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AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He was the typical little brother.
You know, a pain in the butt. Asked a lot of questions, occasionally got in the way and tugged on a lot of shirttails.
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| 'I'm living proof that if you work hard and believe in yourself, you can make it happen,' Trevor Immelman says. (Getty Images) |
Growing up in South Africa, newly minted Masters champion Trevor Immelman always wanted to be a professional golfer, starting at age 5, when he began becoming a minor nuisance to big brother, Mark.
Mark, who is nine years older, was playing amateur golf against a couple of guys named Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. No matter, pesky little Trevor, now 28, would not be dissuaded. "He always wanted to hang around with us," Mark Immelman said, laughing. "He was always trying to keep up with the big boys. Lo and behold, he kept up with the big boys."
As far as the Masters goes back home, few are bigger.
Becoming the second South African to win the Masters, and the first since Gary Player in 1978, Immelman succeeded where guys like Goosen and Els had failed, hanging on with a blustery 75 on Sunday night to beat Tiger Woods by three shots in wire-to-wire fashion.
For years, he and brother Mark used to camp in front of the TV with their pillows in West Somerset, watching the action at Augusta National despite their red eyes and a seven-hour time-zone difference.
"Dream big dreams," Immelman said.
They started early. One of the prized possessions of the Immelman clan is a photo of Player as he held Trevor, age 5, aloft. Immelman is grinning from ear to ear, minus a few front teeth.
The grin on Sunday was just as broad, though the tooth count has increased -- sort of like the bite the course was putting in the players' backsides in the final round. His closing total matched the highest final-round score for a winner, last posted by Arnold Palmer in 1962.
"With conditions today, there was disaster around every corner," Immelman said. Amen Corner, especially. The crucial stretch of the tournament came on Nos. 11-13, the fabled stretch where the dreams of boys of every age often go to drown. Immelman was leading by two shots when he missed the green and failed to get his chip shot on the putting surface.
Over the next 120 seconds, the tournament essentially became his to lose. Two groups ahead, Woods missed a four-foot birdie putt on the 13th. On No. 12, Steve Flesch, who was two shots behind, splashed his tee shot into Rae's Creek.
