With tips from Dabo Swinney, Immelman will captain 2021 Presidents Cup team in Charlotte
Few jobs in world golf are as challenging as captain of the Presidents Cup international team.
Trevor Immelman — who was announced Tuesday morning as captain of the international team that will face the United States in 2021 — is more than aware of that.
“We’re massive underdogs; we understand that,” Immelman said of the competition that will pit the U.S. against the best non-European players in the world at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club from Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 2021. “And we’re comfortable with that.”
The U.S. has dominated the Presidents Cup since its 1994 inception, going 11-1-1, including a 16-14 victory in 2019 at Royal Melbourne in Australia. The internationals led 10-8 after three days of competition, only to be overwhelmed by the Americans on Sunday.
“There are many things we learned and maybe wish we could have done a little differently,” Immelman said of 2019, when he was an assistant to captain Ernie Els. “The majority of the things we wanted to do worked to a tee. But after coming so close, we were able to look back as a group and see what we can do differently this time.”
Immelman, 40, is a South African who brings strong credentials to the job. He has 11 worldwide victories as a pro, including the 2008 Masters, where he finished three strokes ahead of runner-up Tiger Woods. He was on the 2005 and ’07 Presidents Cup international teams.
Immelman, who is a golf analyst for CBS now, also knows his way around Quail Hollow: He’s played there 12 times and was runner-up to Jim Furyk in a playoff at the 2006 Wells Fargo Championship.
“I’ve spent a ton of time in that area and on that golf course,” said Immelman, who lives in Winter Park, Fla. “It’s a very, very special place.”
Immelman comes through Charlotte-Douglas International Airport frequently during football season. He said he’s good friends with Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney and attends as many Tigers games as possible.
He figures to pick Swinney’s brain on coaching strategies, just as he has and will continue to do so with Els, another South African.
“Ernie was an amazing captain,” Immelman said. “He brought great intensity to our team. He had a fantastic plan and strategy and everybody in our group had so much respect for that. Everybody bought in. It just so happened we came up short on Sunday. The Americans (captained by Tiger Woods) were too strong for us on that day.”
Immelman pointed out that the average world ranking of that U.S. team — which featured Dustin Johnson (ranked fourth at the time), Justin Thomas (fifth) and Woods (sixth) — was 12.5. The international team’s average ranking was 42.5, topped by Australia’s Adam Scott (18th), South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen (20th) and Japan’s Hideki Mitsuyama (21st).
“One of the beauties of being a pro athlete, is that at one point in all of our careers — whether it’s that young kid at home practicing to maybe get from the junior varsity or from the mini-tour to the PGA Tour — is that you get it down to the point where it’s in your hands now,” Immelman said. “You just want to take that opportunity to go out there and prove you have what it takes. That’s how we are going to approach it.”