Kaymer needs to finish in the top two in the Andalucia
Masters on Sunday night but the 25-year-old from Dusseldorf trails leader
Graeme McDowell by 11 shots at the halfway stage and second placed Gareth
Maybin by nine.
A wayward three-over-par 74 by Kaymer left him struggling
just to make the cut by one shot on 146, four-over, while his playing partner
McDowell produced an exhilarating 67 to lie seven-under after Friday's second
round.
McDowell has to make up more than a million euro on Kaymer
on Europe's money-list with just five events to go and the US Open champion
could whittle off a massive chunk of that deficit this week.
His splendid return of four-under-par for the back nine
propelled the Northern Irish Ryder Cup hero not only past his compatriot Maybin
but gave a master-class to watching Kaymer.
Shots like McDowell's stunning approach to just three inches
on the 14th were not in US PGA champion Kaymer's locker.
Kaymer will have to find his range at the Valderrama course
which in 2007 launched his remarkable climb to world number three, if he is to
have any chance of preventing Lee Westwood taking over at the summit from Woods.
A series of missed greens and three bogeys in the last five
holes, which included a missed three-foot putt on the last, was nothing like
the form Kaymer showed when triumphing at Pebble Beach in August.
Westwood, at home resting an injured calf, will become world
number one if Kaymer does not achieve his top-two goal on Sunday.
McDowell had sympathy for Kaymer, telling reporters:
"Martin has not had his best two days, but he is a world-class player and
there are still two rounds to go.
"I am just concentrating on controlling my own game and
I will just keep doing what I'm doing for the next couple of days." Maybin's
68 gives the Ulsterman chance to thwart his friend McDowell, and claim his
maiden European Tour title. He is two strokes better than third-placed Swede
Niclas Fasth (66).
