Kaymer hopeful green shoots of recovery are about to emerge

Golf Correspondent

Thursday 12 July 2012

What does a golfer do to clear his mind after a turbulent day at the office?

Martin Kaymer comes to Castle Stuart without a win to his name this season but he is refusing to panic about his form. Picture: Getty Images

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Nick Rodger

He rolls up his sleeves and gets on with some good honest chores in the garden.

Finishing bottom of the heap of those who made the cut in the French Open last weekend was hardly the ideal preparation for an assault on the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open title at Castle Stuart but Martin Kaymer, the former world No.1, is confident his game can blossom this week.

The German's pre-championship press conference descended into something resembling Gardeners' Question Time as the 27-year-old revealed how he weeded out the lingering psychological debris from that particular French farce.Away from the cut and thrust of tournament golf and the abundant pressures and expectations that are heaped on him as a major winner, the 2010 US PGA champion found his peace back home in Dusseldorf. Doing the garden, digging out the weeds, who could ask for more?"When I arrived here I felt very relaxed and very refreshed," said Kaymer, who closed out that calamitous campaign in Paris with rounds of 78 and 77 to finish a lowly 70th. "I drove home on the Sunday afternoon and had all evening there before having a very relaxing day at my grandma's house doing a little bit of work in the back yard. I did the weeding. That's nasty work but doing it once in a while is nice. I really quite enjoy cutting the trees and the hedge. It's fun, it's different. I think you can call it therapy. You can get completely away from golf and just think about something else. It's what normal people do and it's how my family is. "They are a down to earth working family. And that's what I enjoy once in a while. It's kind of like going back to the old days, when I was a kid playing in the backyard. You can have a completely normal day where you just hang out with your family and talk about stuff that's completely different from birdies, world rankings and how many bunkers there are."While he won't be sticking a pair of lopping shears into his bag, Kaymer is eager to regain the cutting edge that he has demonstrated in Scotland down the years. As a winner of the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond in 2009, as well as the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St Andrews a year later, Kaymer has always relished his trips to the home of golf.Since 2008, the former Ryder Cup player has racked up 10 European Tour wins and has posted at least two victories a season in that time. This year, however, has remained barren. A ninth and a seventh at the Qatar Masters and the Malaysian Open respectively have been his best results on the European circuit although on the other side of the Atlantic he has shown encouraging glimpses with top-15 placings at the Players' Championship and US Open."Over the last few season, I've had early success but that hasn't happened yet," added Kaymer, who was an absentee from Castle Stuart last year but pencilled it this time as he builds for the Open next week. "But Scotland has been good to me. It's so much fun to play this golf course. This is what I enjoy. It's not all about hitting nice high draws or fades and all that stuff. It's just about getting the job done, grinding it out and just playing the game. It has feel and touch and imagination. That's why I chose to come here."Having tasted the jubilant highs of Ryder Cup success with Europe, in 2010, Kaymer is eager to return to that fraught arena. He currently sits inside the qualifying places at No.5 on the European points list but, like Paul Lawrie, is refusing to get himself in a lather about the prospect, despite the external concerns about his lack of blistering form."In 2008, I was trying so hard to make the Ryder Cup and I wanted it so much that it was more like a distraction," he said. "Yes, it would be nice to make the team but the main goal is to play well, put myself in contention and enjoy the tournaments that are coming up. I think other people are thinking about it [the Ryder Cup] more than me. The people, the fans, the German media, they are more concerned about my golf than I am. You don't win for a few weeks or months, but that happens. I'm not that concerned about it. I still believe."

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Kaymer hopeful green shoots of recovery are about to emerge

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