By Eduardo García Palacios.
It is not what you would call the joy of the garden this guy, who is difficult to photograph with a smile lighting up his face, but the truth is that what matters to us about Martin Kaymer is not his overflowing sympathy but his mastery with the clubs.
It has taken almost a quarter of a century since Bernhard Langer premiered the World Ranking, where he barely stayed three weeks, for a second German to plant his flag at the top of the Everest of golf.
And this comes at a time when European golf is setting the standard in the world. No less than four representatives of the Old Continent occupy the first four places in the world ranking. Behind Kaymer lurks the dethroned Lee Westwood, and behind the Englishman are his compatriot Luke Donald, who has just won the World Match Play Accenture, and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell.
Tiger, the poor guy (I’m just saying), has to settle for fifth place in the World Ranking for the moment. Who would have thought that the undisputed number one until a few months ago! Well, let’s hope that his fall is not as steep as the one suffered by our compatriot Sergio Garcia, who has gone from being number two in the world to currently occupy the 85th position.
The good Jose Maria Olazabal, who has had a good one -in a good way- when he took over the captaincy of the European team for the next Ryder Cup, has words of encouragement for Sergio, whom he says he has seen with enthusiasm and joy, “more at ease with himself, more predisposed to do what he has to do”. According to Chema, the player from Castellón “is on the right track, and it is good that he is there, I see him better”. So be it and Sergio returns to delight us with the game that made him famous and that one day, like a scorned lover, abandoned him.
Olazábal also dedicates a few words to Tiger, although the truth is that he does not foresee a future as bright as the one that enraptured the world for more than a decade (623 weeks at the top of the world ranking).
“I have always believed that Tiger will win again, even big ones, but it will be difficult for him to dominate a decade as he did before because he has people behind him who are young and the years are passing, like everyone else, but I have no doubt that he will win again,” predicts the Fuenterrabía native.
And what does the interested party have to say? At the time of going to press, the Californian, about to start the AC World Championship in Miami, said he was firmly convinced that his best form is just around the corner, despite the fact that he has gone sixteen months without a victory (since the Australian Masters in November 2009) and continues to fall in the rankings of the American Tour. In the winnings ranking, with two tournaments played, he was 147th and accumulated dividends -ridiculous for him- of 63,096 dollars. In the FedExCup rankings he appeared in a remote 152nd place. In his two PGA Tour appearances prior to the AC World Cup, he had finished 44th (Farmer Insurance Open) and 33rd (Accenture World Match Play, where he lost in the first elimination round). In his foray into the European Tour 2011, in the Dubai Desert Classic, he had to settle for 20th place.
But let’s get down to business, that is, to his statements: “”I’m seeing very good signs. Unfortunately, I just haven’t been able to maintain a consistent level on the golf course. I get really good shots and then I lose my way for a while. I just have to keep working at it and the process is sometimes difficult. I’m going to get there, but I just haven’t reached that point yet,” said Woods, now 35 years old.
His compatriot and Miami tournament partner, Phil Mickelson, who once fought to knock him off the top of world golf, is also convinced that Tiger will be “back to his old self. He is not referring to his womanizing facet, no, but to the one that made him number one and surely the best golfer of all time.
“I hope he’s back to being the Tiger of old, the one we all knew over the past decade. I was able to see him last year when I played with him in Chicago during the BMW Championship and also at the Ryder Cup, and his game is getting back to the way it was. He had his speed back, he was hitting it far, he was getting his touch back and I think he’ll be back,” Mickelson said.
All lucubrations aside, the reality is that now the number one in world golf is Kaymer, who, by the way, does not feel completely satisfied. He is a sea of doubts: “I don’t know what I have to do to be very happy and satisfied with everything I have done. Everything I have achieved is very good and nobody would have expected it, but there is still something missing and I don’t know what it is… Maybe I will find it in the next twelve months”. I don’t know if I had told you that this guy, besides lavishing few smiles, is a bit of a weirdo.
Let’s see if he listens to his compatriot Langer, who gave him some advice after congratulating him on his achievement: “He said he was proud and advised me to keep the circle around me as small as possible”. One thing is clear: his father, Kaymer’s father, will never let him down. And if not look at the beating the poor guy took to be with his offspring the day he was crowned world number one: he traveled by plane for thirty hours (fifteen each way, from Germany to Arizona) to be the first to congratulate him. “Well done,” said (in German, one assumes) Horst, the father’s name, to Martin. And in less than 24 hours the proud dad was back on the plane to Europe.
“I just wanted to congratulate myself on being number one in the world,” the laconic Kaymer, the joie de vivre, revealed to reporters.
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