Birthplace: Cape Town, South Africa  Money earned: $1.35 million Sunday; $8,036,818 career  Other victories: One PGA Tour (2006 Cialis Western Open); five international  Best previous finish in a major: T5, 2005 Masters  Family: Married childhood sweetheart Carminita in 2003; one son, 21-month-old Jacob Trevor  Personal: Began playing at 5, following in the footsteps of his brother Mark (nine years older), who is the golf coach at Columbus State in Georgia. Was a scratch player by 12. Is the first U.S. Public Links champion (1998) to win The Masters. First met Gary Player, his idol, when he was 5. A natural lefty who plays righty.  Gary Player says: "His swing is absolutely the closest that I have seen to Ben Hogan, and I've always thought that Ben Hogan was the best striker of the ball from tee to green that I ever saw. I think the closest to Ben Hogan's swing is Trevor Immelman's. Marvelous."  By Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY  strolled down Magnolia Lane last year brimming with confidence, his game in sound form, his putting stroke intact, his sights set on winning The Masters. Two days later, he woke up shivering and feverish and checked into an Augusta hospital to receive IV fluids.  After gutting out the ailment to make the cut, he lost 25 pounds in three weeks as doctors discovered a stomach parasite. He salvaged a disappointing year with a win in the star-studded Nedbank Challenge in his native South Africa in December. A few days later, after experiencing abdominal pains, he checked into another hospital and learned a tumor the size of a golf ball was on his diaphragm, under the ribs on his right side.  After surgery, Immelman had to wait 48 hours before he learned the tumor was not cancerous. A 7-inch scar across his back remains. Now the 28-year-old can cover it up with a green jacket.  Joining Gary Player on Sunday as the only South Africans to win at Augusta and becoming the first player since Seve Ballesteros in 1980 to go wire-to-wire in The Masters, the tough, tenacious Immelman withstood a slow start and brutish conditions to hold off world No. 1 Tiger Woods and others to win the 72nd Masters.  On a sun-kissed day featuring swirling winds that tumbled temperatures into the low 60s and triggered alarm among the players trying to combat the air currents on a course already on the diabolical side, Immelman was the steadiest of an unsteady leading bunch.  Starting the day with a two-shot lead, the result of being the only player to shoot in the 60s in each of his first three rounds, Immelman finished with a final-round, 3-over-par 75 to wind up at 8-under-par 280.  Three shots back was Woods. Four back were Stewart Cink and Brandt Snedeker.  Despite starting out with a bogey and dunking his tee shot into the lake guarding the par-3 16th, Immelman used key birdies at the Nos. 5 and 13 and great par saves at the 9th, 11th and 17th holes to nurse a back-nine, five-shot lead to Butler Cabin, where he received the coveted green jacket from last year's champion, Zach Johnson.  "It was just so tough out there," Immelman said. "I was just trying to be tough. I just kept telling myself to hang in there."  He did. After he told his caddie, Neil Wallace, "This is unbelievable, mate," when the final putt dropped, Immelman picked up his 21-month-old son Jacob (appropriately decked out in green), hugged his wife, Carminita, and gave a bear hug to his mother, June, and father, Johan, who encouraged and financed their son's dream to play professional golf.  "Since the age of 5, I absolutely fell in love with golf and I told my parents that I wanted to play professional golf for a living," Immelman said. "And they facilitated it. We don't have enough time for me to tell you what my family has meant to me. My parents have made so many sacrifices for me to get here. As much as this win is for me, it's for them, too.  "I can't thank them enough."  He'll surely hug three-time Masters champion Player (1961, '74, '78) when he sees him, too. While Immelman has sought out and received advice on how to win majors from Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo, he's been in Player's ear for many years. Player willingly teed up many thoughts. On Saturday night, he called Immelman and said six words: "I know you're going to win." On Sunday night, Immelman joined his boyhood idol as the only South Africans to win at Augusta.  "All week he kept telling me to believe in myself," Immelman said. "And he told me I've got to keep my head a little quieter when I putt. 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.  "I took that all to heart, and I'm obviously thankful for the message and I'm sure he's proud of me."  Immelman, the 2006 PGA Tour rookie of the year and winner of five international events and the 2006 Cialis Western Open when he held off Woods by two shots, is now the only player in his 20s with a major title on his résumé. He is because he used an accurate driver, sharp iron play and sturdy nerve with his putter throughout most of the tournament.  "The last two days I don't think I've ever seen anybody drive the ball as well as that, anywhere," said Snedeker, who was paired with Immelman the final two days. "It was just an unbelievable display of ball-striking. When he got in trouble, he got right out of it. He made a little hiccup on 16, but you're going to do that when you're trying to win your first major."  Woods fell short in his quest for a 14th major, a fifth green jacket and the first leg of the Grand Slam after a frustrating week where he battled the greens and rarely established any type of momentum.  "I didn't putt well all week," said Woods, who earned his fifth runner-up finish in a major and his second consecutive second-place finish at Augusta. "I kept dragging the blade. I wasn't releasing it, wasn't getting the overspin. Out here if you're not starting the ball perfectly on line, you're not going to make any putts."  Few made any birdie putts in the final round. While talk before the tournament centered on the difficulty of Augusta National, specifically whether it was playing like a U.S. Open, an annual test of deep rough, punishing greens and length that grinds players to a pulp, Sunday provided no reason to debate.  Of the 45 players in the field, only Heath Slocum (69) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (68) broke 70. Only seven others matched or broke par. Among the early-round leaders, Snedeker shot 77, Steve Flesch a 78, Paul Casey a 79.  World No. 2 Phil Mickelson couldn't overcome a 75 in the third round and finished at 2 under and a tie for fifth place.  "I felt like I had to fight pretty hard to keep it around par," Mickelson said.  Four months ago, Immelman had to fight pretty hard to come back and hold it together with a wife and infant son.  "It was tough to come through that," Immelman said. "You know, 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 so fast. And if you don't enjoy every step of the way, you might regret it, and that would be sad to regret a talent that you were given."  You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference.
Trevor Immelman held himself together on the back nine and captured his first major by winning The Masters by three shots. Tiger Woods, shooting for his fifth title at Augusta National, finished second. Brandt Snedeker and Stewart Cink tied for...