Martin Kaymer is relishing being back at one of his favourite golf courses in the world for this week's Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters and hopes to fulfil a long held dream of tasting victory there.
German Kaymer teed it up at his first regular European Tour event since March at last week's ISPS HANDA UK Championship and narrowly missed out on the play-off, finishing one shot behind Justin Walters and eventual champion Rasmus Højgaard.
The 35-year-old is in action once again this week as the European Tour heads to Real Club Valderrama, where Kaymer finished in a tie for second at the 2008 Volvo Masters.
He admitted that he has always wanted to win at Valderrama and does not turn down the opportunity to play at the "special" venue.
"Valderrama is probably one of my top three golf courses around the world," said Kaymer. "If it wasn’t taking place at Valderrama this week I probably would not have come to Spain.
“For me it’s a very special place.
"I’ve always wanted to win here some day, and every time I have the opportunity to come here and play and compete, I take it."
Kaymer found himself in a strong position to claim his first victory since 2014 at The Belfry on Sunday last week, as he led with five holes of his final round remaining.
But he dropped his only shot of the day on the 17th and was unable to hole his tricky birdie putt at the 18th to join Højgaard and Walters in the play-off.
Despite the disappointment of missing out on the chance to return to the winner's circle, Kaymer was able to take the positives from his performance.
He said: "I didn’t take the opportunity that was presented to me so I was disappointed by that, but I need to see the positives from what happened last week.
“On one hand I was happy with the way I played golf over the four days, but as an athlete no-one really cares where you finish if you don’t win. I don’t come to these events to finish third.
“Obviously it was nice to be in a position again to win a golf tournament, it has been a while for me. Especially after that four month break, it has been good to start off well right away.
“But obviously there’s a disappointment in my play on the 17th hole. I was not expecting that from myself because once I made that (par) putt on 16 I thought I have a chance now to put myself one up going to the 18th and the opposite happened.”
