Martin Kaymer – Player Bio

German Martin Kaymer has had a real up-and-down rollercoaster ride since he took two and a half points from five at the 2010 Ryder Cup in Wales.

Only a week after leaving Celtic Manor he won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, it also made him the first player since Tiger Woods in 2006 to win three successive tournaments in a year and the first European to achieve the feat since Nick Faldo in 1989. It also took him to a career high of third in the Official World Golf Rankings.
 
Entering the 2011 season, Kaymer turned down a chance to become a full PGA Tour member to concentrate on the European Tour for 2011. The decision proved a wise one as he claimed his third Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship title in four years in January and displaced Tiger Woods as number two in the world rankings. It soon got better for Kaymer when his runner-up finish at the 2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship moved the 27-year-old past Lee Westwood as the number one golfer in the world.

It made him only the second German – after Bernhard Langer – to be the top-ranked golfer in the world. At the time he was the second youngest golfer to reach world number one behind Tiger Woods, however this was surpassed by Rory McIlroy in March 2012, who reached number one aged just 22. Kaymer only held the ranking for eight weeks before Westwood, who won the Indonesian Mastersmoved back to the top.

In November 2011, Kaymer won his first WGC title at the WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai, China after shooting a final round 9-under 63. After parring his opening six holes, Kaymer then preceded to birdie nine of the remaining twelve holes on the way to victory, including four straight birdies at the start of the back nine. This was the biggest comeback win ever in the history of the WGC events. It was also the lowest final round by a WGC winner ever, topping a 64 set by Hunter Mahan in 2010. In winning, Kaymer became the 10th player to have won both a major and a WGC event.

Since then, Kaymer has had four missed cuts and no top-fives, seeing him slip to 27th in the Official World Golf Rankings. In fact, he only just made the team, with captain’s pick Nicolas Colsaerts needing a top-two finish to dislodge him in the final qualifying event at Gleneagles.

Consequently, Kaymer will be looking to prove he deserves to be at Medinah, but don’t be suprised if he only plays in three of the five matches.