Sporting heroes inspire others to become sporting heroes, as new Masters champion Trevor Immelman testified following his two strokes win over Tiger Woods on Sunday.
As a young boy growing up in Cape Town, Immelman looked up to the legendary Gary Player, and it was the three-times Masters champion who was still inspiring his compatriot as he headed for his date with destiny.
Having missed the cut in his record 51st apearance in the tournament, Player left Augusta for a business trip to the Middle East but not before leaving a voice mail for a player he has known since he was a five-year-old boy.
“It gave me goosebumps because ... he told me that he believed in me and I need to believe in myself,” he said.
“And he told me I’ve got to keep my head a little quieter when I putt. He said I’m just peaking too soon.”
“He told me to just go out there and be strong through adversity, because he said that adversity would come today and I just had to deal with it,” Immelman said.
The South African has dealt with plenty of adversity of late.
It was a minor miracle that he was even playing in the Masters having undergone a major operation just 15 weeks ago to remove a golf-ball sized benign tumour from his diaphragm.
He was hugely relieved when tests showed the growth was non-cancerous, but still had to undergo an operation that involved cutting open his back, probing between his ribs and slicing through a muscle to remove the tumor.
That left him bedridden with a large incision scar and thoughts of glory at Augusta were a million miles away.
“One minute, the week before, I’m winning a golf tournament and the next week I’m lying in a hospital bed, and you just realize that it just can get taken away fo fast,” he said.
On his return to the tour, he failed to make a single cut in the first three strokeplay tournaments he played in, but what he called the “mystique and magic” of the Masters proved to be a powerful and potent therapist.
Immelman was tied for the lead with Justin Rose after the first round, then he led by one from Brandt Snedeker at the halfway stage and doubled that to two over the same player after the third round.
With a cold, swirling wind making pars had to come by, and Tiger Woods in hot pursuit, Immelman stood firm and he had a three-foot birdie putt for a five stroke lead on the seventh.
But with nerves starting to jangle, he missed that and followed with an alarming bogey six at the next.
Another bogey looked to be beckoning after a poor approach shot to the ninth, but he got down in two on the huge green and set off for the 10th and the three holes of Amen Corner with a renewed spring in his step.
He was never seriously threatened again despite a understandably nervy finish.
Golf was always in Immelman’s blood. He began playing the game at age five, following in the footsteps of his golf teaching brother Mark. His father Johan is the commissioner of the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.
He joined the European PGA Tour in 1999 and since then has mainly played in the shadow of South African greats Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, with five major title wins between them.
Now they are three, and it’s the youthful Immelman who has time on his side.
“I’ve always dreamed about winning majors and deep down I always thought I was good enough,” he said.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
The Major League Baseball World Series trophy is headed to Los Angeles, but the party is extending all the way to Japan. People milled around local train stations yesterday morning in Tokyo as newspaper extras were ready to roll off the presses, proclaiming Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as world champions along with their Dodgers teammates after a stirring Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. The 30-year-old is a national hero in Japan whose face adorns billboards and TV adverts all over the country. Ohtani this year became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop
RSS