Long day rewards Langer

Bernhard Langer made a promise to his wife that he would be home in Florida more often now that he has joined the Champions Tour.

Luckily, he didn’t promise to be home in time for dinner Sunday night.

Langer outlasted defending champion Jay Haas in a seven-hole playoff at Newport Beach Country Club, one of the longest playoffs in Champions Tour history, and won the Toshiba Classic with only a smidgen of daylight to spare.

More than six hours after the lead groups teed off, Langer tapped in a four-inch birdie putt on the seventh playoff hole, then watched in surprise as Haas lipped out a four-foot birdie attempt that would have extended the playoff.

It is the second Champions Tour victory for Langer, and it came in the fifth-longest playoff in tour history.

“I’m pretty tired,” Langer said. “It’s a good thing there is something called ‘adrenaline’ because that’s what kept me going.”

Lengthy playoffs are nothing new at the Toshiba Classic. Three of the six longest playoffs in Champions Tour history have come at Newport Beach Country Club. In 1997, Bob Murphy and Jay Sigel went nine holes, and in 2001 Jose Maria Canizares and Gil Morgan also went nine before things were settled.

The only Champions Tour playoff that went longer was a 10-hole playoff between David Graham and Dave Stockton at the 1998 Royal Caribbean Classic.

“It was getting there,” Langer said, when asked whether daylight was running out. “I think we could have played two or three more holes. It’s a good thing we changed the clock, or we’d be back” for another day.

Langer entered the day with a three-shot lead and was four ahead of Haas, but he battled a balky putter most of the day. He had three three-putts in the final round, after having none through the first two rounds, and shot 69.

Haas, playing two groups ahead, shot a final-round 65 to finish at 14 under. Langer trailed by a shot heading to the 18th tee in regulation.

He hit a big drive but missed the green long with his second shot, then hit a poor pitch shot that came up 12 feet short.

Needing to make the putt to force a playoff, Langer curled it in for birdie.

“That was huge,” Langer said. “Especially after having a bad putting day in a sense.”

In the playoff, the two matched birdies on the first extra hole, parred the next three, birdied the fifth and parred the sixth before Haas sent his second shot long on the par-five 18th, hit the hole with his chip and missed the putt coming back.

“When you come that far and get that close . . . you like to finish it off,” said Haas, who added that he was “shocked” his last putt didn’t go in. “When you get that close, you hate to give them away.”

Langer, a two-time Masters champion, turned 50 last August and is in his first full season on the Champions Tour.

He has shown signs he could become a dominant player.

After completing his last full season on the PGA Tour last year with four top-10s in 14 events, he switched tours and had a victory and four finish- es among the top 13 in five starts.

This season, he has three top-10 finishes in four starts, including Sunday’s victory.

But Langer said he probably wouldn’t play enough to be in the running for player of the year.

He has four children, three of which are 17, 15 and 7 and still living at home. Langer said he would play about 18 Champions Tour tournaments this season along with the Masters and Players Championship on the PGA Tour.

“I’m a father and a husband, and I need to fulfill those roles,” he said. “I think there needs to be a balance in my life.”

Haas, the two-time defending player of the year on the Champions Tour, played 27 and 21 events the last two seasons.

“It will be tough playing only 18,” Haas said. “But you know, if Bernhard plays like he can, he might win eight times in that length of time.”

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peter.yoon@latimes.com