Immelman lifts his game in US
8 June 2006
While the South African big guns, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els, were only too happy to see the back of Muirfield Village last week, Trevor Immelman almost casually took his top-10 finishes to four in as many starts.
In contrast to the world number three and number six, the world number 25 tied for seventh in yet another solid showing this season at the PGA Tour's Memorial Tournament.
It's bewildering, the massive turn this young player's career has taken in the last 12 months.
Two-year exemption
Last season, Immelman received a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour as the one of the captain's picks for the 2005 Presidents Cup.
It turns out he didn't even need it.
The former double SA Open champion earned $614 867 in 2006 and
became a special temporary member. But that money list did not reflect his earnings from two World Golf Championships ($112 000), which gave him more than enough to be the equivalent of the top 125 and get his card for 2006.
First came his runner-up placings at the Wachovia Championship and EDS Byron Nelson Championship in consecutive weeks. Add to that his top-10 finish on the weekend and the irrepressible 26-year-old from Somerset West is assured of keeping his PGA Tour card for 2007.
The world is taking notice
At sixteenth on the money list, with earnings nearing the $2-million mark, there is no doubt that the world is taking notice of Trevor Immelman.
"They were two great weeks," Immelman said after the EDS Byron Nelson. "I think I'm playing the best golf my career so far. I've got to just keep plugging away and doing what I'm doing and eliminate a few of those errors, and hopefully pick up a couple of trophies along the
way."
From a young age it was predicted that Immelman would one day become a household name, emulating Gary Player, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.
Back then, and today still, no one places bigger demands on him than the kid himself.
Played off scratch at 12
He took up golf at age five and played off scratch by the time he turned 12. In 1996, the 17-year-old Immelman was selected to represent South Africa at the Eisenhower Trophy in Chile. A year later he was honoured as the first foreigner to be selected to the first-team AJGA All-American, without even living in country.
Having lost in three Amateur championship finals in 1997 - the British Amateur at Royal St George's, the New Zealand Amateur and the US Junior, Immelman finally broke through in a big way by winning the 1998 USGA Public Links to book his berth into the 1998 Masters.
That same year he won the South African Amateur Strokeplay and became the first amateur to
win all the SA Amateur titles, including Junior SA Matchplay and Strokeplay titles, as well as the South African Amateur Matchplay Championship.
Made Masters cut as an amateur
It was more or less 1999, after he hit the headlines when he made the cut as an amateur at The Masters, that Immelman pushed it into third gear.
He claimed his first two professional titles in his first season as a pro, winning the 2002 Vodacom Players Championship on the Sunshine Tour and the Tusker Kenya Open on the European Challenge Tour. He also recorded three runner-up finishes on the European Tour in the French Open, Volvo Scandinavian Masters and Omega European Masters.
Back on home soil in 2003, he won the national Open, a title he defended successfully in 2004 to join Gary Player, who accomplished the same feat in 1976-77.
World Cup win
Add to that a win at the 2003 World Cup at The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island
Resort on Kiawah Island and a fourth place at the Real Club de Golf de Sevilla in Spain with team mate, Rory Sabbatini.
He earned his fourth international title when he came from two strokes behind after three rounds to win by three strokes over Scotland's Alastair Forsyth and England's Steve Webster at 2004 Deutsche Bank-SAP Open TPC of Europe.
In 2005, Immelman took his third trip to the World Cup, this time alongside Tim Clark. The pair got off to a shaky start, but vaulted through the field over the next two rounds at the Victoria Clube de Golfe course in Portugal to tie for twelfth.
Into the majors
Aided by a third round seven-under-par 65 that tied Tiger Woods for the lowest round of the day, Immelman claimed his first top-10 career major championship with a tie for fifth at the 2005 Masters. He also became only the eighteenth player to record a hole-in-one in Masters history, his coming at the 16th hole with a 6-iron from 179
yards.
He went on to tie for 15th at The Open and 17th at the PGA Championship that same year, prompting his selection to the 2005 Presidents Cup.
After a mediocre start to the 2006 season, in which he battled a slight back injury, Immelman was devastated at missing the cut in this year's Masters.
Fourth gear
But that's probably what prompted fourth gear.
Two runners-up finishes and his tie for seventh at the Memorial, with a tie for sixth at the European Tour's BMW Championship, proves that he has hit form that travels well and will go the mile.
And, ahead of the US Open at Winged Foot, which starts on 15 June, this watershed season bodes well for the expectant father.
Source: Sunshine Tour
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