Martin

Kaymer

The two-time major winner, also the 2008 BMW International champion, was one of 10 golfers who played the first LIV Golf event and were in the field in Munich, with Pablo Larrazabal posting the best result with a T-5 finish at 17-under 271, five strokes behind winner Haotong Li. Louis Oosthuizen finished T-8 at 16 under. Kaymer will play this week at LIV’s second event at Pumpkin Ridge, in Portland, Ore., and told press over the weekend that the warning issued by the DP World Tour regarding punishment for players who continue to play the LIV series won’t stop him. “I’ll play all of the LIV tournaments until the end of the year and let’s see how the sanctions look again after that,” Kaymer said via Associated Press regarding comments first reported by Germany’s dpa agency. “You don’t like to get some kind of sanctions each week because you’ve played a tournament somewhere else.”

Replacing them in the field are alternates Derek Ernst, J.J. Henry, Richard S. Johnson, George McNeill and Kevin Stadler. Also getting in the field is Martin Kaymer, who got a spot after Maverick McNealy slid into the WGC-Match Play event when Valspar Championship winner Sam Burns withdrew. Kaymer, coming off a T-48 finish at the Valspar, will make his tournament debut at Corales Golf Course in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

The 36-year-old German will make his fifth start at Real Club Valderrama, where he’s never missed the cut and finished solo second to first-time winner John Catlin last year. Kaymer entered the final round two shots behind 54-hole leader Catlin, and difficult conditions turned Sunday into a boxing match between the two. Kaymer came into the 72nd hole tied for the lead, but he made bogey at 18 to lose by one at 3-over 287. “Valderrama is a very special place for many reasons,” he said. "…I’ve been coming here since 2007 and I remember the first week I played here -- I was walking the golf course with a trolley because I didn’t have a caddie at that time -- and when I played the 18 holes and with the history of that place, my heart told me that you want to win there one day. I came close a couple of times and I will be fighting every year to get that win because it is a golf course and a venue where you would like to put your name on the trophy.” On the season, Kaymer has made nine cuts in 16 starts with a solo second at the BMW international and third place at the Austrian Golf Open, where he finished three shots out of a playoff won by Catlin.

Team Europe lost 19-9 to the Americans, marking the largest margin of defeat since all of Europe joined the Ryder Cup in 1979. Kaymer will now turn his attention back to his own game as he makes his 13th start in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, an event he won in 2010. That year, Kaymer made history when he became the first player to win three straight events (PGA Championship, KLM Open, Dunhill Links) with his three-shot victory of Danny Willett. He’s has made nine cuts in 11 starts in Scotland, with three top 10s to go with his 2010 win. He missed the cut in his last two appearances, in 2018 and ’19. Kaymer last visited the winner’s circle at The Open in 2014, but this season he’s contended twice, finishing solo third in the Austrian Golf Open and solo second at the BMW International at home in Germany. The 11-time ET winner stands at 43rd in the Race to Dubai and finished T-25 in his most recent start at the BMW PGA Championship.

The 36-year-old German birdied three of his last four holes at Golfclub Munchen Eichenried including one at the 18th, and he noted afterward how good it felt to be in contention again. “For me, it was important on 18, those are the putts that... Those are the moments that you really need when you don’t have the success that you wish for,” said Kaymer, who last won at the 2014 U.S. Open. “I haven’t putted that well in a really long time. I putt consistently okay, but today I needed everything, and I pretty much made everything.” This week, Kaymer will make his sixth start at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open where he’s missed the cut just once and notched three top-10 performances including a T-9 in 2019 – the last time he appeared at the event. He also finished T-5 in 2016 and T-10 in 2008. And while Kaymer was recently named vice captain by European Ryder Cup team captain Padraig Harrington, he’s still got his eye on making the team as a player: “Of course I would like to participate as a player,” he said. “It’s a huge honor to be the vice captain, but I would like to give everything I have until Wentworth, until it’s over. If it’s enough, I will take it as a massive, massive bonus. … But if I am in great form and maybe, if I can put myself in contention a few more times until then, then maybe Padraig has something to think about.”

Kaymer won the 20th edition of the BMW event in 2008 at the age of 23 years and 177 days, making him the youngest winner in tournament history as well as the only German winner of the coveted trophy. The 36-year-old Kaymer will be making his 15th appearance in the event and has made the cut seven times, including in his last two appearances: He finished T-16 in 2019 at this year’s site, Golfclub Munchen Eichenried, and T-2 at Golf Club Gut Laerchenhof in 2018. Kaymer, No. 99 in the OWGR, is coming off a T-26 performance at the U.S. Open, where he shot 3-over 278 (77-68-69-73) to finish nine shots behind winner Jon Rahm. Kaymer is 4-for-8 in European Tour action this season, but he did notch a solo third-place finish at the Austrian Golf Open in April when he carded four straight subpar rounds (68-70-69-70) at Diamond Country Club and was tied for the lead after 54 holes. Kaymer is an 11-time ET winner but hasn’t had a victory since the 2014 U.S. Open.

The 36-year-old German, winner of the 2010 PGA Championship and 2014 U.S. Open, also will be making his first appearance in the event since 2016, where he finished sixth at Golf Resort Bad Griesbach. This week’s Porsche event was shortened to 54 holes and changed to June 5-7 due to pandemic travel restrictions. Kaymer arrives in Hamburg off a missed cut at the PGA Championship after shooting 75-77. He also missed the cut in his most recent European Tour start at the Betfred British Masters after carding rounds of 74-76. However, just one start prior at the Austrian Golf Open, he carded four straight subpar rounds (68-70-69-70) at Diamond Country Club and was tied for the lead at 9 under after Saturday’s round before fading to a solo third-place finish. Kaymer is an 11-time winner on the European Tour but hasn’t had a victory since his 2014 U.S. Open triumph.

Kaymer’s best finish in the event was a T-8 in 2019 and he’s 3-for-4 in cuts made, but he did finish T-3 at The Belfry last August when it hosted the UK Championship. The 36-year-old German last teed it up at the Austrian Golf Open, where he carded four straight subpar rounds (68-70-69-70) at Diamond Country Club and was tied for the lead at 9 under after Saturday’s round before fading to a solo third-place finish. Although Kaymer missed the cut in two PGA Tour starts this season, at the U.S. Open in September and most recently at The Honda Classic in March, he’s steadily improved in four Euro Tour starts in 2021. After missing the cut at Abu Dhabi, he notched a T-44 at Dubai and T-18 at the Saudi International. Kaymer is an 11-time European Tour winner but hasn’t had a victory since his 2014 U.S. Open triumph. While in Austria, however, Kaymer made his 2021 season goals known: Crack the OWGR top 50 and put himself in position to make this year’s European Ryder Cup team, which he hasn’t done since 2016.

Kaymer carded four straight sub-par rounds (68-70-69-70) at Diamond Country Club and was tied for the lead at 9 under after Saturday. His 2-under round Sunday got off to a rocky start with two bogeys and a double over his first nine, but the 36-year-old finished strong with four birdies over five holes on the back. Kaymer’s 11-under 277 total fell three strokes shy of making the playoff between John Catlin and German Maximilian Kieffer, which Catlin finally won the fifth playoff hole. Kaymer, currently No. 99 in the OWGR, voiced his season’s goals early in the week in Austria: Crack the top 50 and put himself in position to make this year’s European Ryder Cup team, something he hasn’t done since 2016. Although Kaymer has missed the cut in both PGA TOUR starts this season, at the U.S. Open in September and most recently at The Honda Classic, he’s steadily improved in four Euro Tour starts in 2021. After a T102 at Abu Dhabi, he finished T44 at Dubai and T18 at the Saudi International.

The 36-year-old German, currently No. 99 in the OWGR, has a long-term goal in mind for this week’s Austria Golf Open: crack the top 50 and put himself in position to make this year’s European Ryder Cup team, something he hasn’t done since 2016. The two-time major winner noted the ease of the drive from his home in Dusseldorf to Diamond Country Club kicked the week off on the right foot, and he opened with a 4-under 68 – carding six birdies and two bogeys – to grab a share of the early first-round lead. Although Kaymer has missed the cut in both PGA Tour starts this season, at the U.S. Open in September and most recently at The Honda Classic, he’s steadily improved in three Euro Tour starts in 2021, jumping from T-102 at Abu Dhabi to T-44 at Dubai to T-18 at the Saudi International in February.