LA JOLLA, Calif. -- To say Trevor Immelman's hopes for a grand slam are alive would be accurate, even if his odds are about as favorable as finding sub-$4-a-gallon gas this summer. The Masters champ birdied the par-5 ninth hole to finish six over after 36 holes and squeak into the weekend by a couple of shots.

"The birdie at the last made the day a little bit sweeter," said Immelman, who continued to struggle with the South Course's fickle putting surfaces.

Immelman, who had missed two cuts in three events since his win at Augusta, has to be a little disappointed with his play at Torrey so far, considering his turnaround last week at the Stanford St. Jude, where he rallied down the stretch to join a three-way playoff eventually won by Justin Leonard. That momentum, plus the kind of ball striking and putting that he displayed at the Masters, could have enabled him to join an elite list of players.

Since the introduction of the Masters in 1934, just five players have captured the first two legs of the traditional grand slam: Ben Hogan (1951, 1953), Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972) and Woods (2002).

--Pete McDaniel

Golf Digest's Jaime Diaz has been covering golf since 1984. We asked him for his take on the 72nd Masters.

How could Trevor Immelman win the Masters?
Jaime Diaz: I read where the oddsmakers pre-tournament had Immelman at 60 to 1 to win. I?d say there were probably 25 guys in the field I would have picked before Immelman, mostly because he has never shown the kind of putting touch that is thought to be required at Augusta. Immelman putted solidly this week, but mostly he won by being the best driver and iron player in the field and not missing too many six-footers. It was a virtuoso ball-striking performance by the young man Gary Player says has the closest thing to Ben Hogan?s swing that he has ever seen.

Does this end talk of a Grand Slam in 2008?
Although Immelman won the U.S. Public Links at Torrey Pines and he proved he can win a major at the Masters, Slam talk is dead, and should be. Now, if Immelman wins at Torrey Pines, that?s different.

Zach Johnson and Trevor Immelman have won the past two Masters. Is that good or bad for golf?
Every winner brings their own attractive qualities to golf history, so in my opinion, they are all good for golf. In Johnson?s case, it was inspiring to see a player whose stature and style seemed to make it impossible to win at the new, bulked-up Augusta. Instead, he showed how superb wedge play, clutch putting and poise can be the great equalizer on any course. Immelman?s victory showcases one of the great swings the modern game has ever seen, and unleashes the kind of potential that can make him an important challenger to Tiger. Though a Tiger victory in a major is always good for golf because of the attention it garners and the history it makes, the game also needs the most talented young players  to mentally break through so they are comfortable at the very top rank in the Tiger Era. Immelman is one of those players.

That makes three consecutive Masters that Tiger hasn't won. Why can't he win here anymore?
It?s a facetious question, but the fact is that the new Augusta allows more styles to be competitive than the old Augusta, where power was a bigger advantage. Tiger will remain the prohibitive Masters favorite, but his game will have to be at least at a B-plus level for him to win. This year, his A-minus ball-striking was undermined by C-minus putting and wedge play. The point is, as good as he is, the new Augusta, more than the old one, requires that he play well by his own standard to win.

John Hawkins has been covering the PGA Tour for Golf World and Golf Digest magazines since 1996. We asked him for his take on the 72nd Masters.

How could Trevor Immelman win the Masters?
John Hawkins: Because this tournament has changed dramatically in just the last few years. The Masters has become a control player's golf tournament. There are power tournaments and there are control tournaments, and it's not very often that the character of a tournament shifts as much as this one has. The combination of the length, the rough they've added, the firmness of these greens . . . It's not a power player's course anymore.

Where was Trevor Immelman on your list of potential winners before the week began?
Never crossed my mind. My next-door neighbor was looking for a sleeper pick, but there was absolutely no reason to think Trevor Immelman had a shot here. OK, he tied for fifth here in '05, the year he made the hole-in-one at 16 on Sunday. But Trevor Immelman hadn't done anything lately, and he had never contended in a major.

Does this officially end talk of a Grand Slam in 2008?
It has to. This guy isn't going to win all four. Listen, it was a long shot to begin with. Tiger's bad golf is a lot better than most people's good, and that impresses me more than anything. I still can't believe he finished second here. They tried to give it to him, but he wasn't good enough this week to take it. That happens sometimes.

Zach Johnson and Trevor Immelman have won the past two Masters. Is that good or bad for golf?
I think it's good, overall. It's easy to get caught up in how good a guy plays and how popular he is, but it's good for other guys to win once in a while. Both Zach and Immelman are great people, fairly new fathers, good guys. Trevor Immelman was a great player before today, but he wasn't even in the second tier until now.

That makes three consecutive Masters that Tiger hasn't won. Why can't he win here anymore?
The changes here have actually hurt him. Woods can win anywhere anytime, but he can't win when he putts poorly. He hardly made anything all week. Didn't even hit the hole from four or five feet on 13 today, then he three-putted 14. Don't worry: Tiger is only halfway to his green jacket collection. He'll win four more before he's done.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- When Tiger Woods holed about a 50-foot birdie putt on the 11th hole Sunday, pulling within five of Trevor Immelman, for me it felt a bit like it did a couple of weeks ago when North Carolina, my alma mater, had cut a 28-point deficit to Kansas in the Final Four to four points. There was simply too much ground to make up, and it had been too much of a struggle just to get to that point. Kansas reasserted itself and won going away over the Tar Heels, just as Immelman did over Woods and the rest of the pack at a testy, breezy Augusta National GC.

Other than Woods, nobody in his 20s had won the Masters since Jose Maria Olazabal in 1994. It was time for another young player to claim a green jacket, and Immelman, withstanding a couple of very shaky moments late, was up to the task. Despite a cacophony of Grand Slam talk about Woods, his ultimate golf dream was wilted by four frustrating days, particularly with the putter. Woods putts so well so often that when he looks human on the greens, as he did on several failures inside eight feet Sunday, it's a shock.

It's also golf. Woods' long-term lease on success is so formidable that a bad day can reinforce how much of a thick-steel lock he often is when he is in contention.

Woods' 2008 Grand Slam hopes have been extinguished, but you can bet he will show up at Torrey Pines ready to roll in the U.S. Open. For the moment, all credit should go to Immelman, who has come back from some health issues and was resilient when he had to be. In the mold of his countryman-idol Gary Player, Immelman is a scrapper, perhaps ready to be to Woods what Player was to Jack Nicklaus. Sunday was a giant step on what could be a great journey.

--Bill Fields

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Masters Sunday.

There are no two better words in golf, unless they're Tiger and Woods, Jack and Nicklaus or especially at this place, Arnold and Palmer.

You could see the anticipation already in Jim Nantz's eyes Saturday night, coming out of the CBS tower behind 18 at Augusta National, talking to Brandt Snedeker's caddie, Scott Vail. The way the curtain came down on the third round, with Snedeker and Trevor Immelman staking shots in front of Nantz's perch, raised the anticipation level for what could happen today as these two kids scrap and claw for the jacket, with a cast that includes Tiger, young Englishman Paul Casey and the sweet-swinging lefty, Steve Flesch. As Nantz told Vail, "We could hear you breathing."

It was just a classic interchange of two caddies, Vail and Neal Wallace saying the right things, pulling the right clubs, giving the right vibes a championship caddie must give in that situation--and they delivered, along with their players.

It was 50 degrees this morning walking through the gates at 9:30, and my fingers were starting to numb by the time I reached the press center. I wondered how that would affect the feel of a Snedeker or an Immelman, or a Woods for that matter. The week started hot and humid, has weathered various fronts, a fog bank and still is on time, despite 5 hour and 14 minute rounds. Somehow they always get it in.

Todd Anderson, who works with Snedeker in Sea Island, was saying Saturday night that his player feels so comfortable here, and you can see it in the young man's gait. It's like he's playing a home game. "I think he's at ease," Anderson said, as Snedeker was whisked off to the media center. "He loves this place and the way he has to play it."

Immelman looked a little tight at times, but produced a Gary Player-like shot into the home hole, where a day earlier The Black Knight kissed the green. "The kid sees himself winning and playing great and doing fantastic things in golf," says his sport psychologist, Bob Rotella.

Flesch, the everyman on the board, has defied the notion that this is too big a golf course for him, and Casey just hasn't been able to avoid the little mistakes that major championship winners can't afford. The tree branches are already swaying, and Casey has grown up playing in wind but not this kind of competitive heat.

Which bring us to Tiger, who's still trying to figure out a way, a speed that doesn't burn the left edge, a gear that he hasn't found here since 2005. If he can make a move early, get past No. 1 with a par, pick up a shot at the par-5 second, take out the driver and finally make something happen at No. 3, then it's a ballgame. We all want to see how he's going to handle that tee ball at 18, especially if it means something. Or if we get to see him save par from the 10th fairway again, or from the pine straw, over, yes over, the trees.

"I'm right there," Woods said.

Why should we be surprised? It's Masters Sunday.

--Tim Rosaforte

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Four players, none with a major-championship victory, none ever in contention before at a major, stand between Tiger Woods, his fifth green jacket, his 14th grand-slam title and the first leg of a slam. Can any of them stand up to the pressure?

Trevor Immelman: The 28-year-old South African being compared to Ben Hogan (by the patriarchal countryman Gary Player), showed he had the nerve, and the game, by sticking an approach shot on the 18th hole Saturday for a six-shot lead over Woods. As sport psychologist Bob Rotella told me in a conversation Saturday evening, "His biggest challenge is not to try too hard."

Brandt Snedeker: The lovable, long-haired cat from Nashville, also showed he had the moxie for a major by bouncing back from three consecutive back-nine bogeys with two rebounding birdies, including one at the last, just before Immelman cleaned up. "He told me on 18 tee we were going to make birdie," said caddie Scott Vail. "I was just hoping we got the right yardage." They did, 177 yards to cover, 182 to the pin, a perfect 7-iron with "Sneds" all jacked up on adrenaline.

Steve Flesch: The old man in the group at age 40, also has enough in the guts department, although lack of length may get the better of him in the winds predicted to blow through Augusta National on Sunday afternoon. As he admitted, "It's just not a name everybody expects to see up there on a weekend at a major." But less-accomplished names have won at Augusta, Zach Johnson being one.

Paul Casey: The cheeky 30-year-old Englishman who works with Peter Kostis, is just cocky enough to pull it off. "I enjoyed myself out there," he said. "We had a lot of fun, soaked up the atmosphere, and that's what I'm going to continue to do tomorrow and not worry about anybody else." One more point to consider with Casey: He's a mudder. "I think I have a good
record in bad weather," he said. "I've played in enough of it over the years, playing in Europe."

My gut: If not Woods, it'll be Snedeker, who at 27 could become what Jim Nantz called, "the next great young American player." He's got the best short game, and as instructor Todd Anderson said, "He loves this place and the way you have to play it, using his imagination, that's his game." Plus, he knows Augusta better than some of the clubs' members, having gone around an estimated 40-50 times since winning the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in 2003. That gave the Vanderbilt graduate a hall pass to use the course in preparation for the 2004 Masters, which he took advantage of.

"It was almost like I was a member," he said. "I wore the place out."

Sunday, he could be wearing the green jacket. It'd go well with that retro hair and old-school visor.

--Tim Rosaforte