García began playing golf at the age of three and was taught by his father, Victor, who is a club professional. He was a star player as a junior, winning his club championship at age 12. Four years later, he set a record as the youngest player to make the cut at a European Tour event, the 1995 Turespaña Open Mediterranea. This record was broken by amateur Jason Hak in November 2008 at the UBS Hong Kong Open, beating García's record by 107 days. Also in 1995, García became the youngest player to win the European Amateur. He followed that with a win in the Boys Amateur Championship in 1997. He won a professional tournament, the 1997 Catalonian Open, on the European Challenge Tour, as an amateur. In 1998 he won The Amateur Championship, and reached the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur.
At the 2008 PGA Championship, played over the South Course of Oakland Hills Country Club, he narrowly missed out winning his first professional major championship yet again. Like at the 2007 Open Championship, Pádraig Harrington was able to erase a García lead on the back nine to take the title. García would finish two strokes back for his second runner-up finish at the PGA Championship. His most serious mistake during the final round was misjudging his second shot on the 16th, playing into a strong wind, which found the water in front of the par-4 hole's green, costing him sole ownership of the lead. Regarding another near-miss in a major championship, García stated, "I felt like I responded well, and he was obviously very good on the back nine, and things just happened his way."
In January 2010, Kaymer won the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship by one shot over Ian Poulter.
After missing the cut at the Masters, Kaymer performed very well in the 2010 majors. He finished in a tie for eighth at the U.S. Open and then tied for seventh at The Open Championship, after starting the final round in third place.
On 15 August 2010, Kaymer won the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits for his first major championship.[19] Finishing regulation play in a two-way tie at 11 under par, he defeated Bubba Watson in a three-hole playoff.
Kaymer was a member of the winning European Ryder Cup team. He won both four-balls (partnered with Westwood and Poulter), halved his foursome and lost his singles match. A week later he won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews with Danny Willett coming in three strokes behind. He was the first player since Tiger Woods in 2006 to win three successive tournaments in a year and the first European to achieve this since Nick Faldo in 1989. The win took him to a career high of third in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Kaymer and Graeme McDowell shared the European Tour Golfer of the Year award.
Entering the 2011 season, Kaymer turned down a chance to become a full PGA Tour member; he had become eligible with his win in the 2010 PGA Championship. He stated he would concentrate on the European Tour for 2011, but would play several U.S. events as well.
In January 2011, Kaymer claimed his third Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship title in four years and displaced Tiger Woods as number two in the world rankings.
After his runner-up finish at the 2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, Kaymer overtook Lee Westwood as the number one golfer in the world, making him only the second German (after Bernhard Langer) to be the top-ranked golfer in the world. In April, he lost his number one ranking to Westwood who won the Indonesian Masters.
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