Golf Capsules: Kaymer might be capable of more majors

Neither could anyone else.

Even after winning the PGA Championship, he had to share the spotlight with hard-luck Dustin Johnson, the victim of a two-stroke penalty on the final hole when he grounded his club in a bunker without realizing he was in a hazard.

It will be hard to mention Whistling Straits without thinking of Johnson, just as Jean Van de Velde and his comical collapse remains such an ingrained part of the history at Carnoustie.

It might take another major for the 25-year-old German to get his due.

Not many would be surprised if he did.

Kaymer was in his second year on the European Tour when he won the Abu Dhabi Championship, then finished birdie-birdie-eagle in Dubai to finish one shot behind Tiger Woods.

"You've got to watch this kid play," Ernie Els said early in 2008. "He's going to be something, I promise you."

Consider the promise fulfilled.

Lost in the controversy over what should constitute a bunker at Whistling Straits were the clutch putts Kaymer made in the final round Sunday. First came the 15-foot par putt on the 18th hole in regulation to earn his spot in the playoff. Then came another 15-footer on the par-3 17th, the second of a three-hole playoff to catch up to Bubba Watson.

The end was anticlimactic for everyone but Kaymer.

He rapped in a 2-foot bogey putt to finish one shot ahead of Watson in the playoff, calmly plucked the ball from the cup and had to muster up some emotion to commemorate his first major.

Typical stoicism of a German? Not really.

"If I would have made that par putt in the playoff, I probably would have freaked out," Kaymer said. "But it was only a little bit more than a foot, 1½ feet, to win it. And when I was walking toward the putt, I just thought I should really think about that feeling, what I have now. I really wanted to enjoy that moment."

Perhaps there was enough time to think about growing up in Germany, where two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer was the only golfing hero in a soccer-mad country.

Kaymer started kicking a ball around when he was 3, only picking up golf when his father and brother took him to a public driving range when he was 10. He enjoyed the time spent with family, and his natural athleticism made it clear he would be an athlete.

It was only a matter of choosing, and Kaymer appears to have made the right choice.

"Obviously, soccer is bigger in Germany than golf," he said. "But for me, I enjoyed to be out on the golf course early in the morning by myself, nobody disturbing me. That was for me one of the nicest moments."

Those days of solitude might be behind him.

The victory Sunday was the sixth for Kaymer, who joined the European Tour in 2007. He first got attention by shooting a 59 on a mini-tour in Europe, and earning his card on its Challenge Tour by finishing four on the money list in only eight events.

He won successive weeks in the French Open and Scottish Open last year and has been taking baby steps in the majors.

This was a giant leap.

"The majors are the biggest tournaments that you can win in your career," he said. "And just knowing that I can win a tournament like that gives me huge confidence for any other tournament I will play for the rest of my career. This was the toughest field all year."

Even so, he never considered Whistling Straits the place to win his first major.

Kaymer was more focused on a strong finish when he started the final round four shots behind Nick Watney. His goal was to do well enough to lock up his spot in the Ryder Cup, which he attended last year as a guest of European captain Nick Faldo.

"I was never really expecting myself to win here on Sunday," Kaymer said. "I know that I had a chance, but majors ... they are a little bit different than normal golf tournaments that we play week to week."

Imagine his surprise when he made birdie on the par-5 second, then a brilliant shot with the wind at his back on the 489-yard fourth hole that put him atop the leaderboard when Watney began to crumble.

"I said to my caddie on the sixth hole, 'It doesn't really matter what happened today, but it's the first time in my career that I'm leading a major championship. It's a pretty cool feeling,'" Kaymer said.

He tried not to look on the back nine, but the pressure was evident over the final few holes. Kaymer kept his cool.

Kaymer was sad to see Johnson eliminated from the playoff with the two-stroke penalty, a bizarre end to a strange year in the majors. No matter what happens, though, his name is on the trophy.

He gazed at some of the names he joins, from Walter Hagen to Ben Hogan, from Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods.

"It will take me a while to realize what happened," he said.

As for becoming German's next golfing star? Kaymer says he still has a ways to go to catch Langer, a two-time Masters champion, Ryder Cup star and winning Ryder Cup captain.

Besides, this was just one major. Langer won a Senior British Open and a Senior U.S. Open in consecutive weeks.

"Actually, I have to win the Masters next year then to accomplish that," he said.

After what he did Sunday in the PGA Championship, not many would put that past him.

PGA has bunker mentality on Whistling Straits

The golf world was still reeling Monday over the two-shot penalty given to Dustin Johnson on the final hole. He grounded his 4-iron in the sand to the right of the fairway, not aware he was in a bunker.

Johnson had a one-shot lead when he teed off on the 18th. He missed a 7-foot par putt and seemed to slip into a playoff. But when he learned he had let his club touch the sand during his preshot routine, Johnson added two shots to his score and tied for fifth.

Asked if there was any consideration to change the unusual local bunker rule for 2015, PGA of America president Jim Remy said, "Not at this point."

"Obviously, it's the day after," Remy said. "I'm sure (championship director) Kerry Haigh will do his due diligence. He made the decision not to do it from 2004 to 2010. My guess is that probably the way we're leaning is to leave it that way."

It wasn't the first time someone paid for the bunker rule at Whistling Straits.

When the PGA Championship was first played there in 2004, Stuart Appleby was penalized four shots late in the third round for removing a dead piece of grass (two shots) to the right of the 16th hole and touching the sand on a practice swing (two shots).

That didn't cost him a major championship, though.

What never will be known is how Johnson would have fared in the three-hole playoff, which Martin Kaymer won over Bubba Watson. It was the most shocking finish involving rules at a major since Roberto de Vicenzo signed for a 4 when he had made a 3 on the 17th hole of the final round in the 1968 Masters. He had to accept the higher score and finished one shot behind Bob Goalby.

Johnson said he didn't look at the rules sheet that had been posted all week in the locker room and on the first tee throughout the week, explaining that every bunker was a hazard, even if they were outside the ropes where the gallery had been standing.

"It was unfortunate for Dustin. I feel bad for him. He's a PGA member, just like I am," said Remy, the general manager of Okemo Valley Golf Club in Vermont. "I feel sad for him the way it all unfolded. But that's the rules of golf. Those things happen in sports, and nobody feels good about it."

Remy said he didn't see a a practical solution for 2015, or in 2020 for the Ryder Cup.

"Do you mark 900 of them not as bunkers and 300 as bunkers? How do you ever mark them?" he said. "Clearly, with this happening, players will be more aware of it in the future. And we didn't have any other infractions during the week."

Players continued to weigh in on both sides.

"In light of PGA finish, Augusta just announced new seating for patrons available in right greenside bunker by 18 green," Stewart Cink joked on Twitter.

PGA Tour rookie Kris Blanks, who missed the cut at the PGA, posted a picture of a child's sandbox and suggested that would be considered a bunker at Whistling Straits.

Johnson tied for fifth, still enough for him to easily make the Ryder Cup team. The only way he would have failed to finish among the top eight qualifiers would have been to sign his card for a bogey and learn of the bunker gaffe later. Then, he would have been disqualified for signing an incorrect score.

"The one thing that I will remember from this more than anything is the way Dustin handled himself," Pavin said. "He was very mature. I couldn't imagine a player handling it any better than he did. He played beautiful golf on Sunday, put himself in position to win the tournament. I think it was the proper ruling. It was an unfortunate situation."

Among the questions raised was whether the marshals should have done a better job clearing out the gallery around Johnson, which might have made it clearer to him that he was on the edge of a bunker.

Johnson thought it was grass that had been trampled all week by foot traffic.

The PGA rules official didn't remind Johnson that he was in a bunker — if he even knew — although Paul Goydos pointed out that a rules official's job is not to remind players of the rule, rather to interpret them if a player asks.

Goydos is not sure he would change the bunker rules for 2015.

"You've either got to say they're all bunkers or they're not bunkers," Goydos said. "I don't think you take into account that guys would hit the ball 75 yards off line. Maybe they could have cleared the gallery so he could see the bunker. It's just a weird situation."

Asked if the PGA could make a rule that anything outside the ropes is not a bunker, Goydos shook his head.

"Now you're trying to call foul balls and fair balls," he said.

After Johnson hit his 4-iron to the left of the 18th green into a difficult spot, he sent a magnificent flop shop to 7 feet. That gave him a chance — or so it seemed — to win his first major. Remy was standing behind the 18th green watching it all unfold when he heard radio traffic about a potential problem on the bunker shot.

It was not clear if PGA officials noticed the problem on the telecast or if someone alerted them to it.

Remy wasn't sure what to think.

"I was aware of what was unfolding, but at that time, I didn't know the outcome," he said. "I knew there was a question. I was aware we were going to have to deal with the issue. But I wanted the putt to go in because I didn't know what the ruling would be. I thought it would have been an epic finish to a great championship."

And what if the putt had gone in?

"It didn't," Remy said. "But I sure thought about it."

-- Doug Ferguson

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