Kaymer: driven to succeed

After all that had gone on during the day he still thought he could take the title with an eagle at the last and that's exactly the attitude we want from the young players at Valhalla.

Mark Roe
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The Golf Night panel compared Martin Kaymer to Tiger Woods after the young German's success at the BMW International Open.

The 23-year-old beat Denmark's Anders Hansen in a sudden death play-off to clinch the title, despite losing a six-shot lead during the final round in Munich.

Kaymer struggled to the turn in 38 and ran up a triple-bogey eight on the long 11th, but he rediscovered his nerve to birdie the 13th hole and, standing on the 18th tee, needed another to match Hansen's 15-under total.

Then in the play-off, Kaymer claimed the £262,752 first prize with a 40-foot putt for eagle and Golf Night pundit Mark Roe was full of praise for his mental strength, insisting it was reminiscent of the world number one.

"I think we saw several qualities today," Roe said.

"We saw an unflinching desire not to lose, which you don't see too often. It's a very special quality that we saw with Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines and we saw it today with Martin Kaymer.

"It wasn't his best day's golf and he made some tactical mistakes, but he played the last six holes in two under par which he had to do to get in that play-off. He then played the most magnificent play-off hole you could imagine.

"Thing with him is his attitude to the game; he does not play for second place. You could look at that negatively, but he played tremendously well today and I was so impressed with his mental strength.

"Winning is never going to be smooth and there will be something that happens somewhere, but it was a very impressive mental performance."

Ryder hope

Kaymer shot up to sixth place in the European Ryder Cup rankings after his win and is in line for a place in Nick Faldo's side for Valhalla.

Some have questioned his ability to handle pressure after blowing his commanding lead in Munich, but Roe preferred to view the German's final-day performance differently.

He added: "What I saw was someone who picked themselves up from adversity just after halfway through the round and made a stunning bid for victory over the last few holes to get in the play-off.

"After all that had gone on during the day he still thought he could take the title with an eagle at the last and that's exactly the attitude we want from the young players at Valhalla."

Desire

Denis Pugh admitted Kaymer shouldn't have struggled so much on the final day, but said he was extremely impressed by his desire to win.

"He wouldn't have wanted to have learned so much today," said Pugh.

"Six shots is a big lead, but as he said in his interview afterwards, it doesn't feel like that if you get a couple of bogeys early on and things start to go well for other people.

"He was slightly lucky that people didn't pressure him on the front nine and he had very poor decision making on the 11th hole when he ran up a big score, but from that point on he clicked into another gear.

"He is mentally very strong and in his interview afterwards he said 'I had to eagle or birdie the last'.

"A lot of players would have just been hoping upon hope to birdie the last to reach the play-off, but he was thinking that if he could eagle the hole then he could win it outright. That's just like Tiger Woods.

"This is probably the most talented young player coming through. He has flaws but they will easily be worked out over the coming years.

"What an exciting time is coming up for him."