Kaymer’s Abu Dhabi Triumph Franks the Formbook for 2010s First-time Major Winners
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Any questions that may have existed about how last year’s US Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship winners would fare in 2011 were pretty much extinguished within three weeks of the New Year starting.
The culmination came with Martin Kaymer streaked away from a world-class field to win the US$2.7 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in the United Arab Emirates and rise over Tiger Woods to number two in the world.
“It’s quite nice to overtake a person you think is the best golfer that ever lived,” said the 26-year-old German.
Kaymer’s victory in his first event of 2011 and 24-under-par total of 264 was all the more remarkable for his margin of victory: by 8 shots from Rory McIlroy. His stunning start to the defence of his Race to Dubai crown, followed on from Louis Oosthuizen’s victory in the Africa Open and Graeme McDowell’s third-place finish, alongside Retief Goosen, at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club following on from his course-record equaling, final-round 62 and third place at the PGA Tour’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
“It’s the confidence we had from last year. If you win the tournaments that we won, the biggest tournaments that you can win, it gives you the belief that you can win any tournament,” Kaymer explained after playing what he described as the best golf of his life.
“You know that you can win!”
Win Kaymer did, in some style; making just one bogey in four days, claiming his third Abu Dhabi title in four years and taking his aggregate score to 80 under par six visits to the tournament.
McDowell made it clear that 2011 would be no hangover year after his Ryder Cup heroics and US Open victory as a final round moved him to number four in the world
“[There were] A lot of positives to take out of my game. To start the New Year off, [with new] equipment in the bag, answered the questions. I’m very, very happy the shape my game is in everything is moving in the right direction and I know what I need to work on. So it’s all good,” said the Northern Irishman.
“Martin Kaymer has played fabulous and deserves everything he gets around there. He seems to own the golf course. It always produces a great winner. Just got to look down the five, six years; always quality, quality players win. This golf course has gone from strength-to-strength, and it sounds like the tournament is only going to get better. Golf in the Middle East seems to be going strength-to-strength.”
The other most significant development from the tournament was word that HSBC, in their first year as title sponsor of the event, are setting their sights on taking the event into the top echelon of the global calendar, just as they have done with the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
“The aim is to make this one of the top 10 tournaments annually. We know from how the HSBC Champions evolved that the first key is improving the standard of the field, which we did this year, because where the superstars go the world rankings dictate that everyone else needs to follow,” said Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.
“Then you have to ensure that their experience is as positive as possible. We’ve changed the way the end of the global golf calendar looks and been the catalyst for growth in tournament golf all across the Asia-Pacific region at that time of year. Now we aim to change the way the world starts the season too.”
If the world’s local bank reaches its goal as quickly as it did in China, then it seems unlikely that Phil Mickelson, who as the reigning Masters champion completed the list of Major champions in a field that many were describing as one of the strongest ever seen at a European event, will be the lone star from the U.S. in 2012.
“HSBC has been a wonderful sponsor throughout the world on global events and to add a world-class tournament in Abu Dhabi is a perfect fit,” said Mickelson, sounding like it won’t take much persuasion for him to start his 2012 season in the Middle East rather than the PGA’s January events in Hawaii and California.
“You have the facilities and infrastructure to support it. The players enjoy our time here; we’ve got great weather, great golf courses and wonderful facilities to stay in. That Emirates Palace is the most amazing hotel I’ve ever seen. It all made for a very enjoyable week and HSBC’s involvement has added to the event,” Lefty added.
Even the one negative around the tournament, the disqualification of Padraig Harrington for signing an incorrect scorecard after failing to realise his ball had moved by a fraction when he was removing his marker on the seventh green during the first round. Harrington, already praised for the way he graciously accepted the decision, earned even more kudos for the humour he showed in starting a Saturday clinic in the HSBC Interactive Zone with a lengthy masterclass on how to mark your ball.
“There’s no doubt it’s the best tournament in the world at this time of year. It’s got the best players, most world ranking points. There’s nothing you would ask for about this event. HSBC do a great job, and Abu Dhabi; they have really put together a first-class event. They really have got the best players, so that means everybody else has got to come. Once you have a field like this and you’re delivering the World Ranking points that this event will deliver this week, it’s encouraging more and more people to come along and this is where you have to be at this time of the year,” The Irishman said of the tournament.