US Open winner Kaymer feels “patience” is the key to glory

Joy Chakravarty 06:06 16/07/2014
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  • Planning to play the smart way: Kaymer talks to the media yesterday.

    Martin Kaymer was grinning ear to ear at Royal Liverpool, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he is the hottest golfer on the planet right now having won the two big­gest recent tournaments in golf – the US Open at Pinehurst in record-breaking fashion, and the Players Championship.

    The events of Sunday night, thousands of miles away in Brazil, were still fresh in his mind, and the German world No12 was gloating on how the national football team won the World Cup.

    “To be honest, it was probably the first moment in my career as an athlete where I was very, very proud to be a German athlete. And it was not because of my own suc­cess,” said the 29-year-old from Dusseldorf.

    “To win is one thing, but I think the way they played football, the way they carried themselves, very grounded people, even after the win against Brazil, which was a very unusual score. They kept going and they had so much belief. They played very bravely. The planning was good.

    “It reminded me a little bit of when the World Cup was at Ger­many in 2006, it was so nice to see what sport can do to you. Even we Germans, we laughed a lot!

    “They have like six, eight stars, but at the end of the day there were probably 15 or 16 great players. And they all kept it very well together and they fought for one team.

    “All the values that we live for in Germany, they played football that way. So, it’s a great inspiration for me as an athlete and I hope for a lot of the people in Germany.”

    Kaymer, who plays golf with said the win has not only motivated him ahead of the Open Champi­onship, but also illustrated to him that there are so many similarities between playing good football and good golf.

    “Argentina, they played good, they defended very well. So they made it tough for Germany, and you could see that there were some similarities to golf, as well,” said Kaymer.

    “They played very patient. They were waiting. And in the other games before, too. It was a very patient success. It was very inter­esting to see how they played. It was very smart.

    “They didn’t try to force anything because they knew they were good enough. It was just about delivering what they can do. It’s nothing about making anything special happen.

    “There was nothing secret about them – just play your game, use the opportunities that you get. Don’t make any silly mistakes and wait. That’s all you can do.

    “Every team had a bad day here and there. They didn’t play great against …I think it was America. But they still got away with it. And that’s the same in a golf tournament.

    “You have a day where you don’t play that super good, but you hang in there and you play something around par that doesn’t get you out of the tournament. Then you wait for that amazing day, like they had against Brazil.”

    Getting back to his Open chances, Kaymer said when he tees up tomorrow, his previous wins will count for nothing.

    “To be honest, I don’t think it makes a huge difference, at least not for me. The British Open is a very, very special tournament. You have to play it in a completely dif­ferent way than you play usually the US Open,” he added.

    “But obviously, the motivation is very high to keep going. It’s very easy when you win one or two big tournaments to just stop and be happy with that season.

    “But that was my attitude after The Players, as well. I knew I was playing good golf. And I thought we’ll see how much I can pick up this year.

    “To play The Open was probably the Major that I always wanted to win in my career. I was not really planning on winning the PGA or the US Open. Because for us being Europeans, it would be quite nice to have such big success on your own continent.”

    Kaymer tees up tomorrow along­side Jason Day and Zach Johnson at 16.38 UAE time.

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