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Kaymer: A star in the making

Ultimately he had the absolute body blow of standing on the final tee, watching the eventual winner, Finland's Mikko Ilonen, making a fabulous birdie two on the 213-yard par three 18th.

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Last week's Scandinavian Masters was another brilliant tournament with some excellent golf that gave us another look at the young German talent, Martin Kaymer. He is only 22 years old and clearly a star for the future.

Defeat in Sweden will be hard for him take because he played well enough to win the tournament on the final day, hitting lovely iron shots and playing very controlled golf. His thinking was good and he went for the flags, playing aggressively when he needed to, and it really it was only his putting that let him down.

It seemed to me like he didn't hit a huge amount of bad putts but he had one of those days when you don't see the line correctly and he grazed the hole on four or five occasions.

Ultimately he had the absolute body blow of standing on the final tee, watching the eventual winner, Finland's Mikko Ilonen, making a fabulous birdie two on the 213-yard par three 18th.

Ilonen hadn't hit the green on that hole for the first three days and then came up with one of the shots of his life, and Kaymer, standing on the final tee as a young professional, went from looking at a likely par three to win or four to tie, to needing a par to stay in the running. It clearly got to him because he pulled the tee shot left, duffed the chip and the trophy slipped from his grasp.

It will be another lesson in the steep learning curve for Kaymer and I hope it isn't something he takes too hard because it is unbelievably difficult to win your first tournament and he is a superstar in the making who will get there one day.

He is having a brilliant season and added another 96,000 Euro to his earnings this year that takes him close to half a million for the year and into the top 50 of the European Order of Merit.

He may have shed a tear when he got home on Sunday night, wondering how on earth he lost, but it is all part of the game and you come back stronger, with more experience of that situation. He is guaranteed to win one day, maybe not this year, but in the next 12 months by my reckoning.

A fine Finnish

Ilonen clearly played very well and, strangely enough, I picked him out of the pack on Friday night's Golf Night as an each way bet when six shots back and priced at 20/1.

Since winning in Indonesia earlier on in the year, the Finn has been playing some really good golf, and I am sure he was motivated by the fact that it was the Scandinavian Masters - probably the closest he will get to a home win.

His experience told, in contrast to Kaymer, as he showed great composure to bounce back from a bogey on the 16th where he found water and tried to play it, to make birdie at 17 and again at 18, in the last chance saloon, to win the title.

How many players have won twice on the European Tour this season? Alongside Henrik Stenson, Ilonen is one of only three - if you include Padraig Harrington at the Open - and that really is a remarkable achievement.

The amateur champion at Hoylake in 2000, everybody thought he was going to be a big star, but he spent six years without breaking into the top 100 in the Order of Merit. It will have been very frustrating and disappointing for Mikko, and all that know him, but he has been in very good form this year and is one of the stars of the European Tour.

Dutch master

Another star, and also an Indonesian Open winner, is our returning champion on Sky Sports this week at the KLM Open, Englishman Simon Dyson.

He is brimming with confidence after his 64 in the final round of the hot and humid USPGA Championship, a score only bettered by winner Tiger Woods that week. Southern Hills suited him because he has won the Asian Order of Merit, where he will have dealt with that kind of heat and humidity on a regular basis.

He finished sixth and the confidence you gain from producing a performance like that in a major championship is immeasurable - probably worth more than winning a European Tour event. He won twice last year in Europe, is having another very nice year in 2007, so don't be surprised if he defends his title this year.

But keep an eye out for Bernhard Langer, who could become the oldest European Tour event champion this week in Holland. It is great to see him back over here from America, where he has been playing very well - he was beaten in a three-man play-off at Colonial as recently as July.

He also battled back bravely at the BMW International Open in Germany to finish second and he remains a very capable and competitive player.

He turns 50 next week, which means he is eligible for the Seniors Tour, so they should beware, but I don't think any of the young guns in Holland will write him off this week either.