Challenge Tour Graduate World Number 1

Martin Kaymer

European Challenge Tour Graduate Martin Kaymer starts this week as the Number One golfer on the planet, completing a meteoric rise to the summit of the professional game.

The 26 year old from Düsseldorf replaced Lee Westwood at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking after reaching the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona - almost 25 years to the month since his highly-decorated countryman, Bernhard Langer, became the first person, and the only other German, to head the newly-created Ranking in April 1986.

Kaymer 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. Not only for me, but also for my family, for the people who have helped me, and obviously for Germany and also The European Tour. To be only the second German after Bernhard Langer, who was my role model when I was growing up, is a very special feeling. 

“Like I say, it probably won’t hit me until Monday, but when the new World Ranking is published I’m definitely going to take a picture with my name at the top. It doesn’t feel real to me at the moment, but maybe when I see it in writing then I’ll start to believe I’m the best golfer in the world. Not many people can say they’re the best player in the world at their sport, so I feel very honoured and privileged."

While two-time Major Champion Langer was the first to ascent to the summit – staying there for a further two weeks – Kaymer is only the 14th player, and the sixth European, to fill that coveted position in the quarter of a century since the World Ranking was devised.

Since turning professional in 2005 and winning on his debut on the European Challenge Tour the following year, Kaymer has gone from strength to strength in a remarkably short space of time, winning nine times on The European Tour International Schedule with his most recent victory coming by eight shots at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship – an event he has won three times. 

That debut Challenge Tour win in August 2006 hoisted Kaymer from 1249th in the world to 480th. Since then, his progress has been little short of stupendous. He ended 2006 in 164th place then made rapid strides to 76th (2007), 25th (2008), 13th(2009) and third at the end of 2010, the season in which he made his Major breakthrough and played in his first Ryder Cup. 

Now Kaymer, who won last year’s Race to Dubai and will climb to the top of the current Rankings if he defeats Donald in today’s final, has graduated from European to World Number One with an almost effortless grace. In the process, Kaymer, at 26 years and nine weeks, becomes the second youngest player behind Tiger Woods (21 years and 24 weeks) to reach World Number One.

He follows in the illustrious footsteps of Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, Sir Nick Faldo and Westwood as the only Europeans to reach golf’s pinnacle.

Challenge Tour Achieves Success Rate

Simon Wakefield (Getty Images)

For the first time since its inception in 1987, 40 players who competed on last season’s Challenge Tour gained promotion to The European Tour. 

In addition to the graduates who earned promotion to The European Tour via their place in the top 20 of the final 2010 Challenge Tour Rankings, a further 19 players earned elevation to the top tier through last week’s Qualifying School – Final Stage. 

The 40th and final former Challenge Tour Member competing in The 2011 Race to Dubai is Austrian Martin Wiegele, who earned instant promotion to The European Tour after winning the dual ranking SAINT-OMER OPEN presented by Neuflize OBC in June. That beats the previous best figure of 36, achieved in 2004. 

Remarkably, of the players who took the top ten cards at the 2010 Qualifying School – Final Stage, no fewer than eight – including winner Simon Wakefield of England – were full Challenge Tour Members in 2010. 

Furthermore, Frenchman Romain Wattel, who took the ninth card, won as an amateur on the Challenge Tour last season at the ALLIANZ Europen Strasbourg-Golf de la Wantzenau, leaving just South African Jaco Van Zyl as the sole representative of the top ten who did not compete on the 2010 Challenge Tour.

Like Wattel, Denmark’s Andreas Hartø – who took the eighth card – also triumphed as an amateur on the Challenge Tour last season, and he will now be joined on The 2011 European Tour International Schedule by his fellow former Challenge Tour Members Wakefield (who finished first), Spaniard Carlos Del Moral (second), Finland’s Mikko Korhonen (third), England’s Adam Gee (fourth), Germany’s Florian Fritsch (sixth), and the Welsh duo of Liam Bond (seventh) and Stuart Manley (tenth). 

Further down the list another 12 former Challenge Tour Members also finished in the top 34 places, including Frenchman Alexandre Kaleka, who took the 22nd card to improve the category he had already secured by finishing in 20th place in the final Challenge Tour Rankings.

Of the Challenge Tour Members who entered the Qualifying School, a total of 26.6% secured their cards. That statistic compares favourably with the overall success rate of all players entering the Qualifying School, which was 21.7%, and that percentage drops even further, to 17.1%, for those successful entrants who did not compete on the Challenge Tour last season.

Alain de Soultrait, Director of the Challenge Tour, said: “We have worked hard to gain our reputation as the most successful finishing school for players wishing to graduate to The European Tour, and we now have the statistics to back up this claim. It gives me great pleasure to see 40 players from last season’s Challenge Tour making the step up to The European Tour, where I’m sure the invaluable experience they gained of playing in highly competitive events on our Tour will stand them in good stead. 

“Even if our Members do not finish in the top 20 of the Rankings, they still have another opportunity of earning promotion to The European Tour through the Qualifying School, and it is extremely encouraging to see so many of them grasping this second chance. We look forward to building on our success in the coming years, when we firmly believe the Challenge Tour will continue to flourish and keep providing the golfing stars of the future.”