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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 13, 2008

Trevor Immelman

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

Q. Congratulations. What a magnificent effort. It must have been mentally and emotionally draining as well.
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Absolutely. It was. I woke up this morning, nice to get some good rest last night, but woke up and peaked outside and saw the breeze kicking up and I knew it was going to be tough out there. And I knew I had to just be as tough as I can and hang in there. And I'm so proud of myself. I actually still can't believe that I got that done.

Q. You know you're the first player since Ray Floyd to have led all the four days.
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah, I don't know how I did that either.
(Laughter.)
But obviously that's some pretty incredible company to be keeping there. Those are the guys that I grew up watching win this championship back home in South Africa. I would be sitting up now at midnight watching these guys win and just dreaming about getting here some time. And I can't believe that I have won the same tournament that he's won.

Q. Do you take more pride in the three rounds in the 60s or really keeping it together today on under some tough conditions?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: It's a bit of both. Because the three rounds in the 60s was pretty impressive and it got me in a great position going into today. But those rounds are no good unless you get it done.
And even though I shot what I shot today, it was just so difficult out there. And I'm real proud of myself for hanging in there through the adversity today and just trying to keep my chin up and stay focused and just try and hit shot for shot.

Q. I understand that Gary Player left a message on your phone last night. What did he say to you and what do you think he's thinking right now?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: He's on his way to the Middle East so he's probably got some jet lag. But he'll be so proud of me. I've known Mr. Player since I was five years old, and he's always been there to support me and encourage me and give me a kick in the butt when I needed it. And I really owe him a lot for all the advice he's given me.
Even when we played on Tuesday in the practice round and I know he'll be proud of me and I thank him for all the support.

Q. What does this mean to you to share this legacy?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: It's probably too early for me to break it down for you at this point. Just to be a Major champion and be a champion here at the Masters is, that's what I've dreamt about since I was a very young man. And at times you doubt whether you're good enough to get it done and at times when things are going wrong you wonder if it will ever happen. But I'm living proof that if you work hard and believe in yourself it can happen.

Q. When you look back at four months ago we talked about in the hospital, just this four month period from then to now, is it hard to believe where you were and where you've come to?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah, there's been so much happen, because I won the tournament right before I got diagnosed with a tumor, then I'm lying in the hospital bed and I'm just trying to get the right result out of that. Then I make a pretty strong recovery, I get back on the TOUR, I miss a bunch of cuts, I'm struggling with my game, struggling to get comfortable with my game again, and I felt like I had to start back from zero. And I was just kind of chipping away every week up until this point winning the Masters by three strokes, I mean, it's just kind of crazy, really.

Q. How were your insides today throughout the day? How were your guts?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: I was pretty solid, I was more solid than I thought I would be. I was real focused. I didn't look around too much, I didn't look at the leaderboard at all. I was just trying to play every shot, whether it be a six inch putt or a 300 yard drive, I was just trying to hit that particular shot as well as I could and that's all I was focusing on.

Q. Last night did you visualize at all how you might play today and how you saw yourself finish?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: That's a good question because I didn't know whether to do that or not because I didn't want to get ahead of myself. I knew there was a lot of golf to play, I knew there was a lot of great champions vying for the championship. Every now and then I thought about there's a possibility that I could win. But I just kept pulling myself back to say, hey, man, you got to play one shot at a time, you got to be tough out there. And I just kept sticking to the process. But I'll enjoy it now.

Q. Finally, South Africa, a great sports loving nation, what does it mean back home?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, it's obviously it's been a lot of people back home that have supported me and rooted for me and helped me out through my career and this is fantastic for our country to have another Major Champion and hopefully I'll be an inspiration for young South Africans out there to go out there and work hard and dream big dreams. Because that's what I did and here I am today.

End of FastScripts

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