HOW THE 28th RANKED PLAYER IN THE WORLD LAPPED THE FIELD
In the week that the golfing world returns to one of its toughest tracks we start a series in which we look back to tournaments of the past. The first in this series looks at how the 28th ranked player in the World demolished what many consider the toughest course on the US Open cycle and in doing so set records and produced arguably the finest performance ever to win a major championship.
As the US Open returns to the scene of one of the greatest golfing performances in the modern era mainly overlooked by the golfing cognicenti we ask the question can it happen again?
2014 was the 99th Season of the PGA and the 46th since it separated from the PGA of America. Entering the 2014 US Open at Pinehurst No.2 there was a scramble to see who was going to take over vacant throne of Tiger. Woods had back surgery 3 months earlier and was out of the picture and injury had already brought his legendary powers to mere mortal standards.
Bubba Watson had just claimed his second Masters in 3 years. and a young fresh faced lad from Northern Ireland was a month away from taking the golfing World by storm by winning the last two majors of the year.
Sandwiched in between these was probably one of the greatest golfing performances ever seen in the modern era and the fact that only a month earlier the same player had won The Players ‘the fifth major’ just shows how a German, yes a German (that wasn’t Bernhard Langer) really upset the apple cart.
The World Top Ten going into the Pinehurst looked as follows
No. 1 Adam Scott (Aus)
No.2 Henrik Stenson (Swe)
No.3 Bubba Watson (USA)
No. 4 Tiger Woods (USA)
No. 5 Matt Kucher (USA)
No. 6 Rory McIlroy (NI)
No. 7 Jason Day (Aus)
No. 8 Sergio Garcia (Spa)
No. 9 Justin Rose (Eng)
No.10 Jordan Spieth (USA)
Martin Kaymer was officially the Worlds Number 28th ranked golfer entering the US Open at Pinehurst, he had the pedigree entering the 2014 season as a major winner (USPGA in 2010) but he would hardly have been a punters choice with his uninspiring form of the previous couple of years.
Between winning the PGA Championship in 2010 and winning at TPC Sawgrass, he made six top-10s on the PGA Tour. He might’ve holed that putt for Europe to win the 2012 Ryder Cup, but there was more than one reason why European fans were hiding behind their sofas at that moment. It’s because Kaymer hadn’t been playing very well. He had only made one top 10 in Europe in the four months preceding that famous Ryder Cup in Medinah and he had dropped outside of the world’s top 60 before The Players.
So where did this two month stretch of performance come from? Like lots of golfers who reach a pinnacle they somehow think they have to tinker with their game. Kaymer was renowned for hitting a ‘power fade’ a stock left to right flight which was always under control. Having won his first major he decided he needed to develop a right to left ‘draw’ shot. Totally changing his fundamental approach meant firstly changing his swing then changing his success.
As he entered the 2014 season he reverted back to ‘his style’, but as he has showed in his career elsewhere he needed an incredibly strong mental approach as well. The procession which was the US Open was not the way he won the The Players, to say he nearly blew it at the Players is one way of looking at it, but you could just as easily say he turned adversity into a huge bonus and showed a huge degree of heart and resilience to hang on when conditions were against him.
Martin Kaymer began the week at Ponte Vedra by tying the course record with a 63, maintaining the lead comfortably until adverse weather interrupted on the 14th hole of the final round. A storm brought lightning and play was paused, disrupting Kaymer’s rhythm. When play resumed, his previously solid performance wavered. His return was marked by a disastrous tee shot on the 15th into pine straw, leading to a double bogey that shrunk his lead to one. At the 16th, a questionable decision to putt from a difficult position only resulted in a par, intensifying the pressure on the final holes.
With just a one-shot advantage on the notorious 17th, a supposedly simple wedge shot became critical. Kaymer narrowly avoided disaster when his ball rolled perilously close to the water, but he managed a miraculous 35-foot putt to save par and maintain his lead. The 18th hole, challenging for Kaymer due to its demand for a draw shot, still saw him secure a par and clinch a narrow one-shot victory over Jim Furyk. The dramatic conclusion required additional light from the clubhouse to illuminate the green for Kaymer’s final, tense par save.
PINEHURST No.2
Pinehurst consists of nine 18-hole golf-courses, each named simply by a number, and a 9-hole short course. Pinehurst No. 2 has consistently been ranked as one of the top courses in North Carolina and among the best in the United States. This was the third U.S. Open played at Pinehurst’s No. 2 Course (the others being won by Payne Stewart in 1999 and Michael Campbell in 2005) and first after the 2010 Coore & Crenshaw restoration which stripped the course of all of its rough and returned it to its original design.
2014 US Open
Thursday 12th June 2014
ROUND 1 – Thursday 12th June 2014
Martin Kaymer led the field after shooting a five-under-par 65. He led a group of four golfers, including 2010 champion Graeme McDowell, by three strokes. Only 15 players shot under-par rounds. Defending champion Justin Rose shot 72 and the scoring average for the field was 73.23, more than three strokes over par.
ROUND 2 – Friday 13th June 2014
Martin Kaymer recorded a second consecutive superb round of 65 (−5), establishing a new tournament record for lowest 36-hole score (130) and becoming the first player to open a major championship with two rounds of 65 or better. His six-stroke lead over Brendan Todd after 36 holes tied a tournament record previously set by Tiger Woods in 2000 and Rory McIlroy in 2011. 21 players shot under-par rounds and 13 players were under-par for the tournament. The cut was at 145 (+5) and 67 players made the cut including one amateur, 2013 US Amateur winner Matt Fitzpatrick (whatever happened to him!). The scoring average for the field for the second round was 72.89, just less than three strokes over par.
ROUND 3 – Saturday 14th June 2014
Kaymer dropped back towards the field, shooting a 2-over-par 72 but still led by five strokes on a tougher scoring day. Eric Compton and Rickie Fowler shot the only sub-par rounds, both shooting 67 (−3) to move into a tie for second place. Only six golfers remained under-par for the tournament. The scoring average for the field was 73.82, almost four strokes over par. Brutal!
FINAL ROUND – Sunday 15th June 2014
Ahead of the final round even the USGA officials tried to put him off they had obviously set up the course to be brutal but Kaymer with his use of the old ‘Texas wedge’ from off the green had made a mockery of their plans; he recalls; “Sunday morning, very early, I got a phone call from the USGA,” Kaymer said
“They needed to have a look at my wedges because they didn’t think they conformed with the rules and regulations. So I had to go to the golf course at 8.30am even though I was not playing until two o’clock or so.
“It was a bit of a joke because they came to my golf bag, they had a look at one of the wedges for maybe three seconds and then said, ‘OK, that’s fine’.
“Those sort of mind games, I thought it was just funny. I was used to that from the Ryder Cup, so I didn’t really mind.”
Kaymer shot a 69 in the final round to win by eight strokes over Compton and Fowler. His 72-hole score of 271 was the second-lowest in U.S. Open history. This was his second major championship and also made him the fourth European winner of the event in five years (after Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose) having previously had no European winners since Tony Jacklin in 1970. Eleven golfers shot under-par rounds but none in the last eight groups except Kaymer. Only three golfers finished under-par for the tournament. The scoring average for the field was 72.40, the lowest of any rounds.
To put this performance into context consider this.
During the U.S. Open’s illustrious history at the North Carolina venue, only one player has finished better than one-under-par: MARTIN KAYMER.
In 1999, Payne Stewart was victorious, finishing on one-under, and it was a similar story back in 2005 when Michael Campbell edged out Tiger Woods with a level par score over his 72 holes.
Compton and Fowler – Kaymer’s nearest challengers – both finished on one under in 2014, a score which would typically have been enough to take victory.
Looking at the U.S. Open’s History at Pinehurst No.2 this just demonstrates how truly special the German’s 2014 performance was and a further remarkable fact that to date and heading into the 2024 US Open this was his last victory of any kind (outside of team competitions) anywhere in the World!
