Kaymer officially world best

GOLF NEWS:NICK FALDO and Johnny Miller believe that Martin Kaymer's rise to number one and European dominance of the world rankings is a direct result of Europe's incredible success in the Ryder Cup since the mid-1980s.

“When Europe started beating America in the Ryder Cup and the players saw the excitement, the young players said, ‘I want to be part of that man. Those guys are heroes. We can beat the Americans’,” said former British Open and US Open champion Miller.

“Before that you guys had an inferiority complex. They didn’t think they were as good, and now all of a sudden they are beating the Americans and winning majors. What has happened is all down to the Ryder Cup.”

Kaymer overtook Lee Westwood as world number one when he beat Bubba Watson in the semi-finals of the WGC-Accenture Matchplay Championship to set up a clash with England’s Luke Donald in last night’s final in Tucson.

With a Donald victory setting up the possibility of having four Europeans at the top of the rankings for the first time since 1991 – Kaymer, Westwood, Donald and Graeme McDowell – Americans are wondering why they no longer dominate the world’s top-10.

But Faldo, who was number one for 63 weeks between 1990 and 1991, agrees with Miller that Ryder Cup success has created a snowball effect in European golf.

“You have got to give credit to the depth of the European Tour, and the Ryder Cup has had a big impact,” Faldo said. “In my era there were six of us at the core of the team and if we played well, we made the team. Now those 12 guys have to pay their hearts out to make the team.

“We have depth now and the European players are all pushing each other. In my era, we looked at what Seve did in the US and said, ‘well, if Seve can go to America and win, I can as well’.”

Europe has claimed nine of the last 13 Ryder Cups and five of the last 14 majors, and the domino effect has been evident.

Following his major breakthrough in last year’s US PGA at Whistling Straits, Kaymer said he was inspired by McDowell’s US Open victory at Pebble Beach a few weeks earlier.

“Graeme McDowell spurred me on to win a major, and I hope everybody in Europe will realise that it doesn’t matter where you play, Europeans can win any tournament,” Kaymer said.

The German’s rise to number one will be official today, but as he prepared to face his Ryder Cup team-mate Donald in the 18-hole final at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Dove Mountain, he said: “I definitely need some time to think about it and let it sink in – the good thing is next week I don’t have a tournament, so maybe then I’ll be able to appreciate what I’ve done.

“But what I can say for sure is that it’s an incredibly proud moment.”

The 26-year-old from Dusseldorf is the second German to reach world number one. Bernhard Langer topped the inaugural world rankings for three weeks in 1986.

Kaymer is only the 14th player, and the sixth European, to earn the crown since the ranking system was devised, following in the footsteps of Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, Faldo and Westwood.