Kaymer: Calm demeanour
I was just trying to avoid big numbers or stupid mistakes. I always wanted to give myself chances for birdie and the worst I do is par.
Martin Kaymer
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Martin Kaymer admitted he was just trying to avoid big mistakes during a tense final round of the USPGA Championship.
The German clinched his first major title following a play-off with Bubba Watson and was a picture of calm for much of the afternoon as many of those around him fell by the wayside.
Nick Watney, Jason Day and Jim Furyk all saw their chances come and go with double-bogeys at the most inopportune moments, but Kaymer was three under par through 14 holes to take him to the top of the leaderboard.
His solitary bogey at the difficult 15th opened the door for those chasing but, in the end, only Watson could match his 11 under par total.
But despite his calm demeanour, the 25-year-old knew exactly where he stood from an early stage.
Chances
"I knew that I was always leading the tournament after the sixth hole I played," said the new world number five.
"I was just trying to avoid big numbers or stupid mistakes. I always wanted to give myself chances for birdie and the worst I do is par. That was my goal."
And he carried that calm approach into the three-hole play-off, where Watson took the early lead with a birdie at the 10th before Kaymer got one of his own at the 17th.
Back down the 18th Watson hit his approach into a creek, and could do no better than a six, opening the door for the younger man.
"I thought about going for it as well but when he hit it in the water hazard, I thought - the best he can make is five," Kaymer said.
"I thought if I laid up and give myself a chance for a par, I give myself a chance to win the PGA Championship, and that was what I wanted to do."
Confidence
Kaymer has been touted as a potential major-winner for many years and the victory has given the German plenty of confidence to become a multiple winner at the highest level.
"Just knowing that I can win a tournament like that gives me huge confidence for any other tournament I will play for the rest of my career," he said.
"You don't really have to be a genius to know that there are more important things in life than golf.
"But it's cool to see my name next to Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer and all those guys. It will take me a while to realise what happened."
Comments (1)
Izzy Mclaren says...
Well done Martin,of course he was hardly mentioned on the post round golf programs here in the US it was all about how Dustin Johnson was "robbed".As an avid golfer I''m the first to admit that the game does have some odd rules, be that as it may they have to be adhered to and maybe now those well paid golfers will now pay heed to the local rules posted in the locker room prior to a tournament.
Posted 15:59 16th August 2010