Musings: Immelman wins on golf's grandest stage

Trevor Immelman proved his mettle at golf’s grandest cathedral, even if he had to share the spotlight with a 72-year-old who failed to make the cut and finished dead last.

Only at the Masters.

Sunday at Augusta might have lacked the down-the-stretch drama of past years, but the 2008 edition of the Masters gave us storylines and symmetry that once again proved the unique aura of this event.

South African golf took center stage, as Gary Player, appearing in his record-setting 51st Masters, helped to anoint his fellow countryman as the game’s newest superstar. Immelman, only months removed from a serious cancer scare, stared down the course, the conditions and his fellow competitors to win the green jacket by three strokes over pre-tournament favorite Tiger Woods, and he did so partly on the strength of some helpful advice from his boyhood idol.

On the eve of the defining day of his golf career, Immelman checked his voice mail, only to hear the familiar voice of the legend who had once personified international golf and was the owner of three green jackets of his own. By conveying to Immelman that he believed in him, Player helped Immelman believe in himself.

“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 afterwards, adding that Player also advised him to look at the ball with his head still “one second longer” on his putts. “You know, I took that all to heart, and I'm obviously thankful for the message, and I'm sure he’s proud of me.”

On a blustery day that saw the storied layout get the better of the game’s best, a final round that could have taken a thousand different directions ended up as a coronation of sorts for Immelman, who had built enough of a lead that a few back-nine hiccups were minor interruptions on his march to history. “It was so tough,” he said afterwards in Butler Cabin. “I was just trying to be tough.” More than tough enough, as it turned out.

Player’s enthusiastic endorsement of Immelman was a persistent theme throughout the weekend’s broadcast. His comparison of Immelman to Ben Hogan was proved accurate time and again as Immelman shaped shot after shot through the narrow alleys carved out of the Georgia pines.

In surviving a weekend that took an emotional toll on all the competitors, Immelman also ended Tiger Woods’ self-proclaimed run at a Grand Slam before it even started. In a testament to Woods’ greatness, he mustered a 5-under score to finish second despite missing seemingly every key putt over the four days.

As Player continues his transition from competitor to ceremonial ambassador for golf, it’s appropriate that Immelman is there to honor the Player legacy with his own game. After all, it was Player who convinced Immelman just how good he could be. “I think (Player) realized that even at a young age, that I had so much passion for the game,” Immelman said. “And he kept in touch with me and ... kept writing me notes and he kept answering my calls and my letters to him and he was always there for support and advice.

“After I turned pro, he was there for a kick in the butt what I wasn't playing well or when he saw something that he didn't like that I was doing. And so he's been kind of like another type of a father for me. To have somebody with that much experience on your side, giving you advice is just incredible. I'm very thankful.”

Taking Tiger to Task

Is it just me, or does Tiger benefit from the “what if” game more than any other player? Even today, some pundits are attributing Immelman’s win to Woods’ failure to make putts he normally makes. If only Woods had made those birdie putts inside of eight feet that he missed on Sunday, we might have had a different outcome.

Well, you know what? He didn’t. Get over it.

Every player, including Immelman, left shots out there. Every player had putts that grazed the hole or lipped out. That’s golf; that’s the Masters. You think Brandt Snedeker, who scuffled and scrapped his way to a 77, would like to have a few of his short par putts back? You think Immelman might try to hit the fat part of the green at 16 if he had it to do over? You think Steve Flesch, in contention before a back-nine meltdown that started when he deposited his ball in the water at 12, might choose a different club on that hole if given a mulligan?

To me, whining about putts that didn’t go in is loser talk, more befitting Sergio Garcia than the best player ever to tee it up. Whining that a Saturday 68 was “the highest score I could have shot today” is an insult to a golf course and a tournament where 68 is a brilliant score. Throwing a mini-tantrum after every off-line shot denies the simple, undeniable fact that golf is not a game of perfect.

To his credit, Tiger is typically a classy champion and a classy loser, but at moments such as this, he and his media cheerleaders need to get over his occasional failures and tip their caps to the winner.

And while I’m taking potshots at Tiger, here’s some advice: Hold off on the Grand Slam talk at least until you win the first leg.

Unlucky 13

It may be the most beautiful hole in all of golf, but Snedeker will carry some ugly memories of No. 13 with him as he departs Augusta. On Saturday and Sunday, Snedeker hit identical 4-iron approach shots to the green that both found the same section of Rae’s Creek. The two bogeys ultimately cost him second place, but more importantly, the Sunday bogey was a deflating momentum-killer after a brilliant birdie at 12. “I had a 4 iron in that hole and, golly, man, if somebody could tell me how to play that second shot, I'd love to know,” Snedeker said during his emotional post-round press conference. “Two days in a row I've hit it right in the middle of that damn water.”

Snedeker earned his share of fans with his stubborn, scrappy play over the weekend. The 2008 Masters taught him lessons that he’s likely to carry to a green jacket of his own some day soon.

Masters notes

• Immelman’s unbelievable performance on the par-4 holes won him this Masters. Immelman was 10-under par on Augusta’s long, torturous par-4s, the best performance of the last 25 years. Woods’ 8-under performance in 2001 had held the previous mark.

• Fred Couples saw a remarkable streak come to an end this weekend. Couples had made the cut in every Masters in which he had competed — 23 in all, a streak interrupted only when he didn’t play in the event in 1987 and 1994. Couples’ plus-4 finish after two rounds left him a single stroke above the cut line, where he was joined by other notables, including Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald and Charles Howell III. Couples’ 10-foot birdie try on 18 just missed, leaving Freddie to gaze skyward in frustration. “I thought if I could birdie a few holes, it'd be close," Couples said. "I needed one more.” Here’s one more Gary Player reference for you: Couples streak of 23 straight made cuts is tied with Player for the Masters record.

• Immelman was trying to become the first player in Masters history to shoot four rounds in the 60s. Sunday was an unreasonably tough day to try for such an achievement; of the 45 players in the field, only two — Miguel Angel Jiminez (68) and Heath Slocum (69) — were able to break 70. On the day, the field’s cumulative scoring average was 74.7. Immelman becomes the first Masters champion to shoot over par in the final round since Craig Stadler in 1982.

• CBS’s coverage of the event was generally solid, as usual, with a couple of notable exceptions. As Immelman made his way around the back nine, David Feherty informed us that 15 was the last hole that held disaster potential due to the presence of water guarding the green. The pond at 16 wasn’t a factor, he asserted. Immelman made a liar of him moments later, depositing his tee shot at 16 into that very pond. In calling that shot, Verne Lundquist apparently thought that the ball had landed in the front left bunker and took an agonizingly long time to correct the mistake. Feherty did give us the one of the best announcing moments of the weekend, exclaiming, “Oh, God!” as Immelman’s ball tumbled down the bank toward the pond at 15 on Saturday. When that ball clung to the bank, allowing Immelman to save par, we had a classic Masters moment comparable to Couples’ ball hanging by a blade of grass on the bank at 12 in 1992. The CBS team was also able to produce a classic photo of a young Immelman in the arms of his idol Gary Player.

• Immelman’s 75 tied for the highest final-round score by a winner in Masters history. Here’s the top five in that category (courtesy of PGATour.com). It’s some pretty fine company.

Year	Winner	Final Round	Winning Margin
2008	Trevor Immelman	75	3 strokes
1962	Arnold Palmer	75	Won in playoff
1972	Jack Nicklaus	74	3 strokes
1961	Gary Player	74	1 stroke
1946	Herman Keiser	74	1 stroke

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