Background and career
Martin Kaymer ( German: [ˈkaɪmɐ]; born 28 December 1984) is a German professional golfer who currently plays on the LIV Golf League. A winner of two major championships, he was also the No. 1 ranked golfer in the Official World Golf Ranking for eight weeks in 2011. Kaymer achieved his first major victory at the 2010 PGA Championship, which he won over Bubba Watson in a 3-hole playoff. That same year, he was also awarded the European Tour's Harry Vardon Trophy for winning the Race to Dubai. He also won the 2011 WGC-HSBC Champions. Kaymer is also hailed for sinking a putt on the 18th hole at Medinah Country Club on the final day of the 2012 Ryder Cup, which helped win the cup for Europe and overturned a four-point deficit against the United States at the start of the final day's play. In May 2014, Kaymer won The Players Championship, the flagship event of the PGA Tour. A month later, he led each round of the 2014 U.S. Open and won his second major by eight strokes.
Kaymer was born on 28 December 1984 in Düsseldorf, West Germany, he turned professional at age 20 in 2005 and is a member of the European Tour.
Kaymer picked up his first professional win at the age of 20 as an amateur at the Central German Classic in 2005 on the third-tier EPD Tour. He shot a −19 (67-64-66=197) to win the tournament by a margin of five strokes.
Kaymer played full-time on the EPD Tour in 2006 from February to August. He played in 14 tournaments and picked up five victories. He finished in the top-10 in all but two of the tournaments. Kaymer won the Order of Merit on the EPD Tour in 2006 by earning €26,664. Kaymer shot a round of 59 (−13) in the second round of the Habsburg Classic. This was his scorecard:
Due to his success on the EPD Tour, Kaymer received an invitation to compete in and then won his first event as a professional on the Challenge Tour, the Vodafone Challenge in his native Germany. He played in eight events from August to October winning again a month later at the Open des Volcans in France. He ended up finishing 4th on the Order of Merit list despite playing in only eight events. In all he earned €93,321. He finished in the top 5 in six tournaments, and his worst finish was a 13th-place finish. Due to Kaymer's success on the Challenge Tour, he earned a European Tour card for 2007.
Kaymer has won 11 tournaments on the European Tour including four in 2010 to win for the first time the Race to Dubai, formerly the Order of Merit. Among those wins was the PGA Championship in the United States, which made him only the second German (after Bernhard Langer) to win a major championship. He also won the WGC-HSBC Champions to become the 10th player to win both a major title and a World Golf Championship event. In 2014, he won his second major championship, the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Kaymer made his debut on the European Tour in 2007 at the UBS Hong Kong Open, but he failed to make the cut. He missed the cut in his first five events of the season. In March, Kaymer made his first cut of the season at the Singapore Masters; he finished in a tie for 20th place. In his first seven events of the season, he only made one cut. All of those events were played outside of Europe. Kaymer found immediate success once he started playing in Europe again. He finished in a tie for 15th at the Madeira Island Open, which was the season's first Tour event played in Europe. The following week, he finished in a tie for 3rd at the Portuguese Open. He made seven consecutive cuts from 23 March to 1 June. During that streak, his worst finish was a tie for 35th and he recorded five top 25 finishes. From 7 June to 9 September, Kaymer played in nine tournaments but only made two cuts. In the two tournaments where he made the cut, he did very well. Kaymer finished in a tie for 7th at the Open de France. Seven weeks later, he finished in a tie for 2nd at the Scandinavian Masters. Kaymer played in six of the last eight events of the season. He made the cut in all six of those events. On 18 October 2007 at the Portugal Masters, Kaymer shot a first round of 61 (−11). This round tied the lowest round of the 2007 European Tour season. It was also the new course record at the Oceânico Victoria Clube de Golfe. He went on to finish in a tie for 7th. Two weeks later at the year-ending Volvo Masters, he finished in 6th place. The Volvo Masters had one of the strongest fields on tour in 2007. He earned €140,000 for his 6th-place finish, which was Kaymer's largest payout from a tournament to that time. Kaymer earned €754,691 for the 2007 season, finishing as the highest-ranked rookie on the Order of Merit, in 41st position, and won the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award. He is the first German to win the award. Kaymer recorded five top 10s on the season. These performances took him into the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time. In November 2007 he moved into the top 75, overtaking Bernhard Langer to become the highest-ranked German golfer.
