Newly-crowned U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer has returned home to a hero’s welcome but quickly poured cold water on any comparison with Tiger Woods.
Kaymer took last week off following his eight shot Pinehurst pulverization of his rivals spending three days in New York where he caught up with fellow German Markus Kuhn, who plays for New York Giants in the NFL.
He said: “It was good having three days in New York where I could reflect very quick, which was surprising for me. So it was very satisfying and I felt very proud.”
New US Open winner Martin Kaymer insists don’t compare him with 14–time Major winning Tiger Woods. (Photo – David Lloyd/www.golffile.ie)
But while the golfing world compared Kaymer’s wire-to-win akin to Woods at his best, the quietly-spoken Dusseldorf golfer was just as quick to toss those remarks in the nearby Rhine River.
He said: “It’s nice to be compared with Tiger and for me it was a special performance, especially given how I played on Thursday and Friday.
“But then I didn’t do anything really special. I didn’t have any hole-in-one’s or anything really great. I just played solid and that’s what I am very proud of and what comes with my win like winning by eight shots and things like that.
“So if people what to compare me with Tiger, then that is not in my hand.
“It is the way I played at Pinehurst because I was in total control and played very smart, and didn’t make any mistakes mentally that led to a very enjoyable Saturday and Sunday.
“And it wasn’t though I was in the zone, as some players will say, and more that I was just really part of the situation. I understood where I was and that was happening was that my body was just acting and moving.
“I don’t know the English word for it but in German it is bewusst (someone says: conscious).
“Yes conscious is the word as I was conscious I was there and I understood exactly where I was and I was enjoying the occasion, and that’s very satisfying knowing you have reached that situation in your career.”
Kaymer admitted it was only the second time in his career he had felt that way and not surprisingly the first being just last month when he captured the Players Championship, and loosely termed golf’s fifth Major.
He said: “It’s only since the Players that I’ve ever felt that way.
“It’s all been like a giant jigsaw puzzle where everything like experience, good results, confidence and patience all came together.
“So for me it was like looking in from the outside and seeing myself standing there at Pinehurst. It’s like it was my outer body on the golf course and I was looking in on everything.”
