Michael Hoey is keeping his fingers crossed he can be paired over the weekend rounds with Martin Kaymer during this week’s BMW International Open in Cologne.
The runaway U.S. Open champ has returned home to Germany to a hero’s welcome after his stunning eight-shot success in Pinehurst.
And the double Major winning Kaymer has brought back to the European Tour a real good factor.
We saw last week in Cork where newly-crowned Irish Open winner Mikko Ilonen singled out the inspiration he gleaned from watching Kaymer pulverised his Pinehurst rivals.
Michael Hoey would dearly loved to be paired with Martin Kaymer this weekend in Cologne. (Photo – www.golffile.ie)
Now Hoey, who finished in a share of eighth place at Fota Island, is hoping he do the same by hopefully being paired with him in any of the closing two rounds on the Jack Nickluas designed Gut Larcenhof course.
“I would be great to play alongside Martin over the weekend, and that would be fantastic,” said Hoey.
“What he did at Pinehurst in winning the U.S. Open was amazing and the putts he holed were phenomenal. I played with him in China a few years ago and when he’s on with his putting he’s brilliant.
“So when he’s on with the putter he’s like Tiger Woods and that’s why we saw him win by eight shots as on the greens Martin was unbelievable at Pinehurst.”
However for the opening two rounds Hoey is at the opposite end of the draw to Kaymer and playing the first two days in the company of Scotland’s Scott Jamieson and India’s Jeev Milkha Singh.
However ahead of any match-up with the quietly-spoken German, Hoey will focus on building on the consistency over the next handful of weeks.
“I am just happy to be finding some consistency over the next couple of weeks, as this week here in Germany in the second of four and hopefully five in a row for me if I manage to qualify for The Open,” he said.
“Also I am defending my Russian Open title the week after The Open.
“But then these next few weeks are big tournaments in terms of World Ranking points what with Kaymer and Henrik Stenson playing this week and also in France while you’ve got a huge field contesting the Scottish Open including Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker and all the Europeans.
“I was 74th in the world a few years ago when I won the Hassan 11 Trophy in Morocco and I now know my game’s a lot better, and good results over these few weeks means you can take a big jump forward in the rankings.
“I felt when I won in Morocco ‘Hell, I am much better than that’ so you have to stay positive and I am very positive.”
Hoey is among a big contingent of nine Irish in this week’s event including Shane Lowry and European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley.
