There is little question that Bernhard Langer is the greatest German golfer ever.

His country’s first member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, Langer was a dominant force on the European Tour for two decades and won 42 times.

During his prime, Langer played only sparingly on the PGA Tour. But he still won the 1985 Masters by two strokes over future Hall of Famers Seve Ballesteros, Raymond Floyd and Curtis Strange. That year, Langer won seven times on five different continents.

In 1986, the first year of the World Golf Rankings, he became the first player to ever be officially ranked No. 1.

Langer won his second Masters green jacket in 1993 by dominating the field, beating runner-up Chip Beck by four strokes.

Langer was also a mainstay on the European Ryder Cup team from 1981 through 2002, the most successful stretch ever for the Europeans in the decades-long history of the alternating-year battle between Europe and the United States. Langer played on every European team during that span, helping them compile a 5-4-1 record against the U.S. He also captained the winning European team in 2004.

Langer racked up a 21-15-6 record in Ryder Cup matches, and his 10 Ryder Cup appearances and 42 matches trail only England’s Nick Faldo for most ever for the European team.

Langer has won 12 times since joining the Champions Tour in 2007, and he won the Jack Nicklaus Trophy as the tour’s player of the year the last two years.

Now 52 years old, he won his first Champions Tour major championship in July’s Senior British Open at Scotland’s Carnoustie Golf Links. And Langer won his second major exactly one week later at the U.S. Senior Open, which was played at Sahalee Country Club near Seattle.

His best finish in two appearances at the Jeld-Wen Tradition came in 2008, when he tied for the second-round lead but finished in a tie for seventh place.

— Zack Hall