Kaymer keen to stay top

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  • March 9, 2011

Martin Kaymer is closing in on another target – staying as world number one longer than compatriot Bernhard Langer.

Martin Kaymer is already closing in on another target – staying as world number one for longer than Bernhard Langer.
The official rankings were introduced in 1986 and Langer held top spot for only the first three weeks.
Now his fellow German is in the second week of his reign and will be trying to hold off the challenge of Lee Westwood, the player he dethroned, at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Miami this week.
Westwood, having fallen well short of the top-three finish he needed at the Honda Classic on Sunday, has to be in the top four this time to have a chance, but the better Kaymer plays the harder it becomes for his Ryder Cup team-mate.
“It would be nice to be one day longer as number one than Bernhard Langer,” he said. “But if it happens it happens and if not that’s fine too.
“I really don’t care. I’ve been number one and no-one can ever take it away from me. That was my goal when I started playing golf.
“It is a nice thing, but it doesn’t change my life. Yes I’m maybe a little more busy, that’s for sure, and there’s more work for my manager, but besides that nothing is changing.
“A lot of people ask me ‘so you must be the happiest person in the world now.’ Yeah I’m happy and I’m satisfied, but there’s still something missing.
“I don’t know what it is, what I have to win, what I have to do more. Maybe I will find out in the next 12 months.”
Langer was among the people who contacted Kaymer after he took over top spot by reaching the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play nine days ago.
And he had a surprise visitor – his father Horst.
“My brother and a friend of mine flew into Scottsdale to spend a few days with me and then they told me on Tuesday we have to go to the airport again.
“My dad just wanted to congratulate me. He said ‘next time (you are) in Germany who knows if you’re still number one?’
“It was nice. It was a 30-hour trip for pretty much 24 hours he was there.”
Kaymer lost his mother to cancer three years ago.
Having been beaten by Luke Donald in the final in Tucson he has another opportunity to lift his first world championship this weekend – and another major might be weeks away.
Not that he can boast about his record in The Masters at Augusta so far – three starts, three missed cuts.
“My goal is to play on Saturday and Sunday this year. I’ve struggled a little bit with the draw the last few years and my coach and me are working on it.
“Obviously that makes a big difference. If you fade the ball only you make the golf course even more difficult.
“With the irons it’s no problem. I just struggle with the woods a little bit. But I’ll get there.”

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