Trevor Imminent Man

Last updated: 6th December 2007

If the best way to insult someone is to first to butter them up with compliments, then hear this: Trevor Immelman, congratulations.

Your victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge confirmed that you are South Africa's most promising golfer.

And now that you're all buttered up, hear this: Why are you still only 'promising' when by now you should really be making good on that promise?

Yes, yes, I know. He's won this title and finished here in that tournaments. I can hear you saying, "but he's only 27".

Stop it. When Tiger Woods was 27 he'd won a bunch of majors, and five years ago everyone was talking about how Immelman's swing and temperament made him a dead ringer for Woods.

Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, the King and (sorry Goose) the Prince in waiting of South African golf, are beginning to look restless in their respective thrones.

Ernie plods along, winning here and there; Retief has the odd breathtaking week, but there's a note of tedium to it all.

Whether or not Els and Goosen still produce results, their monopoly of the limelight is an indictment on the heirs to the throne. A year ago, you could list a handful of South African rising start who might in the coming year barge their way past the old warhorses.

Sabbatini, Clark, Immelman, Schwartzel, Sterne, Oosthuizen. All of these players had the game to do it. But twelve months later it appears we are wheeling out the same story, only this time without the enthusiasm.

Certainly, Immelman's disappointing year has been as much to do with a curious illness as it has sub-standard playing. And among those other names there are stories of success littered across the world with enough frequency to summon a firm rebuttal to my despondency.

But while I can be shot down, it is only a fiercely patriotic slash blindly optimistic punter who would go as far as to say South Africans achieved even close to what its ambassadors are capable of.

As good as year as it might seem, noting Els' resurgence and Immelman's victory at the Nedbank last weekend among other things, the plain truth is that it is far less than is worth celebrating about.

Of course, disguised in this critique is a glowing compliment to the country's talent. Once again, South Africa will enter the new year with arguable the strongest pound for pound touring contingent in the world.

Hate me for saying it, but promise counts for nought when there is scant delivery.