Martin Kaymer surges to Number Four spot on the Official World Golf Rankings – Golf news
Germany’s rising tide, Martin Kaymer, has done it once again without going through the trouble of swinging his club. He has now soared back to World Number Four spot after American, Steve Stricker’s early withdrawal from the BMW Championship and Dustin Johnson’s
sloppy performance.
Kaymer had dropped down to World Number Six position on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), after his poor performance in the KLM Open where he was the defending champion and after Rory McIlroy’s consecutive strong performances on the European Tour
in two weeks.
Kaymer is now comfortably sitting on fourth place trailing leaders Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and McIlroy, even when he decided to lay back and relax last week. This has happened twice now in Kaymer’s career where he surged past the top ranking players without
having to play a round of golf.
Kaymer, who led the OWGR at the start of the year, dropped down to Number Six following his poor putting in KLM Open. He surged past McIlroy a fortnight ago when he finished for a stellar runner-up finish at the Omega European Masters. The 26-year-old German
and former PGA Championship winner, has been struggling with his form for quite a few months and his runner-up finish at European Masters came after a long spell of lacklustre performances in the whole year.
Stricker, the top ranking American withdrew from the third leg of the FedExCup Playoff Championship, the BMW Championship, citing a severe weakness in his left arm which first surfaced nine months ago. He shot opening rounds of 76 and 70 respectively, at
the Cog Hill Golf and Country Club and decided to call it a day when his neurosurgeon suggested complete rest for a few days.
While driving home to Wisconsin, Stricker said, “I've lost some strength in my left arm and I had a hard time hanging onto the club. It just kept getting worse. I found it when I went to pull back my bow to shoot a doe. My left arm caved down and I hit my
head with the bow. I thought that was unusual. I had never had that problem before. That was a wakeup call that something was wrong.”
It will be interesting to see whether Stricker comes back to reinforce the field at the final leg of the championship, the Tour Championship, presented by Coca Cola or decides to go for a rehab to strengthen his left arm muscles and weakened nerves.
Meanwhile Johnson, winner of The Barclays, suffered an embarrassing end to the BMW Championship and will have to perform his best to outshine the sturdy field of top-30 players in the final event. The lucrative FedExCup Playoffs are heading for the last
of the four events with a winner’s prize share of a whooping $10-million.
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