Kaymer, McDowell take top spot duel to Dubai

Germany’s Martin Kaymer heads to this week’s Dubai World Championship with the very real possibility of becoming both European and world number one.

Kaymer arrives here locked in an engrossing battle with Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell for the European Tour’s Race to Dubai title.

After a sustained four-week onslaught on Kaymer, during which he won the Andalucia Valderrama Masters, McDowell has closed the gap to 290,910 euros after finishing fifth in Hong Kong on Sunday.

With the winner’s cheque at the Greg Norman-designed Earth course worth 910,348, McDowell will have to finish better than third to stand a mathematical chance of winning the 2010 Race to Dubai, and with that, the honour of being called Europe’s No1 golfer.

Kaymer, who won the US PGA Championship this season, as well as the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, KLM Open and Dunhill Links Championship, said a win on Sunday would make it a perfect year for him. The 25-year-old said: “When I turned pro, I had three goals in my career - to win a Major; to play and win the Ryder Cup, and to become the No1 player in Europe.

“Two thirds are done, and hopefully this week I can win the Race to Dubai and become European No1. So then I have done everything in one year, that would be just fantastic,” said Kaymer, ranked No3 in the world.

But he was under no illusion that it would be an easy walk in the park.

“I don’t need to win, too, but that’s my goal. I cannot rely on Graeme playing bad. I mean, he’s playing great golf the last few weeks. If I win the tournament, then I will win The Race to Dubai automatically, and I think I will possibly be No1 in the world then.

“I feel a little bit more pressure than normal tournaments. But I think Graeme must be feeling a little bit of pressure as well.

“Obviously, I’m leading, so I think there’s always a little bit more pressure on the leading person, because everybody is expecting me to win.

“But I just try to see it as a normal tournament. It is not a normal tournament, but I will try to approach it as one and try to play as well as I can.

“I’ve played fantastic golf since the PGA. So, I think I just have to be patient, wait for my chances and don’t look at other scores or don’t look at Graeme’s scores. I can just take care of my own game and that is I think very important for me over the next four days.”

Kaymer is hoping fans back home will have great news to cheer about twice within a fortnight from the UAE after fellow German Sebastian Vettel won the Formula 1 world championship in Abu Dhabi on November 14.

Kaymer, who came into the tournament last year as one of the four players with a chance to win the Race to Dubai before fading away to tied 37th place, said: “I’m happy for him and it’s fantastic for German sports.

“We do have some parallels. He’s been successful since, let’s say, two or three years, which is very similar to me. It’s just nice for Germany, and hopefully they will have something more to cheer this Sunday.” Meanwhile the man who is losing the European crown, world No1 Lee Westwood, was hoping to conjure up the same magic that helped him win the tournament last year with a jaw-dropping performance of 23-under par 265.

“It’s great to be back. I’ve got a lot of good memories obviously from this golf course,” said the Englishman.

“I have to be careful this week not to get caught up in trying to achieve what I achieved last year, because it was a fairly special tournament and I played near flawless golf I think. You know, getting caught up in that, I could really set my expectations too high for this week.

“Over the next day or so, I’ve got to formulate another game plan to try and make it as good as last year’s. It’s a new canvas I think, and I have to try to put a new painting down on it.”

AFP