Bernhard Langer has compiled 36 victories and just over $25 million in earnings on the PGA Tour Champions, and he is a seven-time player of the year. It might help the others if the 60-year-old German takes a week off every now and then.
"Sometimes they say, 'Why don't you take a week off?' I joke back and say, 'If you pay me some disappearance fee, I might.' But I haven't received any yet," Langer said Monday while previewing the Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Leave it to Langer's son to arrange that.
Langer revealed that he won't be able to defend his title on May 24-27 because his youngest son, 18-year-old Jason, is graduating from high school that weekend.
"Family always comes first in my life, so I've got to be there to support him, to celebrate him moving on to college," Langer said.
He said his son will attend Penn's Wharton School of Business and plans to play golf.
"I wouldn't want to miss that," Langer said of the graduation. "I'm going to miss competing for this, but hopefully there will be more chances in the future."
Langer won last year at Trump National outside Washington to complete the career Grand Slam on the 50-and-older circuit.
A year ago, Phil Mickelson sat out the U.S. Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin when his oldest daughter graduated from high school. Corey Pavin nearly had the same conflict in 2005 for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, but he flew cross-country after his opening round and caught a red-eye back to North Carolina for his second round.