Kaymer's crash shocks Abu Dhabi

Last updated: 27th January 2012

German's World No 4 Martin Kaymer has unwittingly engineered the major shock of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship so far by crashing out after the second round.

The 2010 PGA Champion, who was seeking a hat-trick of victories in Abu Dhabi this week, could only add a 1-over 73 to that horrendous 77 on Thursday that left him red-faced and muttering, "If you putt like Stevie Wonder, you don't make birdies."

The out-of-form German could do no better on Friday than three birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey as he finished in a tie for 121st place and missed his first cut since the KLM in November.

The 22-year-old, who had come in as a strong favourite on the strength of his past successes on the course, again blamed his putting for his troubles on Friday, adding that he "didn't have a lot of birdie chances" in the second round.

He said he was hoping to score well, but shrugged off his troubles as "a little bit of a rough period for me these last couple of days".

"Expectations were very high. Perhaps too high. When you go to a tournament where you've played very well in the past, you expect you're going to be successful somehow and it hasn't happened this week. But that's OK. I practiced hard in the winter and it (his game) will come together at some stage.''

Until this year, Kaymer has treated the Abu Dhabi course as his home away from home, winning the last two tournaments at the National Club, finishing second in 2009 and winning his first title there in 2008, and a good few observers believe his problems began and never really ended at the first hole of his first round when he was clearly angered and made a double bogey after being ruled five yards out of bounds.

The normally placid German, whose average stroke rating here until this week was an astonishing 67.55 in 18 rounds of play, went on to bogey the 5th, the 9th, the 14th and the 18th with his only birdie coming on the 8th of that awful first round.

"I don't know why that was out of bounds, it's a bit of a ridiculous decision. It was never out of bounds. If I'd hit it further left I'd have been fine. I had a little argument with the referee at how ridiculous his decision was. It wasn't the perfect way to start the round.

"Some of the spectators even told me that (Robert) Karlsson had gone further inside the stakes, so to find that mine was out of bounds and his not was a little stupid."