Bernhard Langer, 67, is teetering between aging and ageless as he pursues a third U.S. Senior Open

COLORADO SPRINGS — A reign has no fixed expiration date, as Bernhard Langer has demonstrated, but there comes a point when inevitability begins to assert itself. Has Langer reached this stage?

There is no easy answer with Langer, ostensibly ageless, but indisputably aging. The U.S. Senior Open begins on the East Course at the Broadmoor here on Thursday, and Langer, 67, will be pursuing his third victory in this championship.

He already holds the record as its oldest winner (65) when he won it in 2023 at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis. The previous record was held by Allen Doyle, who was 57 years, 11 months, when he won in 2006.

Langer won only once in 2024, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in November, his 47th PGA Tour Champions victory, a tour record that might have suggested he has not entirely yielded to age.

And in April, the two-time Masters champion threatened to make the cut before a 36th hole bogey ended his bid. He noted then that he no longer has the length to compete at Augusta National and that that would be his last Masters appearance.

Since then, his game has been spotty. Last week, in the Kaulig Companies Championship, a major, he finished 67th. Last month, in the Regions Tradition, another senior major, he tied for 27th.

“It's been a bit up and down,” he said. “I've had some good finishes this year and some not so good ones, and lately I've been struggling a little bit with my game, whether it's the long game or sometimes the putting. It's not where I want it to be, especially when you face a test like this.”

Yet he stubbornly refuses to yield to the notion that winning no longer is in the equation.

“Yeah, I would like to think I can win any event I play,” he said. “There's certainly some venues I feel more comfortable with my lack of distance, let's put it that way, and these are more challenging because we play a long golf course here.

“So I have to be spot on with the whole game. If we play a little tighter, shorter golf course, that may suit me better. But it is what it is, and I've beaten the odds before. Sentry was a long golf course, and I won there a few years ago, so you never know.”

The East Course here is a brute under normal conditions. But a U.S. Senior Open setup increases the difficulty quotient, notably in length, 7,247 yards listed, with a par of 70, though it likely won’t be set up to that distance given the rain it has endured on Tuesday and Wednesday. The rough will be a factor, too.

“The rough is up this week,” he said. “They've had, I think, the last 40 days it rained, 35 days if I'm not mistaken. That's what a local told me. It's playing very long. The ball is plugging off the tee shot pretty much. I played a practice round just an hour ago, and like 17 [a par 4] was a driver, 3-wood for me just to get to the front edge, and that was before we had more rain. So it's playing very long and very challenging.

“For me personally, I don't hit the ball as high and as far as the young guys do, so I have a flatter ball flight, which makes it then hard to stop the ball on the green. When the greens get a little firmer, the ball comes in and just releases to the back, which is not where you want to be.”

His record of success, enduring into his mid-60s, suggests that it is unwise to conclude that he can’t win. Conversely, age is undefeated it sports. It eventually takes down everyone.

Either way, however it plays out, Langer is the player to watch this week.