Trevor Immelman

Trevor John Immelman (born 16 December 1979) is a South African professional golfer and winner of the 2008 Masters Tournament.

Biography

Immelman was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Born into a golfing family (his father, Johan, is the former commissioner of the Sunshine Tour in South Africa), he took up golf at the age of five. He attended Hottentots Holland High School. He won the U.S. Amateur Public Links in 1998.

Immelman turned professional in 1999. In 2000 he played mainly on the second tier professional tour in Europe, the Challenge Tour, and finished tenth on the Order of Merit. He became a full member of the European Tour in 2001 and has made the top twenty of the Order of Merit three times. He has four wins on the European Tour, and in 2004 became the first man to successfully defend the South African Open title since Gary Player in the 1970s.

In 2003 Immelman won the WGC-World Cup for South Africa in partnership with Rory Sabbatini. In 2005 he was a member of the losing International Team at the Presidents Cup. He has been playing with increasing frequency on the PGA Tour after receiving a 2 year PGA Tour exemption for 2006 and 2007 on account of this Presidents Cup appearance. In 2006 Immelman won his first PGA Tour event at the Cialis Western Open, a result that moved him into the top 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings. He won the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit in 2002/03.

Trevor married his childhood sweetheart, Carmenita, on December 6, 2003. He withdrew from the 2006 Open Championship to be with her for the birth of their first child. He finished 2006 in the top 10 of the PGA Tour money list and was named Rookie of the Year. In September 2007, Trevor Immelman was picked by Gary Player to participate in the 7th Presidents Cup held at the Royal Montreal Golf Club, Canada. The International team lost 14.5 to the US team's 19.5. [cite web|url=http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/presidentscup/|title=www.pgatour.com/tournaments/presidentscup/ ]

On December 13, 2007 Immelman withdrew from the South African Airways Open due to severe discomfort around his ribcage area and a problem breathing. He went into surgery the following Tuesday, December 18, 2007, and doctors discovered a lesion approximately the size of a golf ball on his diaphragm. (Immelman remarked in an interview on the obvious irony of the size of the lesion) [cite web|url=http://www.pgatour.com/2007/r/players/12/18/immelman.surgery/index.html|title=PGATOUR.COM - Immelman undergoes surgery to remove growth on his diaphragm ] . It was diagnosed as a calcified fibrosis tumor. After more tests they discovered that it was benign. Nevertheless, treatment and recovery caused him to miss the first eight weeks of the 2008 PGA Tour season. However, Immelman came back to win the 2008 Masters Tournament. Despite scoring a double bogey on the 70th hole, the par 3 16th, Immelman finished with a score of 8 under par, beating favorite Tiger Woods [cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/sports/golf/14masters.html?ref=golf|title=NY Times - Immelman Survives Pressure to Win Masters] by three strokes.

Professional wins (10)

PGA Tour wins (2)

*2006 Cialis Western Open
*2008 Masters Tournament

European Tour wins (4)

*2003 South African Open
*2004 South African Open, Deutsche Bank - SAP Open TPC of Europe
*2008 Masters Tournament (also counts as European Tour win)

Challenge Tour wins (1)

*2000 Tusker Kenya Open

unshine Tour wins (3)

*2000 Vodacom Players Championship
*2003 Dimension Data Pro-Am
*2007 Nedbank Golf Challenge

Other wins (1)

*2003 WGC-World Cup (team event, with Rory Sabbatini)

Major championship is shown in bold.

Major Championships

Wins (1)

Results timeline

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Team appearances

Amateur

*Eisenhower Trophy (representing South Africa): 1998

Professional

*World Cup (representing South Africa): 2003 (winners), 2004, 2007
*Presidents Cup (International Team): 2005, 2007

References

External links

* [http://www.europeantour.com/publish.sps?pageid=127&pagegid=%7B20E6AA6B%2D0225%2D4C71%2DBD89%2D2ACBEE615D69%7D&playerId=1937 Profile on the European Tour's official site]
* [http://www.pgatour.com/players/02/23/78 Profile on the PGA Tour's official site]
* [http://www.sunshinetour.info/profiles/IMM001.htm Profile on the Suine Tour's official site]

Persondata
NAME = Immelman, Trevor John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Golfer
DATE OF BIRTH = December 16, 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH = Cape Town, South Africa
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =