Langer back in action

Bernhard Langer is confident of maintaining family bragging rights when he returns to action in the KLM Open which gets under way in Zandvoort today.

Langer was forced to pull out of the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship in Hamburg last month after being rushed to hospital on the eve of the event with kidney stones, but was determined to play in Holland alongside his 17-year-old son Stefan.

Stefan caddied for his father when he partnered Marcel Siem to victory in the World Cup in Barbados last December but this will be the first time they have lined up against one another on the European Tour.

It will also be the first time a father and son have played in the same event on European soil since Craig and Kevin Stadler competed in the 2002 Omega European Masters in Switzerland.

But Langer fears the tough course at Zandvoort, on Holland’s windswept North Sea coast, could prove too much of a test for amateur Stefan, who was with his father when he won the last of his three KLM Open titles in 2001.

“It is a wonderful thing,” said Langer, who celebrates his 50th birthday next Monday and will make his seniors debut in that week’s Champions Tour event at Pebble Beach.

“It’s a big opportunity for him and great for us to be in the same field.

“But I think he picked a very tough golf course. He has been struggling a little with his game and has tried to make some changes but it is difficult to play tournament golf when you are between swings, when the old one doesn’t work and the new one is not yet bedded in.

“I played with him on Tuesday and he struggled a bit but he is continuously working on it. I don’t expect him to make the cut to tell you the truth as it is such a tough golf course and when the wind blows it is a brutal test.

“A little too much sidespin on the ball and it is gone 40 yards off line. You can lose six or eight balls out here in a heartbeat as there are so many bushes and rough.”

As for his own prospects, Langer – who lost a play-off on the US Tour to Rory Sabbatini earlier this season – added: “I was out of action for about two and a half weeks but I was cleared by my doctor a week ago and I haven’t had any pain for five days now.

“I am not as fit as I was, just laying around for two and a half weeks doesn’t help and you deteriorate pretty fast, but I’ve been working hard the last seven days and I think I’m gaining strength and endurance every day.”