DUBLIN, Ohio – Martin Kaymer has been to the top of the sport. He’s won a pair of majors, captured The Players, reached No. 1 and holed a Ryder Cup-clinching putt that will be seen for generations.
And despite all the accolades, one of his biggest resources is YouTube.
It’s been a few lean years for the German, who lost his PGA Tour membership in 2016 and blew a 10-shot lead in Abu Dhabi the year prior. Once atop the world rankings, he entered this week’s Memorial Tournament ranked No. 186. So in the perpetual search to improve, he’s often queued up videos of his performance at the 2014 U.S. Open, where he lapped the field at Pinehurst No. 2.
“I was just dominating the field,” Kaymer recalled. “There were no swing thoughts. It was just playing. And that is what you’re supposed to do, but we forget. It’s so silly that we forget certain things.”
That win came one month after his Players title, but it also serves as his most recent worldwide victory. Aside from his Abu Dhabi collapse, the recent opportunities to rectify that situation have been few and far between. Kaymer’s last top-10 finish on the PGA Tour came more than two years ago at the 2017 Honda Classic.
But he’s in position to contend this week at Muirfield Village, where he’s making his first appearance since 2009, but holds a share of the 36-hole lead at 9 under alongside Troy Merritt and K.H. Lee.
Kaymer tied for eighth earlier this month at the British Masters, but that remains his lone worldwide top-10 of the year. In order to spark a turnaround, he has fought the urge to tinker and find a cure-all thought or swing key. For the cerebral 34-year-old, less is more.
“I was trying to force it a little bit, the success. And obviously we all know in golf what happens,” Kaymer said. “The frustration comes out because you work hard, everything is there but you just can’t get the scores on the scorecard. You don’t get the results. So you need to change something, and the actual change that you need to do is not to change. There’s nothing to do.”
But at the halfway point in Ohio, Kaymer’s not the only major champion looking to snap out of a cold streak. Jordan Spieth sits one shot off the lead as he looks for his first win since the 2017 Open, while former Masters champ Adam Scott is two shots adrift as he looks for his first win in more than three years.
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For decorated champions, the temptation to target results over process can be hard to ignore, especially when the results have been few and far between.
“It’s funny, so quickly then the expectation changes and now it’s ‘You need to win tournaments,’” Scott said after a second-round 66. “It’s just about kind of doing what I did at the PGA (T-8) and staying out of my own way and not really thinking about outcomes, and all that cliché mental stuff and just play with a bit of confidence and a bit of fun.”
Perhaps more so than many of his peers, Kaymer internalizes his pursuit. It helped him stay the course five years ago at Pinehurst, when he had only himself to play against over the weekend after separating from the field. But it also led him to tear down his swing in an effort to rebuild it as a more efficient model, a process that has led to both dizzying heights and head-scratching lows.
Like Don Quixote chasing the windmills, Kaymer remains steady in his pursuit of perfection, knowing full well it will always elude his grasp.
“We can never reach it, I know that. But there are glimpses of it once in a while. You think, ‘Wow, I’m that good,’” Kaymer said. “And you forget that sometimes. Those moments are very special. We work on having more of those moments, and if they lead to good results, a win, fantastic. But it’s that feeling that you’re chasing.”
Given five years to reflect on what he views as the pinnacle of his career, Kaymer admits that in hindsight he didn’t celebrate the good times enough. That the value of the peaks must be appropriately savored, lest a season or career turn into a monotonous blur of results and airline miles.
He’s hoping to have reason to celebrate this weekend at Muirfield Village, even though he’ll need to hold off Spieth and Scott among a large group of contenders in order to put a long-awaited trophy on the shelf.
But if a victory is the end goal, his primary concern remains the process.
“This week I just wanted to have a good week and work on the progress. I wanted to find the form that gives me the belief for the next three or four months that I can win a golf tournament,” Kaymer said. “So can I win this week? Of course I can win this week. That’s not the problem. Do I focus on that win? Not really. It’s too big of a goal right now for me. You need to see where you’re at.”
