Martin Kaymer produced a big finish to put himself in contention after round one of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and then declared he did not feel he had to work hard to score well at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
The German has a stunning record at this event, winning it three times with three more top fives and once again he was one of the stars of the of the show in the first event of the Desert Swing.
The two-time Major Championship winner finished with three birdies, including a remarkable up-and-down from a waste area on the eighth, to get to six under and then revealed one of the reasons for his success on the UAE layout.
"Some golf courses, you need to work, you need to work to shoot four or five under par," he said. "The golf course for me doesn't feel like I need to do a lot of special things in order to play well because I usually putt well on those greens.
"It doesn't feel like a hard-working day. For me, sometimes, when you play golf courses, you shoot two or three under and you think, 'I should have shot six or seven under'.
"I just like a lot of the tee-shots. They really suit my eye and, again, if you are making putts, that's always for us professionals very, very important to see the ball going into the hole."
Kaymer had eight top tens on the European Tour last season but is without a win since the 2014 US Open and has put extra work in over the winter in an attempt to end that drought.
The golf course for me doesn't feel like I need to do a lot of special things in order to play well - Martin Kaymer
"I had a bad conscience in the wintertime because since 2005, every winter, I spent in America over Christmas and New Year's Eve," he said.
"And then the last two years, I went skiing. Especially after my 2014 season when I won my second Major, you kind of take it a little bit easier. And then you see it the next year on the golf course, where I had a lot of top ten finishes, but that little bit of extra that you need in order to win was missing.
"Therefore, I went back to America and practised."
