Kaymer targets second straight win at Dunhill Links to break yearlong skein

Martin Kaymer is hoping to recreate last year's "fairytale" victory as he returns to St. Andrews in a bid to become the first golfer to successfully defend his title at the European Tour’s Dunhill Links Championship.

The former world No. 1, currently ranked sixth, concluded a superb 2010 with victory after a 66 over the Old Course to collect his fourth title of the season.

It followed the German's second-placed finish in 2008 -- a year after coming in tied for 15th -- and he goes again to St. Andrews, hosting the event along with Kingsbarns and Carnoustie, hoping to keep up his successful record in the $5 million event.

"You play on three wonderful golf courses, so it's probably the best week of the year on the European Tour,” said Kaymer. "It was my last win last year, so to finish off the season by winning at St Andrews was kind of like a fairytale. It was beautiful.

"So I'm really looking forward to the week. Very rarely do you go to a golf tournament this excited about playing a golf course” he added. “I feel ready -- it's definitely going to be a nice week. This feels like home for me. When I was standing today on the first tee, it just felt so peaceful.

"A lot of the players say that Augusta is paradise, but for me St. Andrews is paradise,” he said. “It is the Home of Golf, it's where I feel the most comfortable."

Kaymer pinpoints Carnoustie as the most difficult of the courses they will encounter.

"I think Carnoustie is definitely the toughest of the three golf courses. You can score well at Kingsbarns and St Andrews if the weather is okay,” he said. "But at Carnoustie, if you shoot level par there on a good day that's still a good score, so it's the toughest of the three courses, for sure."

However, he revealed he had not always been fond of links golf.

"When I was an amateur I came here twice, once for the Amateur Championship and again for the British Boys, and I didn't really like links golf at all -- I found it quite unfair,” he explained. "But then when I came back and played more often in Scotland and Britain, I became a lover of these golf courses."

Kaymer will be joined at the Pro-Am event by his father, Horst, and his elder brother, Philip, who will fill the roles of playing partner and caddie respectively.