Red-hot Martin Kaymer marches into early lead at Abu Dhabi Golf Championship

Martin Kaymer tees off on the 17th at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, a tournament he has won a record three times. David Cannon / Getty Images

So the National Course has been Martin Kaymer-proofed? As if.

It has taken the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship’s most successful player one whole round of competitive golf to work out the new lay-out. Now he has it mastered already.

The German holds the lead after shooting an 8-under par 64 on the opening afternoon. So much for the basic course alterations that were supposed to give everyone else a chance.

It has been four years since he won the last of his three titles here. On this form, he will not have to wait much longer to regain the Falcon Trophy.

“For me, it is tough to say I like to see them [the changes] if you have been so successful on the golf course,” Kaymer said.

“It worked out well today, so let’s see how it is out there the next few days.”

In the short off season hiatus before the start of this tournament, the 30 year old took a break from golf and went skiing instead.

“I don’t want to stay at home, just sleep, watch movies and get fat at Christmas time,” he said.

“It helps get your mind away from golf because it’s so challenging and you need to focus a lot on skiing.

“Otherwise I probably wouldn’t be here, I might be somewhere in the hospital in Italy.”

It may have worked for Kaymer, but a pre-tournament jaunt to the slopes is not a failsafe formula for success in this tournament, though.

Thomas Pieters did similar last year, and bombed. This time around, the unheralded Belgian opted for more orthodox preparation.

His reward was a 65 and second place at the end of the first round, a shot behind Kaymer.

“I didn’t play very well last year because I just came straight from a skiing holiday, so I wasn’t prepared,” Pieters, 22, said of his Abu Dhabi debut, on a sponsor’s invite 12 months ago. “But I was very happy to get the invite.”

There are five players tied in third place, with Branden Grace, Gregory Bourdy, Tyrell Hatton, Mikko Ilonen and Alexander Levy all on 6-under.

Grace did well to keep the pace with his own playing partner, Thorbjorn Olesen, who was three under after the first four holes early in the morning.

“It was weird,” Grace said. “Thorbjorn got out of the blocks birdie, birdie, birdie and Danny [Willett, their playing partner] and myself were thinking, ‘What the hell is going on here?’

“But we managed to get a couple of nice iron shots and hit them close. It was a good start.”

Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE