An emotional Bernhard Langer was visibly moved as he reflected on his last Masters appearance in a press conference to preview the tournament. The 67-year-old German golf legend, a two-time Masters champion, has decided to end his illustrious Augusta National career. "It's very emotional," Langer admitted, his voice wavering during the press conference that featured highlights of his victories in 1985 and 1993.

"You can tell already my voice is breaking a bit just realising it's going to be my last competitive Masters. After four decades, it's going to be bittersweet. I think I knew it was time to call it quits as a player. I wanted to do it last year but I couldn't with my Achilles surgery. The course is just getting too long and I'm getting shorter and shorter and I'm hitting hybrids where the other kids are hitting nine irons and eight 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? Or what is it? He said, no, you will know when it's time to quit. It's totally up to you.

"It is time to quit. I'm just not competitive on this course anymore. We're playing, what, 7,500-plus yards, and I'm used to playing courses around 7,100. I can still compete there but not at this distance."

Langer is set to join the ranks of past Masters champions like Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam, and Larry Mize in retiring from the prestigious tournament. He shared a poignant moment with Mize, recalling: "He gave a little speech at the Champions Dinner, and he just broke down.

"He said, 'yeah, I totally screwed up'. I said, 'no you didn't, it was just showing how much it meant to you, but it was probably even far more important for you because you grew up here in Augusta. You're a local boy, local hero'."

Langer, hailing from Germany and now living in Florida, also expressed his deep connection to the event: "I'm from Germany, and it means a great deal for me, too, living in Florida now and having married an American and raised my kids in this country and all that. It's never easy, not for any of us."