Golf: Siem a new breed of German golfer

When you are trying to decide which leading golfer to follow during the New Zealand Open at Gulf Harbour in February, tuck away one name in case the size of the gallery makes following the favourites less appealing - Marcel Siem, of Germany.

In the fuss about the leading European golfers who will be playing at the Holden-sponsored event, the 24-year-old Siem has been largely overlooked. Yet he could be one of the European golfers of the future.

In terms of raw talent, he is a man who could one day figure prominently in majors although, as all golfers know, talent alone does not necessarily make a championship golfer.

But Siem is notable because he is a rather different golfer. If one may be permitted a gross over-generalisation, he is also a rather different German.

After decades of Bernhard Langer's success on tour, you tend to think of German golfers as strong, steady, no-frills customers with an unblinking focus, nerveless temperament and a metronomic swing - even if that does overlook Langer's celebrated struggle with the "yipps" and his ownership, for this writer anyway, of one of the most memorable shots in all golf. Langer scaled a tree in one tournament to play his ball out of the fork of a branch and almost onto the green, a shot of amazing dexterity for a supposedly formulaic golfer.

But Siem brings a different dimension and a different generation of German golfer to the fairway. He wears his hair in a ponytail, hardly de rigeur for golf even if Miguel Angel Jimenez is doing strange things with his hair these days.

He has been - and on many occasions, still is - an extremely aggressive golfer with woods and irons of huge length and he takes a Phil Mickelson-like "damn the torpedoes" attitude onto the course. He also sports a volatile temperament and, when things are not going particularly well, the young German can be visibly upset with himself.

He only just makes the world top 150 but it is only when you examine his rising European credentials that you get a hint of the potential of the man.

He broke through this year with his first win on the European tour - last year's Dunhill Championship in Johannesburg - and with six other top-10 finishes. He won nearly €600,000 and finished 39th in the Volvo Order of Merit.

He did so by throttling back his "crash, bang, wallop" tendencies to blaze away at whatever challenge confronts him - and has also taken more of a grip on his emotions.

But he has done so without losing his raw power. He ranks fifth on the European tour for driving distance, clobbering the ball an average of 310 yards off the tee. Only Padraig Harrington of the "name" Europeans regularly out-drives him. Siem slips to 79th in driving accuracy but his skill can also be seen by the fact that he is a regular resident in the top echelons of most of the other tour statistics. He wields a hot putter - he is 17th on putts per round on tour - and is 24th in greens in regulation which, given his lack of accuracy versus distance, spells out his ability to get from tee to green with some flair and flexibility. He is also top 10 in sand saves.

One thing is certain - he will be an entertaining golfer to follow, especially as Gulf Harbour's length will not frighten him.

Another interesting European who is hardly a household name but who might be a golfer in the ascendant is England's 32-year-old Simon Khan. He too broke through for his first win in Europe winning the Celtic Manor Open in Wales after setting a blazing course record of 61. Khan is also beginning to add consistency to his game.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY