Martin Kaymer joined the greats of European golf by winning the money-list crown on the final day of the season at the Dubai World Championship on Sunday. The German landed a prize of $1.5 million for topping the Race to Dubai after he and second-placed Briton Graeme McDowell ended in a tie for 13th place at the Greg Norman-designed Earth course on another hot and steamy day in the desert.
"I am very proud of my year," Kaymer told reporters after a final-round 72 gave him a six-under tally of 282, eight strokes adrift of tournament winner Robert Karlsson of Sweden. "It's been a fantastic year.
"All the goals I set for myself happened - to win the Race to Dubai, to play in and win the Ryder Cup and to win a major (US PGA Championship)." Kaymer, who also triumphed at the Abu Dhabi Championship, Dutch Open and the Dunhill Links event in a spectacular season laden with trophies, said he would now chase another first in 2011.
"I have never made a hole-in-one in my life so that would be nice," he explained after collecting an additional $113,000 for his 13th place in the Dubai World Championship. "It would also be nice to win another major, preferably the British Open, the only major that we have in Europe." World number three Kaymer would also like to climb the rankings.
"I believe that one day I can become the number one in the world. I know I can do it," he said after emulating fellow countryman Bernhard Langer who finished the 1981 and 1984 seasons as European number one. Other previous money-list winners include Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie and last year's number one Lee Westwood.
McDowell has played a tough five successive weeks in Spain, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai in a bid to catch Kaymer at the top and he was proud to have taken the Race to Dubai to the wire.
"Things didn't really go my way this week. It's a golf course which frustrated me last year and continues to frustrate me. "I couldn't see the lines (on the greens) and hole the putts. You're not going to do any damage out there without putting well," added McDowell, winner of this season's US Open, Wales Open and Andalucia Masters.
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