Find Me A 100 Winner / Paul Krishnamurty / 11 September 2007 / Leave a Comment

Kaymer is capable of outdoing even Bernhard's remarkable record

Just as Bernhard Langer turns 50, Germany may have at last found a golfing heir to its greatest ever player. Of the numerous exciting young talents to emerge on the European Tour over the past couple of seasons, none has been more immediately impressive than Martin Kaymer.

This week the 22 year-old has a chance to outshine his infinitely more famous compatriot on home turf in the Mercedes-Benz Championship at Gut Larchenhof.

Kaymer first caught public attention with a seriously impressive debut season on the Challenge Tour in 2006. From a light schedule of just eight starts, the youngster won twice, made the top four on four further occasions and never finished below 13th place.

Inevitably, he's found it hard to replicate that sort of consistency against much stronger company on the main tour, yet remains one of the best rookies of 2007. Kaymer has seven top 15 finishes so far this year, including three good chances to win his first European Tour title.

After finishing third early on in Portugal, he has twice led going into the final day only to under perform in the spotlight in a way that newcomers often do. At the French Open he looked rather nervous and slipped back to seventh, though in Scandinavia last month his long game stood up brilliantly under pressure. On that occasion at Arlandastad, even a moderate final day on the greens would have delivered victory.

I'm sure he learned more from that experience, and will be better equipped psychologically when the next opportunity inevitably presents itself.

Importantly Kaymer is strong in the most important areas, namely from tee to green. In common with most inexperienced players, he lacks consistency and has bags of improvement to come as far as course management and scrambling around the greens are concerned. These attributes will improve with experience, and when they do a very big future awaits.

I see this guy as a potential Major winner and maybe even worth a bet at huge odds for next year's Order of Merit. In the meantime, take three figures while you still can.

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