Motivated by champions-dinner slight, Martin Kaymer shares early PGA lead
Kaymer was asked by a PGA of America official during Tuesday night’s PGA champions dinner if he still played golf. The 41-year-old responded by shooting a co-leading 67 on Thursday at Aronimink.
Martin Kaymer was asked by a PGA of America official during Tuesday night’s PGA champions dinner if he still played golf, to which Kaymer, mildly offended, responded, “I'm not flying from Europe to here to have a New York strip with you guys. Of course I’m playing. ” “That really motivated me,” Kaymer said Thursday at Aronimink Golf Club, where the 41-year-old LIV Golf member turned back the clock to the days, over a decade ago now, when he was winning two majors and the Players Championship.
Kaymer was one of several players to card a leading 3-under 67 around a difficult layout bolstered by tricky, sticky rough and challenging green complexes, plus cool, gusty conditions. But as surprising as it is to see names such as Aldrich Potgieter, Ryo Hisatsune and Stephan Jaeger atop this leaderboard – I’ll give you Min Woo Lee – none of them entered this week with a recent resumé like Kaymer’s. Since accompanying the first exodus of signings to LIV in June 2022, Kaymer has played just four majors, including two PGAs, where he’s gone T-73 and MC the last two years.
Go back further and Kaymer has missed five of his past six PGA cuts. He’s currently ranked No. 1,160 in the world rankings, which he topped for eight weeks back in 2011, a year after his 2010 PGA triumph.
And on LIV this season, Kaymer has played seven events with a low finish of T-25. Three times he’s finished outside the top 50 or withdrawn – LIV fields boast 57 players. “I've been struggling since 2021,” Kaymer said.