Martin Kaymer arrives at this week’s Austrian Golf Open confident of clinching a result which can kick-start his 2021 campaign and help him back on the path to Ryder Cup and Major glory.
The two-time Major winner drove from his home in Germany to Diamond Country Club, in Atzenbrugg near Vienna, with his eyes on the prize as he targets a route back to the kind of form which made him a World Number One and 11-time European Tour winner.
Kaymer’s form has improved event-by-event this year and he enters this week following a top 20 finish in his last European Tour appearance at the Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investments Advisors.
"I like to come to Austria,” said Kaymer. “It’s a nice country with good food, good golf courses. This week it’s a great golf course, it’s just the weather; nobody can influence that. It’ll be a good week and there will still be one winner on Sunday.
“I played 18 holes yesterday, which was an interesting one because it was almost snowing. It was very difficult to see how the golf course will play once the first day comes. Maybe the weather will improve a little bit, but I think it will be a battle.
“It’s difficult to see the ball flying with the cold. But it’s a week that I always prefer, it’s a country I like to come to, it’s close to my home country – I could drive here this week. There’s a lot of comfort for me.”
Kaymer has enjoyed a remarkable career, winning his first Major at the 2010 US PGA Championship and then four years later winning the 2014 U.S. Open by an incredible eight shots. In between, he sank the winning putt in the Miracle at Medinah, as Europe made a stunning comeback to beat the USA in The 2012 Ryder Cup.
The 36-year-old believes that he can return to the top echelons of the world game and feels he is doing all the right things – he just needs to build a head of steam in the coming months and is hoping he can force his way into contention for The Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits later this yeat.
“The top 50 in the world is huge,” he said. “You can get into all of the Majors and the WGC events and once you can do that you can play yourself into events that I haven’t played in a couple of years, and I still haven’t given up on The Ryder Cup.
“The Ryder Cup is huge and it was a real pain not to be part of the team in France. I know I’m quite far away right now but I feel like I’m doing a lot of things right at the moment to have a good summer.
“If I could get a couple of big results, that would make a big difference for me. Knowing that I’m very close – or I feel like I’m close – but you still need the results. No one cares how you feel, as long as you don’t put the right results on the scorecard and that’s something I’m longing for.”
