PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Martin Kaymer has been playing mind games with himself at this week’s Players Championship, and it has worked to perfection.
Kaymer, the former No. 1 player in the world and winner of the 2010 PGA Championship, had a lot to live up to after tying the TPC Sawgrass course record with his opening-round 63.
So, one day after Kaymer said the key to his recent success has been not thinking, he entered the second round with what he described as low expectations, staying as far away as possible from expecting to shooting another 63. The result was a solid 3-under-par 69, which kept him in the tournament lead at 12-under par entering the weekend.
“You have to be careful that you don’t compare yourself,’’ Kaymer said. “If I want to compare myself to [Thursday], I was six shots worse the first nine than [Thursday]. So that would be the wrong way to think. It’s a new day, and if you are level par or 1-under par after nine holes, it’s still a good score. You can’t compare or you shouldn’t compare.
“I don’t really believe in taking momentum into the next day, because you sleep, you wake up with a different body feel, everything is a little bit different,’’ Kaymer went on. “The most important thing is that you lower your expectations. Everybody else thinks you keep going like this and subconsciously you think you should. But I’ve shot a few of those rounds in the past that I know that the next day is very difficult, like just mentally.
“[Thursday] was just very special day for me. But anything around par [Friday], 1, 2-under par, or even level par, it’s a good score. I see very positive things that I backed up that 9-under par with another decent round.’’
Kaymer entered the day with a two-shot lead. When he finished his morning round he had extended it to five shots, though the afternoon waves of tee times were just beginning.
Jim Furyk, who also played in the morning, shot 68 to stand at 6-under for the tournament.
Kaymer is trying to become only the fifth player to go wire-to-wire to win The Players. He took a different route in his round Friday. After hitting 12 of 14 fairways and 17 of 18 greens on Thursday, he hit just 6 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens Friday.
“The difficult thing is that you just keep believing in what you’re doing, that you trust your feel, you trust your work that you put in, and then you just try to let it happen’’ Kaymer said. “That’s very difficult sometimes.’’
Asked about playing with the lead on the weekend, Kaymer said, “It’s about the expectations. Leading after one or two rounds doesn’t mean that you will win the tournament. Anybody else in that field can shoot a 9-under, 10-under par, what I’ve done. So it’s still very open.’’