You may remember Martin Kaymer ?? He won the 2010 PGA at Whistling Straits when Dustin Johnson got all the publicity for grounding his club in a hillside bunker. Then he lost to Luke Donald in the final of the WGC World Match Play earlier this year in Arizona. Kaymer was the world #1, and seemed to be in a gear above all the rest, although the shy German was never comfortable at #1, more on that later.
Then ala Paddy Harrington he decided he needed to change his swing...
How am I to say he was crazy, but he was adamant and although he won back in January in Abu Dhabi, and then that second to Luke, he hasn't been heard of since, until this week.
I said on Friday there were 20 players within 6 shots of Freddie Jacobsen and Kaymer was one of them..
This morning he started 5 shots back, and was chugging along with 6 staight pars, then he caught fire with a birdie at 7 when he chipped in from the bunker, that started a run of 9 birdies in his last 12 holes including a stunning back nine of 29 to finish at -20 with a -9 63 to overtake a gutsy Freddie Jacobsen (71) who had 4 birdies of his own, but with a cooler putter, 3 bogey's including the closer on the par 3 17th. He finished 2nd.
The win moves Kaymer up to 4th in the Official World Golf Ranking from 6th, and he set all kinds of records, here are a few..
* His final round of 63 (-9) is the lowest final round a winner in the WGC – HSBC Champions, beating the 67 (-5) of Francesco Molinari in 2010.
• His final round of 63 (-9) is the lowest final round a winner in any WGC stroke play event, beating the previous record of 64 (-6) by Hunter Mahan at the 2010 WGC – Bridgestone Invitational.
• Played the last nine holes in 29 (-7). This equals the lowest nine in relation to par on The European Tour in 2011
• His five shot final round winning comeback is the largest of the 2011 European Tour season, beating the four shots of Charl Schwartzel (Masters Tournament),
It was a good weekend for Euro tour members, 8 in the top 10 at with Graeme McDowell (67) 3rd and Masters Tournament winner Charl Schwartzel (65) sharing fourth with US Open Champion Rory McIlroy (69) and Paul Casey (67).
Regarding where he is at after the changes to his swing he said..“I just played really good golf, and finally I'm glad that it came together, because the last few weeks, I played good golf but it has not happened yet. It was nice that it happened here, the World Golf Championships event.
Then on how his year has been including his time as #1...“It was an okay season, now it's a good season. I played brilliant golf in Abu Dhabi, and when I became the Number One in the world in February after the World Golf Championships event in Arizona, my life has changed a little bit - not only mine, for the people I work with, my family. It has been a little awkward sometimes, because I was just not used to being in the spotlight. It took some time to get used to it, and hopefully it will happen again, because I know what's going to happen, I know how to approach that"
Kaymer is now just over 1m euros behind Donald in the Race to Dubai and Rory has closed the gap as well with his 4th place finish. Next week is the $6m Barclay's Singapore Open and neither Kaymer or McIlroy are scheduled to play, and Luke of course is still at home in Chicago awaiting the birth of their second child.
Updated Race to Dubai list http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/racetodubai/rankings/index.html
Final leaderboard click
http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011081/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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