PINEHURST, N.C. — The calendar and scores in the morning paper will tell you the 114th US Open at Pinehurst was over late Sunday afternoon. Realistically, though, the tournament was over before the weekend began.
Martin Kaymer put the tournament to sleep by Friday night as he put the finishing touches on his second consecutive 65.
Sunday’s final round was merely Kaymer’s coronation. The cool, calm and collected 1-under-par 69 Kaymer shot Sunday provided further validation of his 2010 PGA Championship victory at Whistling Straits and his Players Championship win last month as well as how great a player he is.
Just as he did at the diabolical TPC Sawgrass to win the Players, Kaymer went wire-to-wire to win the US Open, dusting the field by eight shots, finishing at 9-under par. His closest competitors were Erik Compton and Rickie Fowler, who tied for runner-up at 1-under. They were the only three players to finish below par.
Providing an exclamation point to the proceedings, Kaymer even buried a 15-foot par-save putt on the 72nd hole — because he could.
“He kind of killed the event in the first two days,’’ said Henrik Stenson, who finished fourth at 1-over par, 10 shots back. “He went out and shot two 65s and left everyone in the dust.’’
Kaymer said he had a conversation with his caddie, Craig Connelly, before the round when he told him Sunday was going to be the “most brutal’’ round he’s ever played because of the pressure of expectation that comes with closing out a large lead — especially by a German playing on foreign soil trying to stave off two hugely popular players such as Fowler and Compton.
“The pressure was there from the first tee,’’ Kaymer said. “I would lie if I [said I] wouldn’t have felt pressure or if I wouldn’t have been nervous. Of course you’re nervous when you’re leading a major championship. You can’t tell me that you are calm.
“The challenge was not to think too much about that trophy, not to think too much about sitting here now, about what you’re going to say … how you might celebrate on 18. It goes through your head, and I’m sure a lot of players feel the same way. Not many talk about it, but … we do think about it. We are humans. We’re not robots.’’
His performance was reminiscent of Tiger Woods’ rout at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where Woods won by 15 shots, and Rory McIlroy’s 2011 US Open runaway at Congressional, where he won by eight shots.
Kaymer’s dominant performance left even McIlroy, who has been there and done that, bewildered.
“I’m wondering how he did it, yeah,’’ McIlroy said. “To do what he’s doing is, I think, nearly more impressive than what I did at Congressional.’’
Even if you don’t know a lot about Kaymer, he is an easy guy to root for. After reaching the mountaintop as the No. 1 ranked player in the world shortly after his win at the PGA, Kaymer lost his game for much of 2011 and 2012.
He was somewhat of a sentimental figure at the 2012 Ryder Cup, where he earned the clinching point for the Europeans with his singles triumph over Steve Stricker at Medinah.
“Some people, especially when I went through that low, called me the ‘one-hit wonder,’ ’’ Kaymer said. “So it’s quite nice proof, even though I don’t feel like I need to prove a lot of people, but somehow it’s quite satisfying to have two under your belt. And I’m only 29 years old, so I hope I have another few years ahead of me.’’
McIlroy said, “It’s good to see him back where he belongs.’’
Keegan Bradley played the first two rounds with Kaymer and said, “It was probably the best two rounds I’ve ever seen since I’ve been playing.’’
As soft-spoken as Kaymer may be, though, the US must beware of this come Ryder Cup week in the fall: He is an assassin with 14 clubs in his bag.
“He’s just a good guy; I really like being around him,’’ Bradley said. “He’s a guy that is really tough. If you’ve got him in a Ryder Cup match or coming down the end of a tournament, he’s probably a guy you would rather not face.’’