Kaymer’s comeback puts No 1 Donald in his sights

The German is now £893,444 behind world No 1 Donald in the rankings after a nine-under-par 63 on the final day saw him win by three shots in China. Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson was second, with Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell third and his compatriot Rory McIlroy in a tie for fourth with England’s Paul Casey and South African Charl Schwartzel.

Kaymer admits it will still be difficult to rein in Donald – who missed the world championship event this week as he and his wife prepare for the birth of their second daughter – but now has the Englishman in his sights.

“Obviously Luke is a very nice guy and he deserves to be No 1 in the world,” said Kaymer.

“He deserves to be No 1 in Europe. It will be difficult to catch him, but that is what the sport is about, to challenge yourself, challenge the other players that you play with week in, week out, and of course I will try to give him a hard time.

“We’ll see. It’s not easy to get him away from the No 1 spot.”

Kaymer, who won the US PGA Championship last year, completed the biggest last-day comeback in world championship history. He produced a stunning run of nine birdies in his final 12 holes to turn a five-shot deficit to overnight leader Jacobson at the start of the day into a three-shot win.

After playing the first six holes to par, Kaymer started his charge with a birdie on the 346-yard par-four seventh, before adding another on the eighth.

It was the inward nine where the 26-year-old really shone though, as he recorded four successive birdies from the 10th to 13th, and then three more on the 15th, 17th and 18th as he came back in just 29 shots.

Kaymer added: “It was an okay season, now it’s a good season. I played brilliant golf in Abu Dhabi (to win the HSBC Championship in January), and when I became the No 1 in the world in February after the World Golf Championships event in Arizona, my life has changed a little bit – not only mine, for the people I work with, my family.

“It has been a little awkward sometimes, because I was just not used to being in the spotlight. It took some time to get used to it, and hopefully it will happen again, because I know what’s going to happen, I know how to approach that.”

Kaymer is up to fourth, while McIlroy is up to a career-high second in the world rankings after the Northern Irishman’s last-hole birdie.

If he had parred the 18th McIlroy would have been in a four-way tie for sixth in the tournament and would have stayed behind Lee Westwood on the rankings.

But he hit his approach to the par five to the back of the green and two-putted – watched by Westwood, who came only 13th after a disappointing closing 74.

Now only Donald is ahead of the 22-year-old US Open champion.

Weekend rounds of 70 and 71 saw Simon Dyson drop back into a tie for 16th place, 11 shots adrift of Kaymer.

The Yorkshireman is ninth on the Race to Dubai rankings.

Meanwhile, golf bosses have described caddie Steve Williams’s controversial remark about former employer Tiger Woods as “entirely unacceptable” but will not be taking the matter further following the New Zealander’s apology, it was announced yesterday.

Williams, who was sacked by the former world No 1 during the summer after 13 years together and is now caddie for Australian Adam Scott, disparaged Woods at a caddies awards dinner in Shanghai on Friday night.

He had told the audience that the aim of his celebration when Scott won a world championship in August was “to shove it right up that black a*******”.

Williams subsequently issued an apology on his website while admitting the comments “could be construed as racist”. The incident has attracted international criticism but the 47-year-old looks to have escaped any official sanction from the PGA and European tours.

A joint statement from European Tour chief George O’Grady and PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem on behalf of the International Federation of PGA Tours, released following the end of the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai yesterday, read: “The International Federation of PGA Tours feels strongly there is no place for any form of racism in ours or any other sport.

“We consider the remarks of Steve Williams, as reported, entirely unacceptable in whatever context.

“We are aware that he has apologised fully and we trust we will not hear such remarks again. Based on this, we consider the matter closed, and we will have no further comment.”

Leeds golfer Danny Denison signed off from life on the Challenge Tour with a 35th-place finish at the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final in Italy on Saturday.

Denison had already done enough during the 2011 season to earn a card for next year’s European Tour.

The 26-year-old Howley Hall pro finished sixth on the money list on the continent’s second circuit, with victory in Denmark in August the highlight of his year.