Two-time major winner Martin Kaymer would love to turn consistency into contending for a long-overdue victory at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
The last of Kaymer's 11 European Tour wins was the 2014 US Open at Pinehurst and the most painful of his failures to add to that tally came the following January, when he squandered a 10-shot lead in the final round of the Abu Dhabi Championship.
This time last year Kaymer was in danger of dropping out of the world's top 200 and is currently ranked 110th after starting the year with four straight top-16 finishes.
"I've been playing well," Kaymer said at Education City Golf Club, this week's event having moved from its long-time home at Doha Golf Club. "I'm working a lot on the short game, trying to get that putter in the right momentum.
The 2022 Qatar World Cup stadium is the backdrop for this week’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. 🏟#QatarMasters pic.twitter.com/r4izSSgu1V
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) March 3, 2020
"I'm very happy with the way I hit fairways, the way I hit greens, I'm playing very consistently and those top-16 finishes, it would be nice to make a couple more putts to actually have a chance to win."
Although this week's venue is new to the players, the conditions are expected to be typically windy when play gets under way on Thursday.
"We had it already last week in Oman when it was really windy. Here it feels like it is more gusty so that will be very difficult," Kaymer added.
"You will have some shots where you will get unlucky, it's just a matter of accepting the good and the bad breaks and just go with it - there's not much you can do."
Kaymer's former Ryder Cup team-mate Nicolas Colsaerts, who was part of the 'Miracle at Medinah' in 2012, ended his own seven-year winless drought last season and comes into the event on the back of a tie for 18th in Oman.
"If you look at the results you always want to get a bit more out of your weeks," Colsaerts said. "I probably wasn't really efficient enough on the greens.
"I thought I had a good chance last week, I had a putt on 13 on Sunday that would have got me two shots off the lead and I was feeling pretty good.
"I went for the win for a long time and thought I had a pretty good sniff so I'm pretty happy about everything."
