Could Bernhard Langer Win On The European Tour?

The 60-year-old German is continuing to dominate on the Champions Tour, but could he compete with the youngsters?

Could Bernhard Langer Win On The European Tour?

Bernhard Langer won again at the weekend for his second title in a row, seventh of the season and 36th Champions Tour trophy overall.

The 60-year-old is comparable to a juggernaut, and a cash point too. He's now earnt over $24.5m in Champions Tour earnings alone. Incredible.

Langer holed a long downhill putt  to beat Miguel Angel Jimenez on the second playoff hole to win the PowerShares QQQ Championship.

The two-time Masters champion leads the season-long Charles Schwab Cup points race with just a single event left. Victory in that would secure a $1m bonus.

But how would he get on if he was still playing on the European Tour?

We take a look at some stats:

Driving distance

The consensus would be that he simply doesn't hit the ball far enough...how true is that?

Langer has averaged an 280 yards off the tee this season on the Champions Tour (24th longest on the Champions Tour), which would put him in 205th spot on the European Tour Driving Distance stats, 37 yards behind Rory McIlroy at the top.

Now on the face of it that doesn't read very well for the German, however Matt Fitzpatrick only averages 285 yards and he's recently become the youngest ever Englishman to win his fourth European Tour title.

Lee Slattery averages just under 282 yards and he very nearly won the Czech Masters earlier this year, Hideto Tanihara averages 278 yards and reached the semi finals of the WGC-Match Play in March, Graeme McDowell averages 277 yards and Soren Kjeldsen averages 275.

Austin Connelly averages 277 yards as well, and he was well in contention at the Open this year and was 2nd at the recent KLM Open.

Related: How far do average golfers hit it? These statistics may come as a surprise

The only thing going against Langer here is that his averages have been taken from his golf in the US, where they do tend to play in better weather. So that may be a factor.

Langer would undoubtedly be one of the shorter hitters if he was playing on the European Tour, but not THE shortest. If he played the right course he would certainly still be long enough to compete.

Driving accuracy

The German's driving distance numbers look even more impressive when you see that he hits 78% of fairways...that would rank him 3rd on the European Tour this season.

Iron play

Langer leads the Champions Tour with an average of 78.3% Greens in Regulation.

That would lead the European Tour, ahead of Tommy Fleetwood who is #1 with an average of 77% GIRs hit.

Now you might think that's because he plays shorter courses on the Champions Tour, but that's not necessarily true.

Last week's PowerShares QQQ Championship course, Sherwood Country Club, measured 7,100 yards. That's the same length as Golf Club Milano which recently hosted the Italian Open.

Short game

The 60-year-old is pretty decent around the greens too. His scrambling stats are 70%, getting up-and-down 161 times from 230 missed greens this year.

That would put him 2nd on the European Tour, although leader Matt Ford's stat of 71.4% is only based on 12 rounds.

Putting

It's on the greens where Langer completely dominates the Champions Tour, seemingly making the important ones time and time again.

He averages 28.5 putts per round, which is 3rd on the Champions Tour and would leave him 9th on the European Tour's standings.

He leads the Champions Tour in Putts per GIR, averaging 1.684. That would be 1st on the European Tour as well, as current leader Marc Warren averages 1.713.

Golf Channel Analyst Brandel Chamblee said this weekend, "Bernhard Langer at the age of 60 is putting better than 20-year-olds in their prime, putting better than Tiger Woods ever did on the PGA Tour.

"You could argue that he's putting better than anybody ever has."

Could Bernhard Langer Win On The European Tour?

These statistics show that he definitely could. If he was on the right course and had his A game with him, he would have enough to win again.

Don't forget that he was just two strokes back after 54-holes at the 2016 Masters, although he did end in a tie for 24th.

Either way, the man is an exceptional golfer and will go down in history as one of the greats.

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