In the week of his 25th appearance in the Masters, Bernhard Langer cast his mind back to his first. It was 1982 and he had won the European Tour’s Order of Merit in 1981. He left a small town in Germany to travel to a small town in Georgia and remembers it as if it was yesterday. He recalls his visit in 1985 just as clearly, because that was the first time he won.

“The Masters means so much to me,” Langer, 49, said. “Just being at Augusta, the atmosphere, the condition of the fairways and the greens, hanging around in the champions’ locker-room. It has been a life-changing place for me. Winning there gave me a ten-year exemption on the US tour, twice. Wherever I go, I am introduced as a Masters champion.”

After his triumph in 1985, Langer attended the members’ dinner and then went to a party given by a couple of Australians who had placed bets on him early in the week. “They won more money than I won,” Langer said, smiling. A fellow partygoer remembers Langer spending an hour or so sitting on the floor quietly reliving his triumphant afternoon.

At 1am, he returned to his rented house and went to bed. But he could not sleep and so he got up, dressed and made his way back to the golf club, where, like a child, he pressed his face against the fence to catch a glimpse of what was inside. Langer did not need to indulge in “what ifs” because he knew what had happened a few hours earlier. He had won by two strokes, beating Seve Ballesteros, Ray Floyd and Chip Beck into second place. Then he went and bought all the newspapers he could find and took them home to read.

He remained in Augusta on the Monday to fulfil an advertisement commitment for a Japanese clothing company. As he juggled the congratulations and the poses required for the photographers, he felt a sense of flatness. He was not tired — his adrenalin saw to that — but he was let down.

“It was weird,” he said. “I had just won a major championship and yet deep down I felt an emptiness. I can’t explain it other than to say that I kept saying to myself: ‘Is this all there is?’ Two days later, I realised what was wrong. Shall I tell you?”

At this, his listener nodded eagerly and edged forward in his seat. Langer has a reputation for saying very little. Journalists come away from interviews with a strong sense of having listened to a decent man, but someone who does not give us stories. Was he about to now?

Seconds later, the listener’s heart sank. The J word, the G word, the R word all arrived with the unexpected force you feel when you stub your toe on a kerb. That is J as is Jesus, G as in God, R as in religion. “I began my spiritual journey that Wednesday,” Langer said. “Bobby Clampett invited me to a Bible class at Hilton Head. It was a gutsy thing to do and I thought to myself, ‘Why not?’ And I am glad I did. Jesus arrived in my life to fill that emptiness. John iii, 3: ‘Truly it is better to be born again otherwise you will not enter into the Kingdom of God.’ Those words hit me right here.”

At this Langer tapped his temple with his right hand. “Suddenly I was a believer,” he said. “I had never given my life to God. Now I was prepared to.” At this point the conversation took another turn. Given the chance to lecture on God, Langer decided not to.

The self-control of this zealot was impressive, the more so considering that if a man has won two Masters, been the world No 1, overcome the yips on three separate occasions, played in ten Ryder Cup teams, captained Europe to a record victory margin in a Ryder Cup, twice won the World Cup for his country and been appointed an honorary OBE wants to talk about religion, then the overwhelming feeling is that he is entitled to.

Instead, Langer recalled how when he won in 1985, he was wearing red trousers and a red shirt, not the best colours to blend with the traditional green jacket. “I looked like a Christmas tree,” Langer said.

“I hadn’t planned what I looked like. I was four strokes behind at the start of the day. But I learnt. The second time I won [1993] I was prepared. I wore a yellow shirt. Mind you, I also had a four-stroke lead at the start of the last day.

“Until a couple of years ago, I always felt I could win when I played here,” Langer continued. “Now I don’t. It’s too long for me.”

“Who will win?” He ran down the list of European contenders, “Sergio GarcÍa, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Henrik Stenson, Padraig Harrington, David Howell, Robert Karlsson. Anyone who can hit the ball a long way and can putt.”

But then he mentioned Tiger Woods, the overwhelming favourite. “If Tiger plays well, he will be hard to beat. At Augusta, you want to hit high long irons with spin to get distance control. The greens are large, but there are small pockets on them where you have to be. The key to winning is to hit a lot of irons the precise distance. Tiger’s short game is immaculate, he holes out well and he is mentally very strong. He always expects to win.”

Pablo Martín, of Spain, became the first amateur to win on the European Tour yesterday by taking the Estoril Portuguese Open title by a stroke from Raphaël Jacquelin, of France.

MartÍn achieved what he failed to do in 2003 when he led going into the last day of a tournament in Tenerife only to fade away. This time he created golfing history with a closing three-under-par 68 to total seven-under-par 277.