The German Way: Life in Austria, Germany, Switzerland

CONTENTS > FAMOUS PEOPLE > SPORTS in GERMANY > MARTIN KAYMER

“I'm under the radar. Maybe it's good for me that all of the attention is not on me all of the time.”

  — Martin Kaymer in March 2011
 

Biography • Career

On 27 February 2011, Martin Kaymer became the number one ranked golfer in the world.

Martin Kaymer
Martin Kaymer PHOTO: Ulrich Haberland
The German pro would hold that spot ahead of second place English golfer Lee Westwood, the man he knocked from the top spot, for eight weeks. By early April, Kaymer was still first, while the much more famous Tiger Woods was in seventh place. Woods held the number one spot for more than five years. He reigned for 281 weeks in a row, 623 in all. In the 24-year-history of the rankings no other golfer has even come close to that, but Martin Kaymer, only 27, would like to. As of 3 April 2011, Kaymer was in his 6th week in the top spot. But just five days later, with his failure to make the cut at Augusta, the German golfer risked giving up his No. 1 spot, and Tiger Woods came from behind that same day.

It was the fourth time that the Masters has been a curse for Kaymer. On 24 April 2011, Kaymer gave up his number one ranking to Englishman Lee Westwood after Westwood won the Indonesian Masters. In August 2011 at the PGA Championship in Atlanta, Georgia (Johns Creek), Kaymer had something in common with Tiger Woods: Both missed the cut. After winning his first WGC title (and the $833,333 first place prize) at the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, China in November 2011, Kaymer was ranked fourth in the world.

Back in 2008 Kaymer won the BMW International Open in Munich, becoming the first German ever to win that German event. Because he is a member of the European Tour and plays infrequently in the US, he has not been on the radar of many golf fans. As a member of the European Tour, Kaymer could only play in PGA tournaments when he gained an exception, but now, as one of the world's Top 50 golfers, Kaymer is eligible to enter almost any major pro golf tournament, including the PGA’s Transition Championship at Innisbrook (in Palm Harbor, Florida) in 2011. Although Kaymer won four tournaments in 2010, he only tied for 20th at Innisbrook, but still held on to his No. 1 spot.

Kaymer won the PGA Championship in August 2010, becoming one of only two Germans to ever win a major PGA championship. (The German Bernhard Langer won the Masters in Augusta twice, in 1985 and 1993. See more in the box below.) 2010 was a very good year for Martin Kaymer. He was the top money earner in the European Tour, with a total of €4,461,011 (ca. $6,290,000) in prize money from the 22 tournaments he played that year. Despite holding the No. 1 spot for eight weeks in 2011, Kaymer found himself struggling, particularly in PGA contests. His 2011 earnings dropped considerably compared to 2010. In 2011 he fell as low as sixth, but held the number one, two, three and fourth spots at various times. His impressive victory in China let him end the year ranked fourth in the world.

As of June 2012, following the BMW International Open near Cologne, Kaymer’s world ranking was 13. Although he gained some fame by sinking a marvelous eight-foot putt on the 18th hole at the 2012 Ryder Cup, giving the Europeans a come-from-behind win, by mid-October 2012 he had dropped to 33rd in the world.

Bernhard Langer (1957- ) is the only other German golfer, besides Martin Kaymer, to be ranked number one in the world (for three weeks). The Bavarian Langer turned professional in 1976 and was the inaugural world number one when the Official World Golf Rankings first came into being in 1986. In addition to his two Masters wins, Langer is one of the very few players who have won sanctioned professional golf tournaments on every continent on which the game is played. He won 84 pro tournaments between 1975 and 2006. Langer was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002. He helped Kaymer prepare for the 2011 Masters in Augusta, Georgia, a course he knows well, but it didn't seem to help. Kaymer missed the cut on the second day.

Martin Kaymer was only six years old when Langer missed the six-foot putt at the 1991 Ryder Cup that would have retained the trophy for the Europeans. Kaymer was thinking of his countryman when he sank an eight-foot putt at the 2012 Ryder Cup. It was a sweet moment for him.

Kaymer’s Early Life
Martin Kaymer was born on December 28, 1984 in Düsseldorf, then in West Germany. At the age of 10 he began playing at the amateur Mettmann Golf Club. Later he played for Bergisch Land in Wuppertal. His golf hero then was the South African golfer Ernie Els. He won the Austrian amateur championship (Österreichische Amateurmeisterschaften) in 2003, and the German amateur championship (Deutsche Amateurmeisterschaften) in 2004. In his last tournament as an amateur, Kaymer won the pro-am Central German Classic by five strokes in June 2005.

Going Pro
Kaymer turned pro at the end of 2005 and won his first professional tournament, the Friedberg Classic, in June 2006, when he was 21. In that first year as a professional he did so well that he was named the Player of the Year by the German PGA. Kaymer also managed to earn that distinction in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

In 2010 he won four tournaments, including the PGA Championship in Wisconsin, which he won in a three-hole playoff against the American Bubba Watson. In January 2011 Kaymer won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship with an amazing eight-stroke lead. That win put him in the world Top 10 ranks for the first time (at 6th place), and it was the third time in a row that he had won at Abu Dhabi (a so-called “hat trick”).

Martin Kaymer at the PGA
Martin Kaymer (r.) with his manager Johan Elliot, girlfriend Allison Micheletti and the Wanamaker Trophy after Kaymer's PGA Championship win in August 2010.
PHOTO: DPA

Family and Personal
Kaymer’s father, Horst, is a former corporate executive. His mother, Rina, died of cancer in 2008. He tearfully dedicated his 2008 win at Abu Dhabi to her, only a few weeks before her death. Horst, ostensibly retired, now helps his son with his golf activities. (Johan Elliot of Sweden’s Sportyard AB is Kaymer’s official manager.) They recently formed MK Golf to manage all of Martin’s golf-related enterprises. Not counting his tournament winnings, Kaymer has earned almost $3 million so far from four sponsors: Schüco, BMW, Lacoste and Adidas.

Although they played golf together as boys, Martin’s two-years-older brother, Philip, is studying law. Philip has caddied for his brother in a few pro tournaments. Along with his father, Philip has offered important moral support for Martin, especially at critical times in his younger brother’s golf career, taking time from his studies to be at Martin’s side.

Martin Kaymer now has homes in Germany and Scottsdale, Arizona (where he plays out of the Whisper Rock Golf Club). The young bachelor has been linked romantically to the American former collegiate golfer Allison Michelletti (see photo above). She was seen congratulating and hugging him after his August 2010 PGA Championship win in Kohler, Wisconsin. He was seen caddying for her in December 2010 when she tried to qualify (unsuccessfully) for the Ladies European Tour (LET) in La Manga, Spain. (Kaymer pulled out of Tiger Woods’ Chevron World Challenge to be in Spain.) They met in Arizona, where Micheletti, originally from St. Louis, Missouri, is studying communications at Arizona State University (Tempe). In 2012 she participated in the Golf Channel's reality show "Big Break Atlantis." She was eliminated at the end of episode six.

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