Tag: Trevor Immelman

Comeback stories are the best!

Last week, we saw two great champions who fell down to deep depths only to rise again, and it was great.  Both Henrik Stenson and Trevor Immelman won tournaments.  Stenson won the Deutsche Bank Classic on the Fed-Ex Cup finals and Immelman won the first leg of the Web.Com finals/PGA Tour Q School.

http://www.augusta.com/masters/images/players/bios/2343.jpg

Both are terrific stories of persistence and determination to get back to world class status.  Stenson looks to be having fun on the course and Immelman took his potential loss of a tour card in stride.  I embrace these stories and I hope you do, too.

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/golf/players/full/576.png&w=350&h=254

Immelman had injuries that stymied his career after winning the 2008 Masters. Severe tendonitis in his left wrist and elbow cut short his 2009 and 2010 seasons, and since then he struggled to regain his form.  Only a positive outlook and a great family rooting section kept his spirits moving forward.  He is indeed a champion again. Welcome back, Trevor, you are where you should be!

Stenson won the 2009 Players and climbed to number 4 in the world golf rankings. That was followed by a monumental loss of his game which led a dramatic drop to a low of 230 in the world rankings in early 2012.  His rise has been nothing short of spectacular—coming in second at this year’s British Open and third at this year’sPGAChampionship.  Therefore it came really as no surprise at all when he won the Deutsche Bank last week and is now #1 on the Fed Ex Cup Standings heading into the final two events.

These two men are proof that the talent never goes away, confidence and form may but talent never does.  A commitment to getting back never left them for even one moment. It is a lesson we can all learn from—persistence, determination and love of and for the game never ends.

Web.com/PGA Tour Q School confusion galore!

I have yet to talk to anyone who completely understands the Web.Com Tour finals and its connection with the PGA Tour Q school.  It was very loosely defined by so-called experts and now that it is here—well, it is still a bit of a tough learning experience for us all.

My problem is that you could, at first glance, think that the web.com tour finals equates to web.com tour cards for next year—this is not the case.  The web.com tour season was cut dramatically short this year because of the PGA Tour changeover from a January season start to the new October start. Therefore, these four tournaments beginning this past week with the Hotel Fitness Championship are PGA Tour Q School and at the same time the last four events on the web.com tour.

O.K. now that we have settled that—or at least explained that it is way more interesting than the old Q school that we have become accustomed to the last 40 plus years. The guys have 4 tournaments instead of 6 rounds.  It is a more complete examination of talent. It allows you to have a bad week or two and still get your card.  I like it better than the old way, but it will need to be adjusted because it is part of the web.com tour and really should be separated and have its own identity.

Congratulations to Trevor Immelman winner of the Hotel Fitness Championship at 20 under par by one stroke over 23 year old Patrick Cantlay.  This assures Trevor of his full PGA Tour status for next year.

Interesting to me, is the fact that Trevor came into this pressure packed 4 weeks with a great attitude—this is a guy who won the Masters 5 years ago and was flirting with losing his card for 2014—he took it as a challenge and advances—great stuff. Your approach to adversity tells a lot about your character.  Now they move along to Davidson, North Carolina, for the Chiquitta Classic.  Then it’s the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Classic in Columbus, Ohio before a week off and the Tour championship on the Dye course near Jacksonville, Florida—its does promise to be an explosive race for the 25 cards.