In just a few months Kaymer moves from long-shot to the top (Feature)

By Peter Auf der Heyde Feb 27, 2011, 10:17 GMT

Berlin - Going into last year's PGA Championships in August, Germany's Martin Kaymer was considered a long-shot for victory and had odds of 40 to 1 behind his name.

Well, Kaymer went on to defy the bookmakers, winning his first major just in his fourth year after gaining his card for the European Tour and since then, his career has taken off like a house on fire.

On Saturday, Kaymer first beat Miguel Angel Jimenez on the last hole of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and then followed that up after just a short break with a semi-final victory against long-hitting Bubba Watson - the very same player he beat in a play- off to win the PGA.

Kaymer's victory not only saw him qualify for the final, it also took him past England's Lee Westwood in the official world rankings and when the rankings are released on Monday, the German will be at the top.

After qualifying for Sunday's final against Luke Donald, the 26- year-old said becoming number one was something that he could not yet imagine. 'The good thing is next week I don't play a tournament, so maybe I can realize what happened.

'But it is a very proud moment.'

Kaymer, who is the second German after Bernhard Langer to top the rankings and the second-youngest after Tiger Woods, said before the tournament in Marana, Arizona that he considered Westwood the best player in the world because he was ranked number one.

Asked who was number one now, Kaymer laughed and said: 'Still Lee Westwood until Monday,' adding that things would change on Monday. 'Well, when the rankings say that I'm the No. 1, then I'm the best player in the world. And if they say so, then that's the truth.'

Since winning the PGA, Kaymer has gone from strength to strength, first winning the KLM Open in the Netherlands, then helping Europe to triumph in the Ryder Cup.

Just a week later he was back to his winning ways by taking the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland and this year he has already added the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship trophy to his ever-growing collection of titles.

Kaymer said that winning the PGA gave him the confidence he needed. 'It gave me so much motivation and so much belief that I can win any tournament that I play.

'I think the most important thing was that I kept working on my game, that I didn't stop. That I didn't want to be a player who just wins once and is never heard about.

'I kept playing and kept winning,' he said.

'Meteoric rise' is a phrase often misused, but in Kaymer's case it might well be appropriate.

He turned professional in 2005 and qualified for the 2007 European Tour. Just a year later he won his first tournament when he took the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship by four strokes from Lee Westwood and Henrik Stenson.

In June of the same year he won his second tournament when he took the BMW International Open, beating Anders Hansen in a play-off.

In July 2009 he again won a play-off, this time against Westwood, to win the France Open and followed that up a week later by winning the Scottish Open.

In 2010 the Dusseldorf-born player won his second Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, beating Ian Poulter by one shot.

Going into the 92nd PGA Championship, Kaymer had already managed three top-ten finishes in the majors (7th at the British Open and 8th at the US Open in 2010 and 6th at the US PGA in 2009).

Victory in Whistling Straits, Wisconsin, not only saw him win his first major, it also gave him heaps of confidence and the rest is - as they say - history.

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