Kaymer Named European Tour's Rookie of the Year

Martin Kaymer has been named the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year on the European Tour. The 22-year-old 2007 from Dusseldorf is the first-ever German to win the award.

Kaymer follows Scotland's Marc Warren, who won the award in 2006 as the European golfer judged to have the best first year as a member of the European Tour. Kaymer was chosen by a panel comprised of European Tour officials, the R&A and the Association of Golf Writers. In 2007, he recorded four top-10 finishes en route to qualifying for the last week's Volvo Masters.

At Valderrama last week, Kaymer added another top-10 finish, shooting the low round of the week - a 5-under 66 in the third round, to take sixth place. He earned 754,691 Euros for the season and finished 41st in the Order of Merit.

Kaymer qualified for the European Tour after finishing fourth in the Challenge Tour Rankings in 2006. He won his Challenge Tour debut at the Vodafone Challenge in Germany.

Others considered for the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award were Spain's Alvaro Quiros, who won the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa before missing most of the 2007 season due to injury, and Sweden's Alexander Noren.

No German has won the award since its inception in 1960. "To be the first winner from my country is a very special honor," Kaymer said. "When I look at the list of previous winners - people like Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle and Colin Montgomerie - that makes it even more spectacular. There were a lot of good players on Tour who could have won - Alvaro Quiros and Alexander Noren for example - and I think it was a battle between us all through the year. At the beginning of the season I didn't really feel comfortable on the European Tour because I didn't know anyone and there were just a few Germans who I played with in practice.

"But now I know a lot of people," he added. "I've played with different players every week and it is a lot of fun. Growing up I admired Bernhard Langer and Ernie Els. They were my role models and it was a special honor for me to play with Ernie in Munich recently. That was really cool."