What they said: Bernhard Langer

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MODERATOR: Bernhard, a final round 66 today and birdie at the last hole and you shoot 20-under 196, which is an Ace Group Classic tournament record, your first win of the 2011 season and your 14th victory over all on the Champions Tour. Congratulations. A wonderful performance.

Maybe sort of general comments about the day and take us through the round.

BERNHARD LANGER: Thank you very much. Played pretty solid. I just drove over with my caddie Terry and we talked about it and I think it was a huge improvement driving the ball. I got a new driver this week, as I mentioned early in the week, and drove the ball very well. Also my putting was a little improved as well over the last couple of tournaments and that's always key. So made a couple of silly bogeys, especially yesterday with wedges in my hand and today with two 9-irons, but it's that type of golf course. If you land the ball just short of the green or on the wrong side of the green on the short side of the green, the ball sticks and often backs up because it's that type of grass. And if you hit it on the green, the greens are very firm and it often releases, even with a 9-iron. That's what happened on number 8. I hit a decent shot pitch pin high, but it went like 12 yards forward and then I three-putted. It's that type of golf course, it can grab you really quick, so overall it was a very solid performance and nobody ever got closer than within two shots of me all day long. That's still a nice lead to have, and obviously I was comfortable coming down the last couple of holes with a three-shot lead.

MODERATOR: Just walk us through the birdies and bogeys and any other good saves you may have had.

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, number 3 was a really good drive and a hybrid just pin high left, but it was, I would guess, 25 yards away so I chipped it. It was like two feet off the green. I chipped it with a 7-iron to about three feet, made that one.

Then number 5 I had a good drive and a 9-iron to about 15 feet. 6 was a really good 9-iron to about six feet, and then 7 was an excellent drive and -- what did I hit there, 4-iron, I think pin high about 40 feet away, two putts.

Then 8 was a 3-wood off the tee and I was between 9-iron and wedge. I hit a little 9, that's the one that landed pin high, rolled just through the green and I putted from there about six feet by and missed the return putt and came back with a stronger birdie. On number 9 after a 3-wood off the tee and a sand wedge to about 20 feet, made a good putt there. Then 11 was a 3-wood off the tee, 9-iron, which I pulled a little bit, hit the bank of the bunker and rolled in. Bad bunker shot, short, and chip was short and then I made a really good putt from every bit of about 14 feet to save bogey. That was one of the key shots today. And then the next hole, good drive and a perfect hybrid straight at the flag, actually hit the flag and finished about 10 feet away, missed the putt for eagle.

Q. What was the yardage on the approach?

BERNHARD LANGER: It was 195 to the front, that's meters, 215 meters plus 8 -- sorry. 215 yards plus 8, 223. Landed about 220 and then took one hop or two and hit the pin. 14, I hit a drive, laid up with a 5-iron, I hit a beautiful sand wedge to about three feet. And then 18, played the next holes very solid. 18, I hit a very good drive and a 9-iron to about three feet.

MODERATOR: Overall, obviously you worked hard early in the week to get to this point and you came through today. Just some thoughts about winning your first event and your third start.

BERNHARD LANGER: Well, you know, it's always exciting winning. It never gets old no matter where or how big the tournament, whether it's a major or not. Winning is what we're out here for, what I practice for.

I worked really hard the last two weeks on my game. I had a couple of charity events to do as well in between on both Mondays so I was pretty tired, but I knew I had to work on my game extremely hard to sort out what clubs to use, what putter to use. I had three sets of irons, two new sets of irons and just all that. And I was on the phone with my coach just about every day explaining what it feels like, what's happening, and he gave me a couple tips, so it all came together at the right time.

MODERATOR: Okay. We'll open it up for questions.

Q. After the bogeys on 8 and 11, how important is it to respond each time to come back with a birdie if they have any notions of --

BERNHARD LANGER: I think it's very important. It's key to not let your lead dwindle to the point where your opponents get to feel, oh, I can pull this off, he's just lost whatever, I gained two shots here, a shot here, now I'm within one or so. So I thought it was very important to bounce back with birdies after those bogeys.

Q. Is Willi Hofmann back in Germany, Bernhard?

BERNHARD LANGER: No, he's in Bluewater Bay, Florida.

Q. Were you sort of old school talking over the phone? I know people e-mail swings and stuff now.

BERNHARD LANGER: No, I can e-mail my swings, too. I have an iPhone. I just take a picture of my swing and 10 seconds later it's in his computer and he can look at it. It's pretty neat. I don't have to fly him in all the time and go through all that trouble, so modern technology really works well.

But it's also not just looking at the swing, because he's looking at one swing on the driving range or two swings. Sometimes the tempo's a little different or whatever, so it's good to just talk through it and tell him, I pull it a little bit or I block it, could it be this and that, and then he would say yeah, I think it might be this or it might be that, and I go out and try it.

Q. How young were you when you first started working with him?

BERNHARD LANGER: About 18. He was best friends with the head coach when I was assistant coach, he was the best friend with him. We were already playing tournaments together in Germany for about three years, three and a half years, and that's when he became my main coach.

Q. How much were you looking at what anybody else was doing?

BERNHARD LANGER: I didn't look too much early on. I had my hands full because Mark Calcavecchia played very good. He had a great start. He was like, I don't know, three or four under after seven or something, so I didn't have to look very far. He was right there with me and I had my hands full to not let him get any closer to my score.

And then obviously once I got onto the back 9, I had a couple of glances to see how the group in front of us was doing and my goal was to get it to 20 under. I figured if I get to 20 under, somebody has to shoot 10 under to tie me, 11 under to beat me, and that's not easily done with these pin positions out there.

Q. This is one of your first times at the course and coming to Naples. Can you talk a little bit about the community support and how surprised you were about everybody out there, what that means to you?

BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, it's wonderful to see that many people even on Friday. It's not an easy golf course to walk in terms of you don't get around the clubhouse much, and once you're out there, you're out there for a while. So we were surprised how many people showed up and it's great to see that kind of support from the community and obviously the -- lot of money goes to the charities, to local charities, so it will benefit them and it's great for us to have that kind of support out there. More fun playing in front of a large crowd than a small crowd.

Q. This tournament has a long history of courses that it's at. After a few years, the communities tend to fill up and it moves on. I don't know if they'll be back next year. What are your thoughts on the suitability of this course, the fairways maybe being too wide, or do you guys like it as a venue?

BERNHARD LANGER: I think most of the players really like the venue. There's a couple of fairways that are wide, but you often have angles. If the wind belows a little bit, those fairways get very narrow in a sense. There's some bailout areas, but then you come in with three more clubs, so you really need to take on the narrow part of the fairway and take on the water at times, take on the bunkers if you want to have a shot at the green and hope for birdie. So it's -- strategically a very well-designed golf course, I think.

Q. You had your kids here. How rare is that, or is that a frequent thing for them?

BERNHARD LANGER: No, it's not very frequent at all. My 18-year old daughter came in Friday, so she's been here the whole weekend. But then my older son and oldest daughter, they showed up this morning as a surprise. I didn't know they were going to come. My son studies at Tampa University and my daughter was working in Boca. She had some functions to attend Saturday night so otherwise she might have come, but I didn't know they were driving over, so it was good to see them just before we teed off and gave me a little extra incentive to play well.

MODERATOR: Have we got anything else for Bernhard?

Congratulations, sir.

BERNHARD LANGER: Thank you, appreciate it.