Kaymer has a credible challenge from the Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell who matched the German’s achievement of winning a first major championship this year in the US and then, memorably, took Europe over the winning line in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor, with his victory against Hunter Mahan in the last match out with everything at stake.
It is a good problem to have for the European Tour, whose heady days of 2010 were captured at Greg Norman’s Earth Course in Dubai by a photograph showing the Open Championship trophy on a pedestal behind which stood the winner, European Tour member Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, and similarly McDowell and Kaymer with, respectively, the US Open and US PGA trophies.
Flanked on either side were Lee Westwood, the new world No.1, with the Dubai World Championship trophy he won last year, and George O’Grady, chief executive of the European Tour, with the Ryder Cup. Prize guys indeed, and the only big one missing was the Masters green jacket, won by Phil Mickelson of the United States.
Further down the Race to Dubai order of merit there was good news for Scotland, registering a lot lower on the golfing Richter scale but welcome none the less. Stephen Gallacher remained at No.26 and, being inside the top 30, he will join Sandy Lyle, Paul Lawrie and Martin Laird as an exempt player for the Open Championship at Royal St George’s.
Gallacher made his way into the field at St Andrews this year at the last minute through a mini order of merit, but next year he will be able to tailor his schedule so that he can peak in Kent for the biggest tournament of the year.
The low number of Scots making the field for the Open has been one measure of the depth of the trough into which Scottish professional golf has descended in recent years and it is to be hoped that there will be a lot more making the grade as the 2011 season progresses.
The Middle East is also the place to be for the Scottish Golf Union’s amateur elite squad training camp – progress can be followed on player blogs at www.scottishgolf.org – which involves European Tour players Steven O’Hara, Richie Ramsay and rookie George Murray.
The final table for greens in regulation for 2010 shows O’Hara at No.2, behind only the Dubai World Championship runner-up Ian Poulter and ahead of McDowell in third place, while Ramsay is at No.5. Those positions, sadly, are not matched by their prowess on the greens otherwise they, too, might have been featuring in that glorious line-up mentioned earlier.
Putting has been shown clearly by the European Tour’s performance stats to be the Achilles heel of Scottish golf and the exercise in the United Arab Emirates is intended to be a first step towards strengthening that desperate weakness.
Murray, who finished eighth in the Challenge Tour rankings this season, will travel to Abu Dhabi next week en route to South Africa where his first European Tour season will begin at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in Leopard Creek the following week. He will be joined by O’Hara, who secured his 2011 card by finishing 114th in the European Tour standings.
The squad will also be working with putting specialist Phil Kenyon, who coaches the Italian Ryder Cup player Eduardo Molinari, as they sharpen up their short games on the facilities provided by the Al Badia Golf Club by InterContinental Dubai Festival City.
Steve Paulding, performance director, explained: “As part of the agreement with our partners in the United Arab Emirates, we have offered Scotland’s tour professionals the opportunity to come and use the facilities in return for their input into our ongoing player mentoring programme. We see this as a vital element in the professional transition roll out and aim to build on this in the future.
“The support will help George and Steven to hit the ground running for the start of the new season while our squad players will benefit from practising alongside them and learning from their experiences on both the Challenge Tour and European Tour. There is no extra cost to the SGU. The players will pay their own way for the flights but Yas Links Golf Club will allow them use of their facilities.”
The 10 squad players also met up with Ramsay at the Dubai World Championship to get an insight into his practice and course management methodology, and the national coach Ian Rae believes the training camp has already been a great success.
Michael Stewart, the Scottish amateur champion, said in his blog that his day starts at 6.30am for physiological tests and gym work followed by breakfast at the Al Badia club then work on his game, first on his putting on which he is practising for a total of two hours every day.
Those who have been looking out of clubhouse windows despondently at snow-covered courses can surely only agree enviously that heading to warmer climes for winter is the right thing for Scots to do.