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From atop the shoulders of a golf giant such as Gary Player, Trevor Immelman could see quite far into the future of his career when that famous photograph of him as a young boy with his hero was taken in his hometown of Somerset West in South Africa.
But not even he could have envisioned a career that one day would take him outside the ropes and behind a microphone, a position from which he broadcast the Masters last week and where he is emerging as a strong new voice in the world of golf announcing on television.
“It wasn’t the plan. I can tell you that,” Immelman said with a laugh at the way that the various twists and turns of life and career have found him touching so many different elements of the game of golf – from major champion to Presidents Cup captain and television announcer.
Immelman’s 2008 Masters victory was a career-defining moment. With it, the 40-year-old has teed it up at Augusta National every year since – playing the weekend in 2019 after a string of missed cuts. That is until this year, when Immelman swapped his position in the field for a place in the TV tower on the 15th hole.
“I’m loving being a part of golf in all forms,” he said. “When I was young I just wanted to play golf and be the best. I just loved practicing and seeing how good I could be. In my mind, I’d be competing for the rest of my life. It hasn’t exactly panned out that way. But I suppose life rarely pans out the way you plan, and you have to adjust.”
At the core of every move Immelman has made in golf is his deep love for the game.
“For me, it all stems back to my love for the game and my appreciation for the game and the work ethic and talent and sacrifice that other legends have made in order to push our sport along,” he said. “I have a deep appreciation for that. It’s been a lot of fun for me over the past five years as I’ve competed less to still be in the game with the commentary and still be at events watching the current best players and how they go about it, and bring that across to viewers.”
And viewers have responded, as he’s risen in a very short space of time to become one of the leading voices in golf broadcasting for CBS. His rise has even impressed his older brother Mark, who also works in television and has a full appreciation for just how tough an industry this is to break into, and then remain relevant in.
“There is no such thing as dead air on American commentary. ... I once had it described to me by an American producer as to imagine that I’m being paid by the word. ... ”
Dougie Donnelly
“I was a successful college golf coach and a pretty well-known golf teacher, and it was next to impossible for me to break into the commentary industry,” Mark Immelman said. “I had to work my way through the levels, starting with radio and then digital and then having CBS find me.
“For someone like Trevor, being a Masters champion lends gravitas. But breaking into CBS, even as a highly successful former player, is still very difficult because it’s a very select crew.”
As the elder brother rightly points out, having a strong golf CV may open the door for a man such as Immelman. But soon even the VIP pass of a green jacket eventually needs something to back it up.
“You can get exposed very quickly in the United States because there are a lot of networks and a lot of competition,” Mark Immelman said. “You have to always be on top of your game and you cannot rest on your résumé. The different accent and him being from South Africa is an icebreaker because you’re immediately noticed. But the hard truth of it is, if you don’t communicate well people will tune you out.”
And it’s been Trevor Immelman’s ability to communicate his point in a concise and insightful manner that has made him stand out in the world of golf broadcasting, and succeed where a multitude of former players with a raft more major titles have failed.
Veteran European Tour commentator Dougie Donnelly has seen this first hand.
“Every professional golfer thinks they can do a much better job than the commentators, but it’s not that simple,” he said. “We’ve had excellent players and former major winners in the commentary booth who simply couldn’t communicate their knowledge.”
And communicating that knowledge also takes on a different form from the European Tour to the PGA Tour, with audiences that demand a completely different approach.
“It’s no coincidence that American commentators are called announcers,” Donnelly said. “They have that style of commentary. They make statements of great portent. The European style, and I’d say the worldwide style outside of America, is more relaxed and laid back and conversational.
“There is no such thing as dead air on American commentary. If you take a breath the producer is asking you to talk some more. I once had it described to me by an American producer as to imagine that I’m being paid by the word. I feel like I’m talking too much, but that’s how they prefer it. On the European Tour the commentary is slower and there is space to talk and develop themes.
“But I think Trevor has managed to marry the two quite well. He’s made the transition to commentary seamlessly, and it’s not easy to do. He’s intelligent. He’s articulate. He knows the game and has huge credibility for all he’s done in the game, but he also doesn’t become too technical. That can be a problem for some former players. They get too technical, and the bulk of the audience doesn’t want to know too much about the swing.”
According to Mark Immelman, on-course announcing brings an even more nuanced element to a golf broadcast.
“Announcing is a lot harder than people think. Full stop,” he said. “And then announcing on the golf course is also much harder, because you can fall prey to being just the distance and wind direction man.
“The thing with television announcing is that the announcer is not always needed, but the announcer is noticed if he or she doesn’t say anything worthwhile or tells you just what you see. Those announcers who give the viewer what they don’t see are the real elite compared to those who just call shots.”
In much the same way that there is always anticipation around a generation of golfers moving through the ranks, there could well be an exciting new era of television announcing emerging in the form of former players like Immelman making this transition.
“Trevor has been a tremendous success,” he said. “When I look at other players out there, I think Lee Westwood is a very articulate and interesting commentator. And Martin Kaymer impresses me enormously. He is wonderfully articulate in his second language. I did a 20-minute guest spot with him in the box, and afterwards he asked to go and see the control truck and see where it all happens. He stayed for nearly an hour. He loved it. No golfer has ever asked me that after doing commentary.”
Several years ago, when he was battling his way through injury and comebacks, Immelman had a moment when he considered where his career was heading.
“Sport is fickle. There are so many variables,” he told me. “And you always have to be ready for that next day.”
He may not have seen a career behind the microphone as being in his future. But he certainly was ready for it.
And clearly, Immelman is making the right calls as an announcer.
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