Open 2014: Kaymer inspired by German World Cup success

Martin Kaymer is looking to build on Germany's World Cup success in the 143rd Open Championship at Royal Liverpool

By Robin Barwick

At Royal Liverpool today, was Martin Kaymer happy to talk about Germany’s World Cup success? Once he started you could hardly stop him. It was not just the talk of an ecstatic fan though, it was well considered and heartfelt, and provided a welcome distraction this afternoon from a gathering obsession at Hoylake about which golfers are going to carry a two iron this week, when they are going to use their two irons, how confident they are with their two iron, and how often they use their two iron in other tournaments.

The sight of a sweetly struck two iron by a world-class golfer can be a sight to behold, no doubt, but there is only so much we need to dissect the finer points of long iron selection and shot implementation.

“The World Cup win made me very, very proud to be a German athlete,” started Kaymer, who watched Sunday’s World Cup Final, wearing his German football shirt, in his rented house with Scottish caddie Craig Connelly. In case you didn’t hear, Germany beat Argentina 1-0 to win the World Cup for the fourth time. “The way the team played, the way they carried themselves – they are very grounded people – and they had so much belief, and they were very brave.

“You can feel a whole country lifting, and it is nice to see what sport can do to you. There were not individual stars on that team, they kept together very well and fought as one team. These are all the values we live for in Germany, so it is great inspiration for me as an athlete.”

Kaymer is friends with many of the German players, and he occasionally plays golf with them. Some of them even texted Kaymer video clips from Brazil, but not of anything football-related.

“Some of the players sent me videos of them putting in their hotel rooms,” added Kaymer. “Or when they played the golf course next door, and of some chipping on the beach. It was also very nice when Thomas Muller said in an interview that it was a great way to start the World Cup after I had won the US Open.”

And what can Kaymer bring to the Open from Germany’s football success?

“Patience,” he said. “They just delivered. There were no secrets about how they performed; they just played their game, used the opportunities they were given, didn’t make any silly mistakes and they waited. That’s all you can do and it is the same on this golf course.”

Robin Barwick travelled to the Open Championship courtesy of Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes-Benz is global sponsor of the Masters, patron of the Open Championship and official car of the PGA Championship