Martin Kaymer Is A Fader

The world's number 1 golfer is a worried man on the eve of the 75th US Masters. Martin Kaymer is a fader and the Augusta golf course, according to those in the know, favors the player with a draw.

Kaymer is so convinced that he cannot win with his bread and butter fade that he is going into The Masters with the intention of changing his swing to accommodate the course. Pretty desperate stuff from the world's number 1 who is an extremely crisp ball striker, long and accurate to boot.

As far as I know the only previous winner of The US Masters who has won with a fade is Phil Mickelson but he doesn't count because he is a lefty.

Two notable greats who also had a lot of trouble trying to conquer Augusta in their bids to win the Masters were Colin Montgomery and Lee Trevino. The latter was the winner of six majors but the Masters eluded him. He was so convinced that he couldn't win at Augusta that he even boycotted both the 1970 and 1971 events!

Montgomery was so driven that he tried to change his very accurate swing only to find that once he had changed he lost what he previously had. He was never as accurate after that.

Martin Kaymer is a fader and it may be best if he simply accepts it and plays the course to the best of his ability. But Martin says he cannot possibly do any worse than his 3 missed cuts to date but is that so? Look at what happened to Montgomerie.

History clearly shows that anyone who can move the ball from right to left at Augusta has a distinct advantage. A right-handed draw, or a left-handed fade, is the shot required on at least 8 of the 14 tee shots for the greatest advantage.

But what about the other 6 tee shots? Is there that big an advantage to being a drawer? The golfing greats will tell you "Yes" and US Masters history confirms it.

But back to Martin Kaymer - can he win with his fade? If indeed he plays with his fade for this year's Masters.

Yes I believe he can. He is not the world's number 1 for nothing. If he brings his best possible short game then he stands a very good chance. It is an extremely strong field and there are no less than 5 players who could knock him off the number 1 spot if they were to win.

They are (in no particular order):

• Tiger Woods (who else?) who is undergoing swing changes himself.
• Lee Westwood who is playing the best golf of his life and cannot be that far off donning the famous green jacket.
• Luke Donald who may have blown his chances by winning the pre tournament Par 3 tournament, the winner of which has never gone on to win the Masters.
• Graeme McDowell. Like Westwood the Irishman is playing superbly at the moment and seems to have his game (and nerves) under control.
• Last but not least.......Phil Mickelson who has just come off a superb performance in Houston.

Even though Martin Kaymer is a fader there is plenty of incentive there for him. I just hope he is making a fatal mistake with his swing for this one tournament.

However if he can learn to play a draw at will for this and future tournaments then maybe Martin Kaymer the fader will have the last laugh and be very difficult to knock off his perch.