Even fresh from winning the Players Championship and the near $2 million cheque that goes with it, Martin Kaymer is staying true to himself.
The Ryder Cup hero was pictured sitting on the floor of the departure lounge at Jacksonville Airport the day after his Sawgrass victory two weeks ago, in shorts and trainers, texting furiously on his phone like any other young tourist rather than someone who had just won golf’s “fifth major”.
Arriving at Wentworth on Tuesday for the BMW PGA Championship, it was suggested to Kaymer that his blue chip sponsors would have been less than happy with the image of him in such a prosaic pose, but he wasn’t for caring.
“Why would they not be happy? It’s just the way I am,” he said.
“We were waiting on the plane because it couldn’t take off because of bad weather in Dallas, and I had got a lot of text messages and I wanted to talk to people.
“I don’t really know what the problem is sitting on the floor. I’m not a king or anything.”
Wouldn’t his manager and his sponsors want him to go to the VIP lounge, though?
“That wouldn’t be me, it wouldn’t be real,” he said. “If I feel comfortable to on the floor, then I sit on the floor.”
Kaymer’s balanced and grounded attitude was quoted by some as the reason why he fell from world No 1 to out of the top 50 in the space of two years, but he stuck to his plan to alter his swing in the wake of his initial success, and believes he will be better for that.
“Now I can hit any shot that I want to hit, and I didn’t believe I could do that when I was No. 1 in the world or even when I won the PGA Championship,” he said.
“So now I would say I’m a more complete player than then. The Players was like 2009-2010 a bit, not much going wrong, I know where my missed shots are going to be, and once in awhile you hit a good one and you make a birdie.”
Mentally, he has a clear mind even when faced with key putts like the 40 footer he needed to hole on the 17th at Sawgrass for his par that opened the way to the Players’ title.
“I don’t really want to know what’s going on in my head,” he joked. “If you try to explain, you end up searching for something.
“It was the same (over the winning putt) at the Ryder Cup. I’m just very glad that I don’t think about anything that can distract you.
“I think sometimes really simple things are difficult and we make it way too complicated. So the tough part is to think simple.”
Kaymer plans to enjoy himself this week at Wentworth, and has an important date next week when he’s a guest at the German national football squad training camp as they prepare for the World Cup in Brazil.