GOLF:

Bleary-eyed from both celebration and lack of sleep, Bernhard Langer was sitting at a table in a banquet room at the Newport Beach Country Club.

The defending champion of the Toshiba Classic was fulfilling part of the duties, appearing at a media day the following year.

The event allows media members the chance to ask Langer about his game and if he thinks he can defend his crown.

Langer is a very pleasant person, personable once you talk to him and a real role model for the Champions Tour. He also is a fantastic golfer and proved that last year by winning three times.

Coming back to Toshiba, the site of his first victory, would have been hectic enough. Langer was flying from Hawaii because he was entered to play in the tour’s first full-field event of the season, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship.

Langer of course had to make things difficult for himself by winning the tournament. By winning, Langer was forced to stick around and socialize with tournament officials and talk to the media.

It could have been easy for Langer to call Executive Tournament Director Jeff Purser and beg off the media day. Or he could have called in from Hawaii and did the conference via telephone.

But Langer had made a commitment and he was going to honor it. He flew to John Wayne Airport on a red eye, got a couple of hours of sleep and then went to the Newport Beach Country Club, where he spoke to media members. He was then going to get on another late night flight and go to Florida where he lives.

“I’ll have two [red-eye flights] instead of one, but I got a few hours rest, so this may be a good thing for me to break up the trip a little bit,” Langer said. “I’m glad to be here and promote this event.”

It made me realize what an honest effort Champions Tour players are making to promote their tour and I can tell you that I, along with others there, definitely appreciated it.

It is a far cry from the PGA Tour and what some of the stars do there. A few years ago Phil Mickelson was at the FBR Open in Phoenix, talking to his public relations guy and when told he was needed the following week at the AT&T; for a 45-minute media conference, he said, “Do I have to?”

Well, yes, you did Phil. You were defending champion. But allegedly Mickelson had a corporate golf outing at Cypress planned and didn’t want to have to come back to Pebble Beach.

Reluctantly he did.

Tiger Woods recently blew off a media day for the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines. Woods, who will often do a conference call when he is defending champion, couldn’t even find the time to do that. I hope it didn’t have to do with Buick dropping him as a sponsor. I would like to think I know him well enough to know he wouldn’t be that petty.

I understand the pressure and time constraints that professional athletes have, but they also must understand that there are certain responsibilities that come with their profession.

My favorite story about a professional athlete honoring a request comes from Ernie Banks.

My best friend worked with a woman who knew the Cubs Hall of Famer and for Christmas one year asked her if Banks would sign two baseballs, one for me and one for himself.

Banks agreed, put the balls in his briefcase and then forgot about it. When he opened up the briefcase he realized he had forgotten and even though he was 3,000 miles away, signed them and had them sent overnight delivery so they would arrive before Christmas.

I have that ball displayed with Banks’ writing on it that reads, “Let’s play two.”

My hope is that the younger professional athletes take a cue from people like Banks and Langer.

They truly represent class not only as athletes, but as human beings.