You may never have heard of Bernhard Langer but international golf analyst, Michael Arkush, ranks him the 94th best player in the history of golf (out of thousands of players).
Bernhard was born in a small German village near Munich. His father was a bricklayer. When Bernhard was nine, he worked as a caddy at Golfclub Augsburg. He later said he only took the job to make money but then something unexpected happened. He fell in love with the game.
When he was a teenager his parents sent him to a job placement center. When asked what job he wanted, he said “golf professional”. The puzzled clerk left the room and soon returned to inform the young man that no such job existed in Germany. He was told to pick something else.
Bernhard refused to give up his dream and began to practice golf at every opportunity. He quickly became good enough to be hired as the assistant pro at the Munich Country Club.
After the club closed for the day he would practice for hours alone, in the dark, hitting balls he could barely see.
At age eighteen, he joined the European Golf Tour but could not afford travel expenses and slept in his car during tournaments.
Just when he was experiencing some success, he was drafted into the German army for fifteen months. He was forced to repeatedly throw himself on the ground which fractured two vertebrae and put him in the hospital for six weeks.
After his military service, he returned to golf. His putting ability had vanished, and he had to relearn the game. He persisted until he won eleven European tournaments.
His achievements gained him an invitation to play the most prestigious tournament in Golf, The Masters. In 1993, Bernhard shocked the sports world when he won the greatest tournament in the world.
Bernhard Langer came up “from the bottom” to reach the top.
What has God called you to do? You may be at the bottom now, but a place is waiting for you at the top.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:7, “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” NIV
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