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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSICFebruary 8, 2012Martin KaymerDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES SARAH GWYNN: Martin, thank you very much for joining us today. A bit of a contrasting start to your season in your first two events. Just sum up where your game is right now. MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, obviously in Abu Dhabi the expectations were very high. I've been very successful there, and I didn't really start off the way I wanted. But last week in Qatar was a lot better. I had a lot of chances, especially on the weekend. It could have been a lot better result in the end, but it's always one of those weeks where you have to be patient. But I think at the moment I feel very comfortable. It's just a matter of time that I will score very good scores again. So I just need to wait. SARAH GWYNN:  You've done very well in this tournament in the past, but never won it. What would it mean to win here. MARTIN KAYMER: Obviously I had success in Dubai when I won the Race to Dubai, 2010, and to win here again would be fantastic, especially, you know, I've won Abu Dhabi a few times, and Dubai, the golf course I would almost say it suits me even better. I feel very comfortable on that golf course, and I finished second, I think, in 2008, and the last couple years I've played good golf here. So I don't know why it hasn't happened yet, but hopefully will. SARAH GWYNN: And feeling confident this week? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I feel good. My coach and my trainer, they are here. We worked a lot on Monday and Tuesday, and we will go to the range later as well. So I think preparation has never been better. So I think the fundamentals they are made, I just need to let it happen. SARAH GWYNN: Okay. Do we have any questions? Q. In Abu Dhabi you weren't too happy with your putting in particular. Do you feel over the last two weeks you've got back kind of on track now and rolling the rock now is back up to scratch. MARTIN KAYMER: Well, playing wise, I think I've played definitely better, but putting is still ‑‑ I need to work more on it. I haven't done a lot the last ‑‑ let's say before Abu Dhabi, the week before that, I was in Germany where I couldn't putt at all. Abu Dhabi, I really struggled. Last week was tough with the wind. It's tough to practice when it's that windy. I was practicing a little bit in my hotel room, because I really want to win again, and I think the only thing that was say distracting me from winning was my putting. And I spent some time on the putting green yesterday and I will definitely do a little bit more this afternoon because obviously putting is very important. It doesn't matter if you hit the ball close to the pin if you can't make the putt. So I will definitely keep working on it. But to compare it to Abu Dhabi, yeah, I mean I putted better in Qatar, so I feel a little bit better, but not still there where I want it to be. Q. What were the greens like in your hotel room? MARTIN KAYMER: Like a carpet. Very nice. Q. Do you think the weight of expectation in Abu Dhabi was perhaps too great, because you've done so brilliantly there every year, the people were expecting so much of you, whereas here, you've obviously got a good record here, but there isn't the assumption that you're going to win as there was in Abu Dhabi. MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I mean it didn't really affect me in the past, you know. When I won in 2011, the expectations were high from other people already because I won twice before, finished second. So everybody expected me to play well again, but maybe this year my expectations were too high because I was practicing very hard in the winter, and felt like I was playing good golf. But then if you don't start the way you want, I started straightaway with a double bogey because I hit it out of bounds, and then you feel like you're a little bit behind, and then you try even harder. And with putting you have to wait. It's not good if you try to steer the ball in the hole. You know, you have to let it happen. You have to wait for it, but after a while I got a little bit impatient and that's never good when you need to make birdies. The other way around would be better. So I think it was more about myself that I was not patient enough and that I expected maybe a little too much. Q. Have you made any changes technically to your game over the off season or did you just keep it the same? MARTIN KAYMER: No. Nothing really. I mean obviously some little tweaking here and there with my swing coach, but no, nothing special, nothing major. We are pretty much working on the basics. I think that's what a lot of people forget in the end of the day. We can all hit the ball, but sometimes you aim a little too far right or a little left or your shoulders are a little closed or open, so you just have to go back to basics, and that is exactly the thing that I tried to do with my putting at the moment as well to go back to the fundamentals, to be square in the alignments and all those things. So I didn't make any big changes. Q. Martin, how much did it sort of jolt your confidence obviously missing the cut in Abu Dhabi, because Alvaro Quiros calls you the king of Abu Dhabi. So how did it affect you in terms of going forward in it must have been good to get the sort of 8th in Qatar and recover as it were? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, Qatar was obviously nice, too, to gain a little bit of confidence again. But to be honest, one week, if I would miss three full cuts in a row, then I would ask myself what the reason was, but Abu Dhabi was just, yeah, tough start for me, and I know the reason was the putting. And it didn't affect my confidence at all, to be honest. I played good golf. So I don't need to worry about missing cuts. I'm not going here to finish 10th or 8th or 9th. I would like to win. So if I miss the cut or finish 40th or 50th, at the end of the day my mind is the same, you know, disappointment because you go there to win and I know I'm able to do that, and that's why I keep playing. Q. Martin, I just wondered how important you see the whole desert swing. It's the season opener for all European tours obviously, but given that we're approaching the Masters and you've not made a cut there as well and it's a Ryder Cup year, it is important, isn't it both going into that event and in a Ryder Cup year to start building some momentum starting here presumably. MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah. If it comes down to me, I would love to play longer desert swing. You know, I always like to come here. I've been always successful. I think it's a good start into the season, what you said, approaching the world cup champion events in Arizona and Florida and then leading up to the Masters. I think it's brilliant the relationship that the European Tour has with the Emirates. I think it's fantastic for us. And so for me I always see it as a good opportunity to get ready for the season. SARAH GWYNN: Any more? Okay, we'll let you go. Good luck this week. Thank you, Martin. MARTIN KAYMER: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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