Trevor Immelman’s Masters Tournament victory was the highlight of a glorious week for European Tour Members in the first Major Championship of the 2008 season.
Led by Immelman’s outstanding performance – that saw the 28 year old claim the title by three shots from World Number One Tiger Woods – ten of the top 19 players on the final leaderboard at Augusta National carried European Tour Membership.
Leading the way behind the South African were reigning Open Champion Padraig Harrington, who finished in a tie for fifth, while strong final round performances from Miguel Angel Jiménez and Robert Karlsson elevated the Spaniard and the Swede respectively into joint eighth place alongside Argentina’s Andres Romero.
English duo Paul Casey and Lee Westwood joined American Nick Watney in a share of 11th while 2000 Champion Vijay Singh of Fiji (T14) along with South Africa’s Retief Goosen and Henrik Stenson of Sweden (tied 17th) completed the Roll of Honour in the upper echelons of the final leaderboard.
Immelman may have been born and bred in South Africa, but his rise to be only the second man from his country (after his mentor and role model Gary Player) to be fitted for a Green Jacket, owes much to an education that was honed on The European Tour and the Challenge Tour.
After turning professional in 1999 Immelman made a trip to The European Tour Qualifying School and secured his playing privileges for the 2000 Challenge Tour, where he won the first event he played – the Tusker Kenya Open.
A tenth place finish on the Challenge Tour Rankings that year secured the South African’s place on The European Tour and he never looked back, quickly cementing his reputation as one of the game’s potential superstars with thrilling performances around the world.
His breakthrough European Tour victory, at his National Open Championship – the South African Airways Open – came in 2003, and he successfully defended that title the following season before adding the 2004 Deutsche Bank – SAP Open TPC of Europe to his CV.
Immelman was now a well established force in the world of golf, but could he take the next step and join Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Bobby Locke and Gary Player on South Africa’s roll of Major Champions?
He answered that question with an emphatic ‘yes’ at Augusta National joining Seve Ballesteros (1980 and 1983), Bernhard Langer (1985 and 1993), Sandy Lyle (1988), Nick Faldo (1989, 1990 and 1996), Ian Woosnam (1991), José Maria Olazábal (1994 and 1999) and Vijay Singh (2000), as European Tour Members to be fitted for a Green Jacket.
