Kaymer won't join PGA Tour -- yet

Given the recent turnabouts by Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood, would it surprise golf watchers if Martin Kaymer were to be the next European Tour golfer to join the PGA Tour? After all, Kaymer may have scoffed at his mates’ ever-shifting changes of heart about the U.S. tour, but McIlroy and Westwood also previously expressed disinterest in Tim Finchem’s outfit before enlisting.

"I just don't know why Rory and Lee go back and forth and that to me seems a little strange," Kaymer, the 2010 PGA champ, said in a Reuters article that appeared Saturday during the Mission Hill World Cup golf event in China. "One year they are on the PGA Tour and next they're not. But it's their decisions and they can make up their own minds."

Both reigning U.S. Open titleholder McIlroy and world No. 3 Westwood have announced they will rejoin the PGA Tour for next year’s campaign. This, after second-ranked McIlroy see-sawed between joining, not joining, and then joining again, while Westwood just flat out sneered at the concept of re-upping for a PGA Tour of duty -- until he didn’t.

Taking a page from each golfer’s outdated play book, Kaymer said he absolutely would not follow them stateside -- yet.

Martin Kaymer will not follow Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood to the PGA Tour -- yet (Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

"I have no intention of joining Lee and Rory because it means playing just too many tournaments," said Kaymer, who noted that playing 12 European and 15 U.S. events would require "just far too much traveling."

Westwood, who blasted the tour for not voting McIlroy its 2010 rookie of the year, also blamed scheduling problems for not renewing his tour membership after the 2008 season. Kaymer, for his part, said he could play "a good many weeks" in the U.S. with all the invitations he receives from tourney organizers and did not slam the door completely on PGA enrollment.

"Maybe some time in the future if I was to move full time to America, then I might consider playing on the PGA Tour," he said, "but not for a while yet."

Kaymer, a native of Germany and No. 4 in the world, maintains a residence in Scottsdale, Ariz. He and Alex Cejka, representing Germany, were two strokes behind McIlroy and Graeme McDowell (Ireland) heading into Sunday's World Cup finale.