The Open 2011: Martin Kaymer stays in the mix by thinking on his feet

Martin Kaymer chips out of the bunker on the 18th on day two of the Open. Photograph: Tim Hales/AP

Given the mental gymnastics he had to perform to stay in touch with the leaders on the second day of the 140th Open, perhaps Gerry "Bubba" Watson would agree with Martin Kaymer when he says Royal St George's provides the most intellectually demanding experience in golf. If so, the 32-year-old left-hander from Bagdad, Florida – who described the Louvre as "that building beginning with L" during the French Open, outraging an entire nation of smarty pants – would be challenging assumptions about his good ol' boy image.

M Gustave Eiffel's architectural wonder, meanwhile, was "that big tower", and the Arc de Triomphe was "this arch I drove round in a circle". It was not Henry Miller's guide to Paris, but Bubba was mortified to learn that all of France, apparently, was on his back.

"I didn't know how to pronounce the names in the right way," he said, with endearing innocence. "That's my bad. They say it was disrespectful and I'm sorry for that. But I'm a golfer not a history major."

Kaymer has no such track record of gaffes. He leans, in fact, towards the cerebral. Before this tournament, Kaymer said the links course and its meteorological baggage were "mentally very tiring. You have to be very creative and you have to think a lot." The US Open and the PGA were more like "regular PGA Tour tournaments", he reckoned.

Kaymer beat Watson in a play-off to win the US PGA at Whistling Straits last year to confirm his arrival in the upper reaches of the game. At the US Open at Congressional, Watson played in camouflage pants, with epaulets on his military green shirt in honour of his ex-Green Beret father, Gerry, who died of cancer last October, and later spoke of his golfing philosophy: "My dad taught me everything I know. It's not very much but that's all I know."

He knows how to hit a golf ball, though, and was on course to make an impression in this tournament yesterday with three birdies on the front nine, before struggling home with a 72 that left him one over for the tournament. His is an instinctive golf, not best suited, perhaps, to a course that asks tough questions at every shot.

Watson and Kaymer, playing in different groups, are four strokes apart after two days but there's a lot of golf left in a tournament that is already battening down the hatches for a stormy finish. They might yet be drawn into another contest of wills and imagination on the final day.

Kaymer passed his examination by a stroke yesterday to go into day three at three under and stay comfortably within striking distance of the leaders after two days of average scoring in relatively benign conditions. He played steady, uncomplicated golf for par on the first six holes, then hit birdie, bogey, and collected another birdie on the 547-yard 14th to come home in 34.

Staying on the fairway is more important here than it might be on the manicured lawns of the United States, and Kaymer hit eight out of 14 he aimed at, one-putting nine greens. Watson out-drove Kaymer by a good 30 yards off the tee but missed eight out of 14 greens to put added pressure on his short game.

On Saturday and Sunday, the questions will be immeasurably tougher in winds of up to 30 miles an hour, with late, heavy showers to add bite to the breeze on Sunday. "If the rain comes and the wind," Kaymer said, "then it's a battle. Then you need to fight but I'm ready for it.

"I had a week off last week. I'm prepared. I have the mental strength. We don't play like this every week, maybe two or three tournaments where you have to go through it. I kind of like it."

The key, he says, is patience and an ability to cope with the occasional and inevitable setback. "You have to wait for a chance, avoid big mistakes. You're not going to shoot a 66 but sometimes if you make three, four bogeys on nine holes, it can be good or it can be OK. It's a different mental approach.

"Maybe I missed a few more greens than [Thursday] but my putter was very strong. I saved a lot of pars, especially 17 and 18 was quite important to keep me there where I am on the leaderboard, so that was nice. But I am striking the ball well."

And intelligently.

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