Trevor Immelman's astonishing victory at the US Masters provided the highlight of the year for South Africa's top golfers on the international circuit.
Ernie Els, Hennie Otto and Charl Schwartzel contributed further to South Africa's 2008 winning list. Otto captured the Italian Open while Schwartzel lifted the trophy at the Madrid Masters. Elsrecorded two victories, but by his high standards he would acknowledge that it was a poor season for him.
The country's other high profile golfer, Retief Goosen, had a year he would rather forget. Goosen only managed two top ten finishes from 18 starts with his best being tied for second at the CA Championship. Goosen's world ranking slipped to an all time low of 45 resulting in him not being invited to the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
Rory Sabbatini and Tim Clark had lucrative campaigns with both earning in excess of $1.5 million. Sabbatini fared the better of the two with four top-10 finishes including a runners-up cheque at the Sony Open.
Ironically, Clark earned more than his compatriot with just three top-10 places. This included a tie for second at the Crowne Plaza Invitational.
Els found himself out of the top-10 of the world rankings after occupying a top-10 position for more than 700 consecutive weeks which is more than any other currently active golfer.
The Big Easy did however get back into this exclusive club with his second win of the season at the King Hassan II Trophy in Morocco after capturing the Honda Classic title in February.
But it was Immelman who created all the media hype in 2008. His three stroke victory at Augusta was all the more remarkable after the 28-year-old had missed the first eight weeks of the 2008 PGA Tour season due to illness.
Immelman had to withdraw from the 2007 SA Open in December due to severe discomfort around his ribcage area and a problem breathing. He was diagnosed as having a calcified fibrosis tumour the size of a golf ball. Fortunately after surgery it was found to be benign.
Immelman by his own admission then struggled with his game for the remainder of the season citing all the media attention he attracted after his Masters win as one of the reasons for his loss of form.
He then rediscovered his game and recorded two top-10 finishes including runner-up at the Stanford St. Jude Championship.
(Xinhua News Agency Decemerb 15, 2008)
