Trevor Immelman
South Africa
Trevor John Immelman (born 16 December 1979) is a South African professional golfer and winner of the 2008 Masters Tournament.
Personal information
Full name Trevor John Immelman
Born 16 December 1979 (1979-12-16) (age 32)
Cape Town, South Africa
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Weight 170 lb (77 kg; 12 st)
Nationality South Africa
Residence Cape Town, South Africa
Career
Turned professional 1999
Current tour(s) PGA Tour (joined 2006)
European Tour (joined 2001)
Professional wins 10
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour 2
European Tour 4
Sunshine Tour 5
Challenge Tour 1
Best results in Major Championships
(Wins: 1)
Masters Tournament Won: 2008
U.S. Open T21: 2006
The Open Championship T15: 2005
PGA Championship T6: 2007
Achievements and awards
PGA Tour
Rookie of the Year 2006
Sunshine Tour
Order of Merit winner
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 6 December 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.
On 13 December 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). 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 by three strokes.
In June 2009, Immelman announced he would withdraw from the U.S. Open due to tendonitis in his left wrist and elbow.
Immelman has frequently participated in his mentor Gary Player's charity golf events around the world to help raise funds for needy children's causes.
Player profile is based on the information provided by www.en.wikipedia.org