.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.