The
45-year-old German told a news conference that he had nearly pulled out of the
Friday morning fourballs because of the strain.
"But
I got some help from the physios and was able to play. It improved to where it
was 90 percent good but as the day went on it tightened up again," he said.
"I
felt really good in the morning yesterday but around 2 o'clock I felt some pain
in there again and it gradually got stiffer and stiffer over the period of the
day.
"I figured
if I played 10 hours again today I wouldn't be in good shape for tomorrow.
He
certainly showed little sign of a problem in the Saturday morning foursomes, which
he and Colin Montgomerie closed out by one hole over Scott Verplank and Scott
Hoch.
That took
the European pair's points tally in this match to two and a half, having beaten
Hoch and Jim Furyk 4 & 3 in the Friday fourballs and halved with Phil Mickelson
and David Toms in the foursomes.
Langer,
playing in his 10th Ryder Cup, now has 23 points in total since his debut in 1981,
just two short of Nick Faldo's all-time record.
Three
of those before this match had come in partnership with Montgomerie. They won
together at Kiawah Island in 1991 and two out of their three matches in partnership
at Valderrama, Spain in 1997.
Langer,
twice U.S. Masters champion, has the knack of lifting the spirits of Montgomerie
who can have a tendency to lose heart if shots go awry.
"If
I see that he's getting down, I won't let him. I tell him 'come on'.
"At
one stage today, we were two-up and then we lost two holes to go back to level.
We walked off the green and I said 'we lost some but we're still level.
"'We're
not behind, we're level and we've still got three holes to go so let's go get
them'."
Montgomerie
carried out his partner's instructions to perfection, holing a 10 footer from
an immaculate Langer pitch for a match-winning birdie.
"Whether
this is Bernhard's last Ryder Cup or not all I can say is that it's been a considerable
honor playing with him," Montgomerie said. "He is the best partner you
could have."
