I met Bernhardt in about 2010 on a trip to the (then in-construction) Dunes course at Costa Navarino in Greece, where he was the signature designer. Two interesting little snippets. It was, I believe, the first time he'd seen the course in the flesh. I thought some of the bunkers were rather deep for a resort course, and said so to architect Ross McMurray of European Golf Design. "Bernd wants them even deeper!" he replied with a smile on his face.
Second, during that trip, the party, including me and Bernhardt and his brother (and I believe agent) Erwin, went for lunch in a nice beachside taverna, and I got chance to have a chat with the man. I mentioned to him that I had been at Fulford in York during the 1981 Benson and Hedges tournament, when he famously hit his ball into a tree, climbed up the tree and hit it out onto the green. I asked what his reaction had been when he saw where his ball was. His reply? "Well, at first obviously I was pretty unhappy, but then I took a look at it and thought 'I can still make par! I can climb up the tree and get up and down!'" And maybe that attitude explains why he has been so successful for so long.