Masters Report: Serious Business

Trevor Immelman wins a brutally difficult Masters, and the grumbling builds that the fun has disappeared from Augusta National

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By John Hawkins
Photo By J.D. Cuban April 18, 2008

The world's greatest golf tournament IS no longer the world's greatest golf tournament, not in the context of how we once knew it, anyway. Gone are the Sunday afternoon fireworks, the four-hole birdie runs, the leader boards that changed faster than the arrival/departure screens at Grand Central Station. Power is now passé; control rules the day. Love it or lament it, the azalea patch has grown fangs and chest hair, altering the competitive disposition of the Masters to a degree many would find easier to abhor than ignore.

To find an ounce of fault in Trevor Immelman as its latest champion, however, would qualify as grasping at straws to validate the cause. From the spooky fog of Thursday morning through the blustery chill of Sunday night, no player proved more consistent in dealing with Augusta National's treachery. No one made a better case for himself statistically: Immelman ranked fourth in the field in driving distance and hit more fairways than anybody. Just one man hit more greens in regulation. Only three guys needed fewer putts.

And so he is quite worthy, a post-Tiger Woods prodigy whose development, just as several others in their late 20s, often required a pair of rose-colored glasses. If Australia produced Adam Scott, if Spain brought us Sergio Garcia, if the United States had Charles Howell III, South Africa pinned its superstar tag on Immelman, and the four remained majorless much longer than many would have suspected.

"Trevor is a player who has had to realize his own potential," said Irishman Padraig Harrington, the reigning British Open champ. "There's no questioning his [ability], but he has had to overcome the pressure of everything that has been said about him -- being the next Gary Player and all that."

The next Player? Immelman arrived here with two notable career victories in his pocket: the 2004 Deutsche Bank SAP Open, where he defeated Harrington by a stroke in a premium-field European Tour event; and the 2006 Western Open, where he holed a long putt on the final green to beat Woods by two. Immelman's five other professional wins all came in his homeland. After a big '06 in the U.S., he earned less than half as much money last season and fell from eight top-10 finishes to four.

Wayward drives on 18 put Woods in tough spots, such as the one that forced him to play down No. 10 Friday. Photo: Dom Furore

What made this Masters champ such an improbable one was the tumor removed from Immelman's diaphragm less than four months ago. "A very serious operation," said Nike Golf president Bob Wood, whose division has sponsored Immelman since he turned pro in 1999. It took two days for doctors to declare the tumor benign and about six weeks for Immelman to regain his form, but nothing he did between mid-February and early April would have led you to believe he had any chance of winning the year's first major championship.

About four dozen men have won a green jacket. Try finding another carrying evidence of a seven-inch incision across his lower back. "This has been the ultimate roller-coaster ride, and I hate roller coasters," Immelman cracked. "One week, I'm winning a golf tournament [the '07 Nedbank Challenge], and the next, I'm lying in a hospital bed. You just realize that it can all be taken away so fast."

Yes, it can, as those who spent the entire week chasing Better-than-Ever Trevor might attest. Although Immelman opened with a pair of 68s, shared the lead with Justin Rose after 18 holes and had it to himself after each of the final three rounds, a tight cast of contenders emerged early and stayed late. The role of Loch Ness Monster was played by Woods, whose ballyhooed pursuit of the Grand Slam succumbed to a neurotic putter and a start-to-finish inability to capitalize on Augusta National's par 5s.