Open should be tough – Kaymer

US PGA champion Kaymer is one of the favourites for the 140th Open, which gets under way at Royal St George’s today.

But with a testing course set to be made harder by inclement weather, the German world No 3 is bracing himself to “win ugly” as he tries to claim a second major.

“The greens are very slopey, very difficult, and some approaches seem to be impossible sometimes, but that’s fine,” the 26-year-old said.

“It’s a big challenge, and we are the best players in the world here, so it should be tough. At the end of the day everybody has to deal with the same golf course. The good thing about the Open is you don’t have to play, let’s say, beautiful golf. You have to score well.

“On those golf courses when you play the Open sometimes you don’t even see the fairway, you just see rough and some bunkers and the landscaping and the background. You need to be very precise with your target.

“You have to think a lot and, if you have to be more precise, it takes more energy. You have to concentrate more and focus more, and you have to be like this probably on every single shot, even the lay-ups. You have to give yourself good angles to the green, so it’s a very tiring week.”

Kaymer will be making just his fourth appearance in the Open, but has improved markedly every year. He was 23 over par and 80th on his debut at Birkdale in 2008, 34th at Turnberry the following year and seventh at St Andrews 12 months ago, despite finishing with four putts from just short of the 18th green in the final round.

“I wouldn’t mind improving again,” he added. “It’s a fantastic major, the only one that we have in Europe, and I think the US Open and US PGA are almost regular PGA Tour tournaments, just with more difficult conditions.

“But the Open is so different than all the other tournaments, and that makes it very special and new.”