Martin Kaymer
Two-time Major winner and former World No.1 Martin Kaymer tells us he’s getting back to his best and aiming for big things in 2019...
The two-time Major Champion outlines his plans to return to the upper echelons of the world game
Bernhard Langer may sit head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to best German golfer of all time, but until relatively recently another player almost half his age was making great strides towards matching Langer.
Double Major winner? Check. World No.1? Check. European Tour Order of Merit champion? Check. Multiple successive Ryder Cup appearances? Check. Yes, for the first seven or eight years on tour, 33-yearold Martin Kaymer’s star was very much in the ascendancy. He made it on to the main tour in 2007 after all but cleaning up on Germany’s developmental EPD Tour in 2006, when he also finished 4th on the Challenge Tour rankings from just eight starts, winning twice and finishing in the top four six times.
Between 2007 and 2014, he won 11 times on the European Tour, picked off both the USPGA and the US Open and hit the heady heights of World No.1 for eight weeks in early 2011. Since then, he hasn’t quite been able to regain his imperious best form, with his eight-shot victory in the 2014 US Open remaining his last success, and his world ranking dropping from 76th to 150th this year.
I spoke to Kaymer at Wentworth to find out where he was at with his game and what he thought he needed to do to get back to the very top.
How would you describe your form in the first half of 2018?
If it was one to ten, maybe I would give myself four. I finished 2nd in the BMW International and before that 8th in Italy, which was fine, but the consistency was missing. I figured out that before The Masters I was injured maybe for six weeks, and then I really didn’t give myself time to prepare properly, so you know that when you’re standing on the 1st tee on Thursday you can win. From a week before The Masters until late July I had a maximum of one week off between tournaments and only four weeks off in total in four months. That’s just too much tournament golf without being prepared for it.
Is that because you felt you needed to catch up?
Well, I needed to catch up in terms of Ryder Cup points, PGA Tour starts and world rankings – all those things were on my mind. I needed to get back into form and I thought the only way to really do it was to play – I don’t gain any world ranking points for standing on the range! But first you need to be prepared to play to get the results, and I didn’t give myself that time.
Are you a PGA Tour or European Tour player or both?
I’m both, but I’m very, very committed to the European Tour because that is where I feel the most comfortable, and it’s where I usually play my best golf. It’s hard to play both tours when you live in Europe. When you live in America, I think it’s more doable. I like so many tournaments on the European Tour that are on at the same time as good events on the PGA Tour. But I hate to miss out on the good ones in Europe, so that’s why I usually go for the European Tour events.
What did you make of the challenges of Carnoustie and Shinnecock Hills last year?
I’ve won before at Carnoustie in the Dunhill and a couple of times in Scotland. I really enjoy that kind of golf. Obviously at Carnoustie it was very, very special because it was so firm – I’ve never hit a 3-iron over 300 metres! It was very difficult to judge but I really enjoyed that challenge because it was still a very playable golf course. Then you had the US Open, which was difficult under different circumstances but wasn’t really fair, I felt. Carnoustie was very fair when you pulled off the right shots.
What needs to improve most for you to get back to your best?
Preparation. Time to practise, time for myself, and focusing on the things I’ve already achieved and the things I still want to achieve and then making a plan. I have that plan in my mind, but kind of took it away from myself by playing that much. The only thing missing is a little bit more time to myself to prepare properly.
You’re still only 33 years old. What unfulfilled ambitions do you still have?
I would like to win The Masters and The Open. If I win those two, then I’ve won pretty much everything a player can win in our sport. That’s obviously a huge goal, but I think it’s very doable.
How easy is it to stay motivated when you’ve been doing this for so long and achieved so much?
It’s very doable when you have such a big passion for the sport and for competition. Sometimes we all get a
little bit less hungry when we have huge success, but I think it’s good that it’s that way because it also makes you find the time to enjoy the success and understand what you’ve done in order to become that successful. But there are also times when you need a bit of a wake-up call: “Okay, this is what I still want to achieve in my career. What do I need to do to achieve that?” Then you continue the journey.
You once shot 59 in an EPD event in Germany – do you remember much about that round?
I know I started par, bogey! It was in 2006 and I can’t remember that much about it, but I do remember standing on the 18th tee thinking 12-under-par is a very, very good score. I still hadn‘t realised I could shoot 59 because it wasn’t really on my mind. But when I walked up to the green and had maybe a 15-18ft putt for birdie, there were so many people around the green, and it was only the second round of the event, not the final day. Then I realised, “This is a putt to shoot 59”. That was a very good moment in my career.
What were you thinking after running your first putt seven feet past the hole on the 18th green in that crucial Ryder Cup singles match at Medinah?
I didn’t think much. Standing over the first putt I knew I was aiming too far right. It was a left-to-right breaker and you’d rather play a little bit more break, so if it doesn’t really get there it still has enough break on it. Subconsciously I knew I wasn’t aiming properly so I gave it a bit more of a go because I really wanted to hole it, which had been my whole thing over the previous 17 holes – try to make it, try to make it.
I was very lucky that I was still thinking that way, so when it went by six or seven feet, it didn’t bother me that much. Yes, I would rather have had a twofooter, but I felt a bit more comfortable because Steve Stricker still had 15 or 18 feet for par. Obviously you always need to expect them to make it, but I thought first he can miss, and second I can still make mine, so there were two chances that I really fancied. It was nice in the end that it was up to me.
Do you hope to still be playing as well as Bernhard Langer when you’re 60?
If I could wish, absolutely! If I would have the passion for it, I don’t know, but it’s quite inspiring. It gives us golfers a lot of hope that we can do what we love until we are underneath the ground!
At the time of our interview, Kaymer hadn’t given up hope of a fifth successive Ryder Cup appearance, but he knew he needed to do something special. “If I could win a big tournament leading up to the Ryder Cup, maybe Thomas would pick me as a wildcard, but if not, that’s fine,” he told me. “I’ve had some great times in the Ryder Cup and I know what motivation it gives you and how much you grow as a golfer, but if I’m not good enough this year, then I’m not good enough. The only thing that it really does to you as a player is make you hate not being there in a very natural way, and that does give you a bit of a boost to practise.”
He didn’t make it to Paris, of course, and more recently split with long-time caddie Craig Connelly. But the cheque he picked up for 5th place in November’s Turkish Airlines Open was his biggest for a year, so who’s to say that a suitably refreshed and properly prepared Kaymer won’t come out all guns blazing at the start of 2019. After all, he’s been known to be quite useful in Abu Dhabi…
* Martin Kaymer was playing in the 2018 Berenberg Gary Player Invitational at Wentworth, an annual fundraising event hosted by the Black Knight
“I’ve had some great times in the Ryder Cup and I know how much you grow as a golfer”