Germany’s Martin survived a 90-minute delay due to lightning and then a horror double bogey to capture the 2014 Players Championship.
The Dusseldorf-born Kaymer was well clear at the time of the stoppage leading by three after 14 holes.
On the resumption to play he doubled the par four 15th after a poor drive and then also survived the scare of nearly finding the water at the par three, island green 17 where Kaymer’s ball spun back and had it not been for a small fringe of grass it would have fallen into the water.
But after playing a horrible chip, Kaymer was then punching his fist when he sank the 28 1/2 foot par putt.
He then walked to the last leading by one and after finding the right side of the 18th played a second shot some 42-foot short of the green from where he putted, the first to four feet, and then calmly knocked in the putt in a round of 71 to win by a shot with a 13-under par victory tally.
Martin Kaymer becomes the fourth European born player to win the PGA’s flagship Players Championship. (Photo -kenneth e. dennis/kendennisphoto.com)
The win secured Kaymer the biggest cheque of his career of $US 1.8m.
Kaymer is third fourth European-born winner of the PGA Tour’s flagship event after Scotland’s Sandy Lyle (1987), Spain’s Sergio Garcia (2008) and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (2009).
Kaymer is also the first European to win on this year’s 2013/14 PGA Tour wraparound schedule.
His success is a first in a regular PGA Tour event and a second Stateside since he captured the 2010 PGA Championship.
“It was a shame that we had to stop playing because I was playing really, really good at that stage and I played really solid,” he said.
“I hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, had good chances. And then as always, it’s a little bit difficult when you come back out on the golf Hit a fairly poor tee shot on 15, didn’t give myself a chance to make 4 after the second shot because it was a bad pitch.
“And then on 16 I should have chipped that shot next to the green to give myself a better birdie chance. So I made a couple mistakes coming in. I need to admit that.
“But knowing this and already reflecting on it, probably it will help me in the future. So overall, obviously it was a successful day, but it was a very, very long week, and I just hope that we can continue today because from the first day on, there was a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations, and even though I was trying to talk about it in a way that it was only the first day, only the second day, but somewhere deep down you hope that you can bring it home already because you play well and you hope that you can finish as high as possible, but obviously winning, I never really lost the lead, so you can only lose the tournament.
“So it was quite a long week of pressure.”
And Kaymer was asked to compare the pressure of winning the 2010 PGA Championship in a play-off along with holing the winning putt for Europe at the 2012 Ryder Cup to winning the PGA Tour’s flagship event.
“Yeah, I think the pressure and the feeling was pretty much the same when you compare the PGA and this one. I don’t really make a difference. The name is different. There’s no major behind the tournament here, but at the end of the day, for all of us it’s a major. It’s the biggest field. It’s a tough golf course, a very tough week, and very difficult to beat all of those guys.
“So pressure‑wise it’s probably ‑‑ I can compare it to the PGA Championship, obviously the playoff that I played.
“So you can’t really compare it to the Ryder Cup. Ryder Cup is something completely different, I think”.
Kaymer will take his Players Championship winning form to Dallas this coming week for the Bryon Nelson Championship before heading across the Atlantic for the following week’s European Tour flagship tournament – the BMW PGA Championship.
