There was quite a sweet moment as the last few hours of practice were being put in before Abu Dhabi got the European Tour season underway when Trevor Immelman congratulated Lee Westwood on his recent Nedbank win.
You don’t suppose for one second that Westwood would swap all his titles, Ryder Cup heroics and World No. 1 heroics for Immelman’s Green Jacket but it would have saved an awful lot of questions that have come the Englishman’s way in the past 20 years.
For Immelman it is what he will always be known for and why everyone will always relate whatever he’s up to to that week in April 2008. The one-time boy wonder, who remains one of the most friendly and engaging characters in the game, will turn 40 at the end of this year and his career is turning down a different road these days…
What’s the best thing about being a major champion?
The most satisfying thing for me is knowing that your name is in the history books. I have a great appreciation for the history of the game, the traditions, the champions who came before me and will come after me. The fact that my name will be in that list of players that have won the biggest tournaments means a lot to me.
And the worst?
The thing that I grappled with for a while was trying to live up to that. Because I have such a huge appreciation of what it takes to win the biggest events, and for all the guys who have done it and done it over a long period of time, in my own mind, I struggled to live up to that.
When I was a kid, six or seven years old growing up in South Africa, I put people like that on such a pedestal that it was difficult for me to feel that I could live up to that. It’s a double-edged sword, I’m a firm believer that something is great but too much of it and all of a sudden, you’ve got a problem. It’s one of the beauties of life and the journey we are all on trying to figure out our way.
Advertisement
If you were to go back 10 years, what would you do differently?
So many things. One of the biggest mistakes of my career was that when I played well, I didn’t know 100 per cent what I was doing with my technique. Even though I was playing well and hitting the ball the way I wanted, I was trying to take my technique somewhere else instead of understanding why it was working at the time.
I was so hell bent on improving because Tiger was hitting shots that your brain could not even fathom. That’s partly fine but you also have to understand that this is my game, this is how I go about it. What is the low-hanging fruit that I can just continue to get a little bit better?
With me I was trying to move my technique to a place that it didn’t need to go to and, after the wrist surgeries, I just wasn’t quite able to recover. That’s partially because I didn’t actually know what I was doing when I was playing well.
These days players can really knuckle down on what’s going on with the club, ball and how they feel with the swings and understand what they do well and why they can repeat it well. It will be easier for them to find their way back to home base.
Advertisement
When did you begin to consider moving into media work?
It’s very simple… when I started playing awful golf! I love the game so much that there is no way that I’ll just be able to walk away from it, I’ll have to be involved in some way. The combination of being in my mid/late 30s and the passion for the game, I decided that if I wasn’t able to compete, what’s the next best thing to do?
For me, if you can’t compete at the highest level the next best thing was to get into broadcasting and still in some way be a part of the biggest events.
I live in Orlando where the Golf Channel headquarters are and I was very fortunate that a few people there gave me the opportunity to audition and learn the ropes a little bit. It’s just progressed from there and now I’m in my third year of doing some broadcasting and have done pretty much every role that there is.
I get a similar thrill when we are about to go live or on-air to when you’re competing and need to par the last to make the cut or birdie the last to have a chance of winning.
For some reason, it’s that same kind of thrill when I’m doing live TV.
You obviously know what it feels like to be in the player’s situation, does putting that across on TV come easily to you?
In my mind it is second nature, sometimes I struggle to find the right words so that is an area that I need to improve. It’s because you have to think so fast, people may not understand that when you’re on TV doing sports, you have a very short window. You can’t go into a five-minute explanation of what just happened with a shot, you literally have seconds to accurately say what could have happened and what did happen.
Advertisement
If you’re in the tower you’ve also got to give the guy on the ground some time and vice versa. There’s a lot of things in play that the producer must manage in order for the viewers to have a great experience and that is the challenge. I believe that my instinct is correct from the years of playing competitive golf but, in that moment, finding the right words is the challenge.
Many times, I’ll be lying in bed after a broadcast and I will think, oh man, that’s what I should have said! It will come to me and I’ll think, that would have been so much better if I’d have said this.
Is there part of you that’s relieved not to be playing full-time pro golf?
I wouldn’t say that it’s a relief. I’ve worked my butt off since I was a kid, practising and playing. It may sound funny but I sacrificed a lot of personal things to see how good I could get at this game, I’ve given it my all and I’m very comfortable with that.
I was very fortunate to be playing in the Tiger Woods era, I was able to make some money. I could wander off into the sunset without any problem but I’m just one of those guys who needs something to do.
I am analytical and thoughtful, always trying to figure things out and if I was just to be at home all the time, I would drive my wife, kids and myself crazy.
Advertisement
For me to have something there is a good formula for me, that’s why I say relief is maybe not the word. It’s just nice to find another area to focus on.
As athletes, all of us have a window where we are going to be competitive and some guys like Phil Mickelson have this 30 year or even longer window where they can play at the highest level. Some guys only have five or six and you just have to ride that wave.
Interview continues on the next page where Trevor shares his thoughts on The Open and his early days on the Challenge Tour…
When your game is good these days, how close is that to where you were maybe 10-15 years ago?
That’s an interesting one. The problem is it’s so hard to know because you look back at the past with such a fond eye. But the problem is when you’re in that moment you still think there are inadequacies and it’s very hard to accurately judge.
When I look back at my game I’ve always been a very average driver of the ball and very average putter. I think that’s why I’ve struggled a little in the last number of years. When I’ve played my best my iron play was, I believe, one of the best so that was my weapon. The only reason I’m still out here is because every now and again, I have a round or a stretch of holes where I believe, you know, this can get it done.
In order for me to prolong this last phase, I’m going to have find a way to be much more consistent and reliable on the greens.
Advertisement
You must have some hopes to get back to a level where you can play a fuller schedule perhaps?
Yeah, this is something that is quite interesting for an athlete and the hurdles we have to face. Take Andy Murray for example, I’m not as accomplished as he is but I’d put myself in the same category for a standpoint where the mind is still capable but the body is not.
That is mentally a very difficult situation to be in for an athlete because in your mind you still believe in yourself and think you’ve still got the work ethic, but then you go to the well and there’s nothing there. It’s quite mind-blowing.
That is what I experienced on the Sunday at the Scottish Open, I was walking the fairways with the World No. 1 Justin Rose and we’ve known each other since we were tiny and played junior golf together. I was shot-for-shot with him and I was hanging in there, that was the time for whatever reason my skills were matching up to my mental capability.
That is the challenge for me, to match them up more often.
What have you learnt about what to practise at?
You’ve got to weigh up is where the gains are going to be for the amount of time that you invest. What I’ve started to learn is that whilst I thoroughly enjoy practising the long game, the amount of time that I invest doesn’t show up in the tournaments. So, I don’t all of a sudden hit more greens or fairways in a round, the stats stay eerily similar which is very frustrating. For me to stay on tour I’m going to have to make some gains on the greens.
How disappointing was it to miss out on The Open last year?
It was very disappointing, it would have been a lot of fun. I’ve played The Open at Carnoustie before and it’s a golf club that I love and is very difficult and demanding. It was firm and fast which would have suited me and I was playing well at the time.
But, there’s a part of me that wasn’t bothered by it either because I’ve had many opportunities and I loved those opportunities.
When I was a kid, I thought The Open would be the major I’d win because I loved links golf and have always had a fairly low-ball flight. Growing up in Cape Town, it’s renowned for being windy and from a young age I knew how to flight the ball down and pierce it through the breeze. So, that’s my game and that’s why I thought if I was going to win one, it would be The Open.
It would have been worse if I wasn’t at the tournament doing the TV, I enjoyed at least being there as part of it and taking some of it in.
How much would you love to have one more go at it?
I’d love to have one more go at any tournament, I’d love to have one more opportunity to come down the stretch. Every player that you see out here, on the range, on the putting green, that is what we’ve all dreamed of since we were kids and that never goes away.
Different things make different people tick and that’s what’s made us tick our whole lives, having that chance come Sunday.
I would love any opportunity that I get, just like what happened at the Scottish Open.
What is your favourite course on The Open rota?
I had two favourites. The Old Course for obvious reasons, history and traditions, the whole atmosphere around the town. If you know golf, everybody knows every hole it’s kind of like Augusta National, they don’t even have to go there but they can tell you about the 13th and this hole and that hole and what a certain putt does. So that was always very special and that’s why I enjoy going to the Dunhill Links every year.
And, Muirfield. I thought that was one of the hardest golf courses on earth, very demanding and challenging which meant I enjoyed playing that one, too.
Going back to your Challenge Tour days what are your happiest memories?
The happiest memory was getting off the Challenge Tour! I know that may sound obnoxious or like something that’s not nice to say but there’s no player that plays on the Challenge Tour who wants to spend a lot of time there, it’s a stepping stone.
So the happiest moment was getting my tour card and moving on to the European Tour. I played at the same time as Henrik Stenson and he is probably the most accomplished player to have come from that tour and we got our cards the same year in 2000.
It’s a hell of an opportunity for a young kid from around the world to grow up because you’re travelling to places all over the world that aren’t necessarily the biggest towns or cities and you’re having to grind it out.
You have to play really well to cover your expenses, it’s tough. It’s the school of hard knocks there and it really makes you grow up. For me as a 19-year-old kid at the time, it stood me in good stead going forward.
You beat Henrik by four shots in the Kenyan Open…
Maybe that was the one time I got him that year! That was obviously nice for me to win the first event of the season, it meant I pretty much just had to stay upright and I would keep my card. You look back at it with fond memories because you realise that it was a very important time of your career.
Looking back on those years and your major wins etc, what does that add to your analytic work?
It brings vast amounts of experience and I’m talking about on both sides of the coin. I’ve been to the top of the mountain, so to speak, and then I’ve experienced the lows of the lows. You know, losing my tour card on the PGA Tour, really struggling, so when I make statements and analyse the game of golf, it comes from a very sincere place, that has literally experienced everything the game has to offer.
I can understand what’s going through a player’s mind, what’s going through a player’s body, the anxiety that creeps up and the confidence that you can feel, so I’m always trying to explain that to the viewer.
Are you now comfortable with your swing and happy to leave it as it is?
I think I’m getting to grips it now, it’s going to be what it’s going to be. I’m going to be able to move one step in either direction but I’m not going to be able to make giant changes anymore. I’m going to have to make do with what I’ve got and the thing I’ve got to do now is work on the short game and sharpen it up to see where I can save some shots.
Look out for more fascinating insights from Immelman in the coming weeks as he reveals what goes on at the Champions Dinner.
New Jordan Speith Golf shoes released
‘I remember just punching the locker and starting to cry’
