Major win teaches Kaymer meaning of ‘unflappable’

GERMANY’S Martin Kaymer has a very good command of the English language but it took the first major victory of his career to learn the meaning of “unflappable”.

The 25-year-old from Dusseldorf became the first German to win the USPGA Championship on Sunday when he defeated American Bubba Watson in a three-hole aggregate play-off at Whistling Straits, the second European to win the Wanamaker Trophy in three years following Pádraig Harrington’s 2008 victory at Oakland Hills.

“I don’t really realise what was happening today,” Kaymer said at the start of his victory press conference. “Obviously it was a very exciting week, and to win my, I hope it’s one of many majors that I will win in my career, it’s spectacular.”

Kaymer did it looking as cool as the waters of Lake Michigan that border the Straits Course, shooting a seemingly nerveless final-round, two-under-par 70 featuring just one bogey down the stretch, a performance that prompted a question that stumped the German.

“You seemed unflappable all day on the course, what helps you stay in the moment and stay calm when you’re on the course?” asked the reporter. “I don’t understand that,” replied Kaymer, “flappable, what does that mean?”

It is remarkable a word as fitting for his demeanour as “unflappable” had escaped the young German’s English vocabulary thus far in his three successful years on the European Tour, where he was named the Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year in 2007. Yet once brought up to speed on its meaning, he admitted: “I was not so calm in the last round to be honest.

“The last four or five holes I was quite nervous. But I played solid golf. My short game was very good today. It was important that I could save pars the last few holes.”

Having got into the play-off with Watson, and despite the distraction of Dustin Johnson’s removal from it after incurring a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker outside the ropes on the 72nd hole, Kaymer found a release from the pressure.

The long-hitting Watson had drawn first blood with a birdie at the bombers’ paradise of the 10th hole before Kaymer hit back with a birdie at the par-three 17th, sending them to the 18th on level terms. Both men went right off the tee and with Watson going first and plonking his second shot six iron in the creek protecting the front of the green, Kaymer was level-headed enough to lay up and then send in his third shot to 15 feet from the hole.

“Thought it was the smartest play in the world,” Watson said of Kaymer’s second shot. “He laid up to a number he liked and it obviously worked out. Yeah, if he hit it in the water, I’m definitely laying up, unless my lie is really good, and obviously his lie was pretty bad.”

Watson’s fourth shot from a drop zone ran across the green and into a bunker but the American nearly piled the pressure on by nearly holing out from the sand, his ball hitting the flag stick.

Kaymer took his 15-footer, going straight for the hole and then came back from inside two feet for victory. “The calmness, I was very, very calm in the play-off,” Kaymer said. “It sounds strange, but the pressure is kind of like gone, because the worst you can do is finish second. Of course you want to win the golf tournament, but it kind of like relaxed me, and I knew what I have to do. I just have to beat one guy and that’s it. I was very calm until the putt on 18. I asked my caddie, ‘Do we have two or three putts to win now?’ He said, ‘You have two putts, just put it there, put the last putt in and you’ve won your first major’.

“I don’t know why I was so aggressive with that putt, but it didn’t matter, I made it.”