MARTIN KAYMER’S FINAL round 63 at the HSBC Champions Tournament in Shanghai was a superb round of golf.  One of the best you’ll see in such a big tournament.

It was Kaymer’s second win of the season, even though you might argue that it was a season which didn’t live up to expectations. But the only reason we would have expected more is because the bar Kaymer set for himself last season was so high.

After making his Major breakthrough in 2010, winning the PGA Championship, and reaching the number one spot in the world rankings, people thought the sky was the limit for Kaymer, but it seems as if he has suffered slightly from second-season-syndrome, to borrow a footballing term.

It may be a bit of a loose comparison in that Kaymer’s season, with two wins, has still been pretty good. But even Kaymer himself admitted after his latest victory that 2011 was not necessarily an ideal year for him.

“It has been a little awkward sometimes, because I was just not used to being in the spotlight. It took some time to get used to it, and hopefully it will happen again, because I know what’s going to happen, I know how to approach that,” said the German about his first year as a Major champion.

The top players can often make it look so easy that we forget everything that goes with winning a Major; the extra demand on time from sponsors and media, the rise in expectation from fans and the player himself, to mention but some aspects.

We hear players and sportspeople say that certain moments in their careers change their lives. The six-month period between winning a Major and becoming world number one certainly seems to have been so for Martin Kaymer:

I played brilliant golf in Abu Dhabi, and when I became the Number One in the world in February after the World Golf Championships event in Arizona, my life has changed a little bit — not only mine, for the people I work with, my family.

At 26, Kaymer is young enough that he can use this experience to supplement his battle armoury moving forward and I’m sure the likes of Rory McIlroy and other such young guns will take note of what Kaymer has said and prepare for the possibility of something similar happening.

There’s no doubting though that Kaymer is now refocused and knows for sure what he wants to achieve moving forward in the wake of this latest victory.

It has put me in a very nice position now, because I won a Major last year, I won a World Golf Championships a year later, so all of the big events in the world, I put my name on it, which is nice. Now I just try to collect more Majors and World Golf Championships events.

That reads to me like the words of a very confident guy.

Luke Donald may even be getting a bit nervous as the final of the Race to Dubai edges ever closer. Donald decided to sit out the HSBC tournament given the impending birth of his child. Kaymer pounced on the opportunity to move into second place in the standings, around €1million behind Donald.

There’s still a lot of golf to play, but think back to last year when Kaymer recorded three victories in a row starting with his win at the USPGA Championship. Could this year’s big win spark a similar run?

The leaderboard at the HSBC tournament had a noticeable European feel to it which bodes well for the next few weeks as the season comes to a close. It’s going to be super-competitive.

When you add in Rory McIlroy, who recorded yet another top 10 at the weekend, the top three in the race are playing great golf and it’s going to make for great viewing over the coming weeks.

The European Tour moves on to Singapore next week, but the main focus of attention will be on the Australian Open where Tiger Woods tees it up. That is worth watching in itself, but even more spice has been added to it by comments from his former caddy Steve Williams over the weekend.

Sparks could fly.

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