Kaymer’s victory may herald

changing of the guard

FROM THE HERALDSCOTLAND.COM WEBSITE

By DOUGLAS LOWEAmid the brouhaha over American Dustin Johnson’s critical final-hole two-shot penalty for grounding his club in a badly defined bunker a long way from the fairway, there is a danger of losing sight of the potential impact of the German Martin Kaymer’s maiden major championship victory at the age of 25.

Kaymer has for long been part of the vanguard of the fearless new generation who arrive on tour anything but overawed and ready to win immediately. His triumph, after a play-off with another American, Bubba Watson and, incidentally, with Scot Craig Connolly as caddie, comes hard on the heels of 27-year-old South African Louis Oosthuizen’s Open Championship success at St Andrews and heralds a brave new era and possibly a changing of the guard for world golf.

While the golfing spotlight has been directed at Tiger Woods and his troubles on and off the course, none of his own generation has been able to take full advantage of the hiatus, notably Phil Mickelson, aged 40, and Lee Westwood, 37, and the young guns have come in almost under the radar.

Woods himself is 34 and, while it would be premature to describe him or any of these three as a spent force, there is certainly no longer an aura of invincibility. Kaymer, Oosthuizen and any number of other young bloods– Rory McIlroy, Ryo Ishikawa and Seung-Yul Noh to name but three – have no hang-ups in that regard.
Johnson, 26, who led going into the final round of the US Open at Pebble Beach only to unravel with an 82, also comes into that category as do compatriots such as Hunter Mahan, winner of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, Anthony Kim, Nick Watney and Rickie Fowler.

There are many more on the way behind them as witness the showings of now 17-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero in last year’s Open at Turnberry and this year’s Masters. While Woods has been recuperating over two years, first from reconstructive knee surgery and then, ostensibly, from sexual addiction, the golfing world has moved on.
Woods, though, remains world No.1 despite his poor form but with Kaymer moving up seven places to No.5 yesterday and McIlroy, whose birdie putt at the last came within inches of putting him into the play-off with Kaymer and Watson, moving up to No.7, those players may prove a bigger threat than his contemporaries.
“I think we will have a lot of young major winners in the next five or six years,” said Kaymer in the aftermath of his victory at Whistling Straits while noting that many of these young players would be in action in Wales at the Ryder Cup.

There are some who say Sunday’s final round at Whistling Straits will forever be remembered for Johnson’s penalty. Maybe so, but another abiding memory is Kaymer’s 15-footer for par on that same green that took him into the play-off.

That was pure bottle, and there was also a moment of cool calculation while all around were losing their heads.
 After Watson and Kaymer had traded birdies at the first two play-off holes and Watson, rashly going for the green at the last in two from a bad lie and putting his ball into a water hazard, the German calmly assessed the situation and chipped out from his bad lie to leave him a 7-iron to the green that proved to be a winning play.
His girlfriend, Allison Micheletti, is quoted as saying: “He’s just the most mentally strong person I’ve ever known, in every part of his life. He never complains, and just does what he needs to do.”
Kaymer, whose idols are compatriot Bernhard Langer and South African Ernie Els, has had some cosmopolitan help over the years, notably from Swede Fanny Sunesson, former caddie to England’s Nick Faldo, who has also played his part.
Sunesson has been mentoring Kaymer since she came into contact with him when she was doing some work for the German national amateur team, and even went to the trouble of showing him around Augusta National, where she was victorious with Faldo, before the youngster made his debut appearance there three years ago.
Kaymer, who plans to play more in the US on the PGA Tour next season, has always been open to such help and the process continued two years ago when Faldo himself invited Kaymer to Valhalla, Kentucky, as an observer at the last Ryder Cup after the youngster just failed to make the team.
Whistling Straits marked only Kaymer’s 12th outing in a major championship after just four years on the European Tour and with that kind of background and willingness to absorb lessons it was not a surprise that he won.
He was eighth behind Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell in the US Open at Pebble Beach, seventh behind Oosthuizen at St Andrews and you might well imagine he will be around for decades to come and not inconceivably with the world No.1 slot contested by himself, McIlroy and Johnson, with Woods, Mickelson and Co occasionally making a challenge to remind us what the old days were like.