Dubai Renowned desert-specialist Martin Kaymer is busy practising putting in his hotel room ahead of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in order get over the disappointment of an unusually poor start to the Gulf Swing, spurred by faults in his short game.

The German 27-year-old had won in Abu Dhabi three-times in the last four years and was highly tipped to become a triple consecutive winner a fortnight ago until he surprisingly missed the cut at six over par, claiming at the time to have "putted like Stevie Wonder".

At the Qatar Masters last week, Kaymer restored some pride finishing tied for ninth at seven under par in difficult conditions, but the 2010 Race to Dubai winner insists he's still wide of the mark.

Kaymer said: "Playing wise I've definitely improved but I still need to work more on my putting. I hadn't done enough in the weeks leading up to Abu Dhabi.

"I really struggled in Abu Dhabi and last week [in Qatar] it was tough with the wind. It's tough to practice when it's that windy so I was practicing a little in my hotel room, because I really want to win again, and the only thing that is distracting me is my putting."

Asked what the greens were like in his hotel room, Kaymer joked: "like carpet, very nice.

"It doesn't matter if you hit the ball close to the pin if you can't make the putt. So I will definitely keep working on it. But compare it to Abu Dhabi, I mean I putted better in Qatar, so I feel a little bit better, but I'm still not where I want to be.

"With putting you have to wait. It's not good if you try to steer the ball in the hole. You have to let it happen. You have to wait for it, but after a while I got a little bit impatient and that's never good when you need to make birdies - maybe I expected a little too much.

"We can all hit the ball, but sometimes you aim a little too far right or a little left or shoulders are a little closed or open, so you just have to go back to basics, and that is exactly the thing I tried to do with my putting at the moment to go back to the fundamentals, to be square in the alignments.

"I think at the moment I feel comfortable. It's just a matter of time that I will score very good scores again. So I just need to wait."