A Special Exemption Will Keep Martin Kaymer on the PGA TOUR in 2019

There has been a trend of rising and falling stars on the PGA TOUR with Tiger Woods as the latest example to fall and climb back to the promised land of victory. Now, Martin Kaymer looks to follow in the footsteps of Woods.

Many of you will remember Kaymer as he was the PGA Championship winner back in 2010 and followed that up with a win at the U.S. Open in 2014. Kaymer was also lucky enough to hold the number one spot in the world golf rankings for a few weeks in 2011. Since then, however, it has been a long, slow slide down the rankings for Kaymer.

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For the German-born 33-year old, the decline hasn’t been because of a lack of talent but rather from injuries.

His win at the U.S. Open guaranteed him a five-year exemption on the PGA TOUR but he lost his card in 2016 after participating in only 13 events. While he regained that card again, he was in danger of losing it for the 2019 season, again due to injury. But he has been granted a special exemption for the new season and looks to take advantage.

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Kaymer has dealt with a bunch of back and wrist injuries since he peaked in the early to mid-2010s and that is seemingly the reason he was granted this exemption.

“I got a special exemption because I was injured for quite some time,” Kaymer said at the Turkish Airlines Open. “With the way the two schedules are working out, I’m very, very glad the commissioner gave me that exemption.”

The two schedules that Kaymer is referring to are those of the PGA TOUR and European Tour. Kaymer competes on both and is excited about how the schedules shape up for 2019. He hopes to play in all PGA TOUR events up until the U.S. Open, then jumps across the pond to play in the European Tour’s Rolex Series as a lead into the British Open, now the final major of the year. That way he can limit travel and maximize his status.

Hopefully, for Kaymer, the scheduling plan works out as well because 2019 is the year that his U.S. Open exemption runs out. If he hopes to stay in the big leagues for 2020 and beyond, he’s going to have to stay healthy and compete to stay alive in an ever growing, competitive field.

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