When Tiger Woods romped to his first Masters title in 1997, he did so wearing a red top that quickly became established as his iconic Sunday colour.
But the American, who would go on to win five times at Augusta National, was not the first to make the fashion faux pas of pairing a red polo shirt with the Green Jacket.
Forty years ago this weekend, Bernhard Langer set the tone as he marched to the first of his two Masters victories – he even wore red trousers, too.
“I always tease Tiger,” said the 67-year-old, who was close to tears as he talked about playing in his 41st and final Masters this week.
“See, I was the one wearing a red shirt first; you came later.”
Langer has previously joked that he “looked like a Christmas tree” when he donned the famous Green Jacket for the first time in 1985.
‘It’s time to quit’
His final Masters was supposed to be last year but a snapped Achilles tendon – an injury suffered while playing pickleball – meant the German couldn’t play. So he delayed saying farewell to a place that means so much to him.
“They’re the two most important wins in my career,” he said of his 1985 and 1993 victories at Augusta, which are his sole major triumphs.
“It’s emotional. You can tell already my voice is breaking a bit just realising it’s going to be my last competitive Masters.”
Langer has conceded for many years that he no longer has the game to compete at Augusta; three missed cuts in his past three Masters are testament to that.
“The course is just getting too long and I’m getting shorter and shorter,” he said.
“I’m hitting hybrids [into greens] where the other kids are hitting nine-irons, maybe even wedges. So I knew I wasn’t going to be in contention anymore.
“A few years back I asked the chairman of the club, ‘is there a time limit? Do we age out when we’re 60?’. He said, ‘no, you will know when it’s time to quit, it’s totally up to you’.
“It is time to quit.”
Langer was runner-up at The Open twice and third on three occasions in a career that promised more major success.
That he was unable to add a major other than his two at Augusta only intensifies his link to this fabled corner of Georgia.
In 40 appearances, he has made the cut 27 times and finished inside the top 10 nine times.
“It’s been an incredible journey, for a young man born in a village of 800 people [in Bavaria, southern Germany], where golf was nothing, to make it here,” he said.
“To get an invitation to play the Masters when it was extremely difficult for European or international players to get one, and then to win the Masters on the third go was just a dream come true.”
He was just the third non-American winner, following in the footsteps of South Africa’s three-time champion Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros of Spain, who won twice.
His win cemented belief among Europeans that success could be achieved at Augusta.
Ballesteros paved the way with his victories in 1980 and 1983, before Langer won his first two years later.
Then Scotland’s Sandy Lyle, England’s Nick Faldo (twice) Wales’ Ian Woosnam, Langer again and Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal collected six of seven titles from 1988.
Langer’s debut was in 1982, two years after Ballesteros had broken the glass ceiling.
The German’s initial experience was hardly noteworthy. He shot 77 and 78 to miss the halfway cut by one stroke after three-putting 11 times in 36 holes on unfamiliar greens that were too slick for a naive 24-year-old.
“Coming here the first time, driving down Magnolia Lane, seeing this place for the first time was an eye-opener,” he said.
“I had never seen a golf course manicured like this or a tournament run as efficiently as this has been.”
