At retirement age, Bernhard Langer approaches historic milestone

His face may have grown leathery as he nears a historic PGA Tour Champions moment, but Bernhard Langer's game remains unwrinkled. Photo: Paul Hennessy, SOPA Images, LightRocket via Getty Images

Another PGA Tour Champions season has commenced – Hawaii in the books, Morocco next week, with Naples, Florida, on deck after that – which means 65-year-old Bernhard Langer, scratched up hardhat, dusty overalls and dented lunch pail in tow, is back on the job. There is nowhere he would rather be. An accomplished man and golfer, Langer has no concept of cruise control; he works diligently each day on every small detail of his craft, toiling much like a factory employee who, at sunset, quietly has produced more than any other worker on the line.

For all the newer, promising faces on the PGA Tour Champions – Steven Alker, Steve Stricker and Pádraig Harrington leading the way – there is no more interesting study than Langer. The elder to those names above by more than a decade, Langer not only keeps showing up, but keeps winning. If it indeed...