In golf, Maximilian Kieffer said in an interview a few years ago, a professional career is not a sprint but a marathon. On Sunday, the 32-year-old from Düsseldorf finally reached the finish line on his long endurance run on the DP World Tour.
In his 249th participation in one of the tournaments of the former European Tour and his tenth season on the second most important series in golf, the Rhinelander achieved his first win at the Czech Masters, which was shortened to 54 holes on Saturday due to constant rain.
“I don’t know how I feel, I think it will take a few days,” he said immediately after the triumph. “I love golf, I just love playing golf. Even if I hadn’t won, I still had a great life. Winning now is even better.”
Victory was overdue
With this success, which earned him 297,500 euros in prize money, “Kiwi”, as he was nicknamed, not only ended his own long dry spell. Since Marcel Siem from Ratingen won the BMW Masters in Shanghai in November 2014, no German professional has managed to win in the first European league. The fact that Kieffer made it in the Czech Republic on Sunday was actually long overdue. Kieffer had already had to settle for second place four times. He had failed twice in the long jump-off.
Immediately after gaining promotion to the European Tour with a win in India on the 2013 Challenge Tour, he was in a play-off at the Spanish Open in Valencia. The German “rookie” only had to admit defeat to Frenchman Raphaël Jacquelin on the ninth extra hole, the longest play-off in the fifty-year history of this tournament series to date. At the Austrian Open in April last year near Vienna, Kieffer only failed in extra time. He lost to American John Catlin on the fifth extra hole.
Corona and a broken bone
Kieffer was spared this nerve test on Sunday. He started the final round at the Albatross Resort near Prague in fifth place, four strokes behind Malaysia’s Gavin Green. With a total of 66 strokes, he caught up with Green on Sunday and won by one stroke ahead of the Asian. This time the German had the necessary bit of luck. Because Green didn’t manage to sink his ball from almost two meters at the very last hole.
The ball “lipped out”, as it is called in golf jargon, turning a lap of honor around the edge of the hole. When victory was certain, Kieffer was showered with a portion of sparkling wine by his Swabian colleague Marcel Schneider, who finished sixth. “I already felt good when I hit the ground in the morning,” reported Kieffer.
“Things haven’t been going well for me in the last few weeks.” First he was out for six weeks in April because of a broken tibial plateau, then for a further week because of a Covid 19 disease. “But now I’m on the right track.”
From the beginning of his career, after excellent results as a youth and as an amateur, Kieffer set himself the goal of being in the top fifty in the world rankings. Even without a win, he was the only German to be able to secure his right to play on the European Tour year after year alongside Martin Kaymer.
“I’m proud of that,” Kieffer said. But after the first win, he now has his eye on the ranking again. But the change in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) means that he is still a long way from the top of the world: “A few weeks ago, if I had won 279, I would have moved up to rank 140, so it’s only 214,” said Kieffer .
After a two-week break, he tackles his next project. At the end of the season he wants to be among the top 30 in the Race to Dubai who are allowed to take part in the British Open next year. With the victory he jumped 65 places to 32nd place in this race. But in order to move up to the top of the OWGR he has to go to America. He also sees an opportunity there: “For the top ten of the season ranking, there is now an entitlement to play on the PGA Tour.”
