Kaymer's hits the top in August

Martin Kaymer has won The Race to Dubai Golfer of the Month Award for August following his magnificent victory in the US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. The 25 year old, who receives an engraved alms dish and magnum of Möet & Chandon champagne, produced a clinical and ultimately devastating performance to overcome Bubba Watson of the USA in a three-hole play-off to claim his first Major title and become only the second German to win one of golf’s Major prizes. Kaymer’s victory sealed an unprecedented season in the Majors for The European Tour as he followed Graeme McDowell (the US Open) and Louis Oosthuizen (The Open) as the third European Tour Member to win a Major in the same season.“It is always an honour to be named The European Tour Golfer of the Month but to get the award for winning a Major is even better,” said Kaymer, speaking at the KLM Open.“It’s great news that I have won it and my brother will be pretty pleased because he was saying to me recently that winning the PGA will mean I will win the Golfer of the Month and he was right. “This is the third time that I have won the award and it is always nice to be voted for awards like this because it is more recognition for a great achievement.” It comes as no surprise that Kaymer secured the August award but he did have some serious competition, especially from Swede Peter Hanson, Spain’s Miguel Angel Jiménez and Italy’s Edoardo Molinari – a trio that used the month of August to secure their places alongside Kaymer in Colin Montgomerie’s European Ryder Cup Team.Hanson’s outstanding victory in the Czech Open took him inside the automatic qualifiers for The Ryder Cup squad, before Molinari made himself an irresistible wild card choice for Montgomerie by winning the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles – the last counting event for Ryder Cup qualification. Jiménez, meanwhile, performed well to tie for seventh in the Czech Republic before cancelling his invitation to his nephew’s wedding in order to keep his place on the Team at Gleneagles, where a tie for third place ensured that he would make a fourth Ryder Cup appearance at the age of 46. Kaymer joins South Africans Charl Schwartzel (January) and Ernie Els (March), the English pair of Ian Poulter (February) and Luke Donald (May), the Northern Irish duo of Rory McIlroy (May) and McDowell (June) and Oosthuizen (July) among the candidates for The Race to Dubai Golfer of the Year on The European Tour, which will be decided at the end of the season.