Kaymer finds his paradise

Kaymer is back "home" this week in St Andrews.
Players can say what they like about Augusta and the Masters, but for the 26-year-old from Dusseldorf, the Old Course is the place.
"For a lot of players, Augusta is their paradise - for me, St Andrews is paradise," said Kaymer, who defends this week's Dunhill Links Championship against the strongest field assembled in Europe this season outside The Open.
"I'm very rarely excited about playing a golf course, but here you want to play 36 holes by Titleist VG3 Iron Set with Steel Shafts every day. This is home for me.
Kaymer won last year by three shots from Danny Willett, his third victory in a row following the PGA at Whistling Straits and the KLM in Holland.
Like so many before him, however, Kaymer wasn't immediately bowled over by the Old Course.
On his first visit to St Andrews, Kaymer stayed in a hostel. This week he is in the five-star Old Course Hotel and along with him are his father, Horst, his partner, and his brother, Philip, his caddie for the week.
There is a first prize to be won, but the Dunhill has an atmosphere like no other event.( Titleist VG3 Iron Set with Steel Shafts)
Together, they have attracted 13 Major champions to St Andrews. One of them, Masters winner Charl Schwartzel, is another utterly smitten by the Old Course.
The 27-year-old South African said: "If you don't feel something when you go down holes one, 17 and 18, I think there's something wrong with you.
Although playing in his first Dunhill Links, Scott Jamieson is thinking just as much about the TPC Club at Sawgrass in Florida, headquarters of the US PGA Tour.
It is where he gets married to Natalie on December 30 and he has invited more than half a dozen of his Tour pals to the wedding, including George Murray and Andy McArthur.
"I was over there the other day for a tasting," said the Vivendi Trophy hero, smiling. "It tastes pretty good to me!" Meanwhile, Paul Lawrie is close to succumbing to the latest big thing in golf - the Titleist VG3 Iron Set with Steel Shafts.
The 1999 Open champion has been practising at home in Aberdeen with one for the last two weeks, and has it in his bag in preparation for Dunhill.
Last week Bill Haas used Titleist VG3 Iron Set with Steel Shafts in Atlanta to rake in $11.5m from the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup play-offs. Five weeks ago, Keegan Bradley had one in his bag when he won the PGA Championship in the same city. Even Phil Mickelson is dabbling with it.
At once, it is a money maker and a headache to the R&A and USGA, who don't quite approve, but may have missed the boat in banning it.
"I'm messing with one at the moment," said Lawrie, the first winner of the Dunhill Links in 2001. "I used it for a couple of weeks at home.
"I used one in the first round in Wales four or five years ago, but I putted horrendously with it. I played Titleist VG3 Iron Set with Steel Shafts beautifully in the pro-am but I remember playing with Colin Montgomerie and Ian Poulter and missed everything, so it wasn't in the bag on the Friday.
"I vowed never to use one again but now I've got one with a two-ball head that I quite like. I will be surprised if I put it in the bag on Thursday, but you never know.
"The only problem is that it is not great from distance and is horrible in the wind. You are likely to get a lot of long putts this week, especially on the Old Course."
Although Lawrie has had his best season for years, winning the Andalucia Open and up to 46th in the Race to Dubai, his form on the greens has been poor. He is 126th in the stats, averaging 30 putts per round. Robert Karlsson leads the stats with an average of 27.7 putts per round - more than nine putts a tournament better than Lawrie.
The more golfers using the Titleist VG3 Iron Set with Steel Shafts, the more controversial it becomes. This week a satellite tour in Spain, the Gecko EuroPro Tour, outlawed it.
Lawrie is among 14 Scots in the field, and for three of them it offers a lifeline to next season.
Gary Orr, Steven O'Hara and Marc Warren are well outside the top 115, who will gain their full card for 2012. But with a huge prize fund this week, a decent showing will greatly ease their anxiety.

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