Martin Kaymer feels his game is ready to win again after continuing his promising start to the 2020 Race to Dubai with a 64 on day two of the Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers.
The German already has a career that would stand up in any era, winning the Race to Dubai and two Major Championships, reaching the top of the Official World Golf Ranking and holing the vital putt as Europe completed the Miracle of Medinah in 2012.
The 35-year-old is without a victory worldwide since his triumph at the U.S. Open Championship in 2014, however, and last Spring came close to dropping out of the world's top 200.
While Kaymer has been consistent in recent seasons, he has not come close to reaching the heights of the start of the last decade, although he has finished in the top 20 in both of his starts so far this campaign.
His bogey free 64 in round two at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club matched the lowest round of the week, and Kaymer feels the changes he has made to his game and approach are starting to bear fruit.
"I feel really close because I have a plan now," he said. "The last two, three years, I didn't really have a plan what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be, where my golf should be at one stage.
"Right now, I changed a few things over the winter with my driving because I was never happy with the way I drove the ball. It was straight but it was never long enough to compete, really, on the big events.
"If you see the guys these days, they hit it 300 yards carry and stuff like that, and I needed to change something. I did that and I'm very happy the way I drive it right now.
"It's just a matter of having a plan behind what you want to do and, sometimes it sounds really silly, how can you not have a plan? But sometimes you get so stuck in an environment that you forget actually what you are doing. You just go from week to week to week.
"I just took a break, reflected a little bit, because I was really not happy where my game was going and then I changed."
I feel really close because I have a plan now
The key to Kaymer's longer carry off the tee has been altering the trajectory of his low fade, and the 11-time European Tour winner admitted it has not been easy.
"I took two or three weeks in Florida," he said. "I hit a lot of balls into the left forests and trees but you need to work through it because it's the right thing to do.
"You need to hit poor shots at the beginning and then slowly you will manage your way around and you will get used to the vision and stuff like this."
Another man to have won the U.S. Open and holed the vital putt at a Ryder Cup is Graeme McDowell, who was five shots ahead of Kaymer in the desert at eight under after a second round 68.
Much like his three time Europe team-mate, the Northern Irishman is looking for a first European Tour win since 2014, but he is taking a different approach to his game.
"I went through the process of trying to get longer, throwing myself at speed, jumping around," he said. "I came to the conclusion that it affects the rest of my game too much. My rhythm speeds up and I start swinging too fast at everything.
"I came to the conclusion that I feel like I'm long enough to compete right now. I'm not driving it short, I'm driving it average length, which is long enough to compete most weeks.
"I'm just trying to get better at what I'm good at, which is inside of 150 yards.
"I think being comfortable in your own skin, that's what you've got to do out here. It's a hard game, 350 yards off the tee, that's only one little part of it and there's a lot more to it."
