Rory McIlroy surprised people when he told the world at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational that he would be taking up PGA Tour membership again next season. The U.S. Open champion had the option after winning in Charlotte last year, and has said he will move to Florida while he competes predominantly in the United States, where the venues tend to support his style of play.
Martin Kaymer made the same call as McIlroy at the end of last season to decline membership for this season, but is uncertain what he’ll do for 2012.
Kaymer is in the field at the Omega European Masters and was asked about the possibility of coming to America in ’12. At best, Kaymer would plan to split time between the European and PGA tours.
“I do not know if I will play on the PGA Tour next year but I will definitely be playing on the European Tour,” Kaymer said Wednesday.
Kaymer’s best finish in the PGA Tour-sanctioned event this season is a loss to Luke Donald in the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play. He missed the cut at both the Masters and PGA Championship.
Kaymer’s agent Johan Elliott told the Daily Mail last November, “Martin is almost certain to follow Lee and not take out U.S. Tour membership next year. He feels that joining the U.S. Tour would be too much work and give him no freedom in his schedule. The problem is the U.S. Tour is just too rigid.”
The German world No. 6 echoed those same sentiments in Switzerland ahead of the Omega European Masters. Kaymer wants longer breaks between stints on tour, which would be more difficult to do as a PGA Tour member.
“I think I will play more tournaments next year and have longer breaks to really get away from golf and get back into it again. This year I probably had a week’s off and played about two weeks. You don’t really calm down. You need some proper time to rest,” he said.