The 66-year-old man heard his doctors say his recovery from a torn Achilles tendon would take 4-6 months and he thought he could do it faster.

Bernhard Langer tore his Achilles tendon in his left leg while playing pickleball on Feb. 1 in Boca Raton, Florida, according to the PGA Tour. He was determined to be playing golf only three months later.

The two-time Masters champion and two-time Regions Tradition winner had seen a much younger athlete return in that time frame: New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was throwing a football within three months of his surgery. Both Langer and Rodgers had what’s called a “SpeedBridge” surgery on their Achilles. NFL.com described the procedure as “innovative” and “designed to accelerate the normal rehabilitation process from such an injury.”

Certainly, the bodies of PGA Tour Champions golfer and an NFL quarterback will not function identically. Langer joked in an interview that because he isn’t being hit by defensive linemen, it probably helps him be ready sooner.

But Langer was connected with Rodgers and the two spoke about the recovery. Whatever it took and the trial of age ticking against him, Langer is back.

“I was very committed,” Langer told AL.com on Friday. “Told my PT when he introduced himself, he said PT stands for for personal torture. And I said, ‘I’m in. Take me, go as hard as you want. I’m committed.’ We did all of that. A lot of prayer. A lot of PT. Bunch of other things. Hypobaric chamber. Light therapy. PRP. You name it. I did everything but stem cell.”

Maybe it’s stubborn or out of ego. Maybe it’s just out of a sheer genuine desire to play golf no matter what it takes. But here is Langer either way.

He returned last week at the Insperity Invitational in Houston — Insperity is one of Langer’s corporate sponsors. He’s wearing two different size shoes in a new apparel deal with Sketchers: a size 10 on his right foot and a 10.5 on his left to handle the swelling.

“But since I was able to take a cart, I thought last week was a great week to come back,” Langer said Friday. “First of all, I’m with Insperity as you can tell on my hat. It’s a very flat course so it’s a lot easier.”

But Greystone Golf and Country Club located in the hills of Hoover is far from flat. He’s 66 now. His walk is slow. It’s deliberate.

It’s with a clear limp and certainly does not look comfortable to an onlooker.

The way he walks is so stiff because he is not able to flex his left foot. Every week now, Langer said, he works on flexing that foot another five degrees in ongoing physical therapy sessions.

“It feels like you have a wooden leg. Every time I walk, it’s like…” Langer said and trailed off, then on the Greystone clubhouse patio, began to mimic the minimal walking he’s able to do.

“Does that hurt,” AL.com asked as he showed his reduced walk.

“It’s not so much the pain, but you’re pounding your right hip and your right leg,” Langer said. “Now imagine those muscles around my hips and my back. They all tense up. So I can’t move the way I want to move. My swing still feels very restricted and very stiff.”

But if he’s in pain, he doesn’t show it. There are no grimaces, no drain in the spirit of a fan favorite on this senior PGA Tour.

Golfers on the PGA Tour Champions are allowed to ride in golf carts. Most walk. But Langer needs one in order to play. He can’t take the steep steps into the back of the clubhouse to the official scoring room, instead taking his cart around to the front door of the building. He drives himself up the middle of the fairway, given special permission to do so on a rain-soaked golf course just to avoid taking any unnecessary steps.

Langer’s caddie carries his Tour Edge-sponsored bag and walks and catches up with Langer at the ball. Maybe Langer gets a few extra seconds to analyze his upcoming shots while the rest of the group on foot gets to their balls.

In a way, it’s almost like us regular folks driving up the fairway in a weekender’s round of golf.

But this is so un-human, so hard to understand a 66-year-old playing professional golf hardly 100 days after surgery on a torn Achilles and not just playing, but in the top 10 heading into the weekend at the Tradition.

Langer is at -6 after two rounds, tied for ninth and six shots back of the leader, Steve Stricker.

While an impressive feat of recovery, it is still a careful play as to not open himself up to further pain. Hoping to avoid any wrong step in the rough that might twist his ankle. It’s not fragile, but vigilant.

Being in the golf cart lends itself to far more crowd interaction than a typical round on Tour. When Langer is teeing off and around the green, he parks his cart on the cart path, where the spectators stand to watch.

“You’re our favorite champion,” a Greystone member said to him Thursday as he got back in the cart off the green.

“You’re too kind,” Langer responded back with a smile and a wave.

The interactions seem to suit him. He initiated interaction with fans himself driving past in his cart, asking if they might want any of the water bottles in the tubs for the golfers on the tee box on a sweltering, humid Thursday.

Langer has more therapy to do. He said is swing is still not where he wants it. It’s probably impossible for it to be there anyway.

Officially, Langer has been going to about one hour of physical therapy a day, but has done far more hours of workouts and treatments outside the office.

It’s the type of work it takes to be at the Tradition, or to be playing golf at all.

Because of the SpeedBridge surgery, Langer never had to wear a cast.

For now, Langer said he feels he is fighting the ball from sailing off to the right because of how stiff his body is when he tries to come around in his swing. That will take time to get back to normal, and be able to hit the golf ball with the control he’s used to, even if his scorecard wouldn’t indicate that battle.

“At times, I make a swing and I thought, ‘Oh! That felt like a golf swing,’” Langer said. “Other times, I am manipulating the club and I’m stiff and awkward. But I get the job done.”

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]