Augusta just the prescription for Immelman

By Steve Keating

AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) - Trevor Immelman's climb back from emergency surgery saw the battling South African reach the top of the leaderboard at the U.S. Masters on Friday.

While Immelman is only halfway to scaling one of the game's toughest peaks, back-to-back four-under-par 68s are a remarkable achievement for a man who less than four months ago had surgery to remove a non-cancerous tumor on his diaphragm.

"It definitely gives you perspective, because I went from winning a tournament to lying in a hospital bed waiting for results on a tumor," Immelman told reporters. "It definitely made me realize that golf wasn't my whole life.

"I have a real passion for golf and I put a lot of hours in and made a lot of sacrifices to try and succeed at the game.

"I'm definitely driven to try and achieve things. Whilst it gave me perspective on the one point, I was still trying to get back to the form I was showing before it all happened."

A return to Augusta National Golf Club has been just the prescription for Immelman, who has struggled to regain form after surgery on the golf-ball size tumor.

About six weeks after his December 18 operation, the 29-year-old South African returned to the PGA Tour at the Phoenix Open but has missed the cut in four of seven starts, his best finish being a tie for 40th at the WGC-CA Championship.

NEAR FLAWLESS

A recovering Immelman could have expected a short stay in Augusta but instead has produced a near flawless effort, mixing nine birdies with a single bogey through two rounds on the demanding Augusta National layout.

"The whole atmosphere, the mystique, the way the golf course is set up, the way the golf course is prepared for us, you know, everything about this tournament and this venue, it's what dreams are made of," said Immelman.

"Every single player that's here has dreamt of playing in this tournament, so that's absolutely true.

"It took a couple of weeks before I could walk again. I got a seven-inch incision across the right side of my back.

"Once I kind of worked my way through all the morphine and stuff they had me on, and started finding my feet again, it seemed to come back fairly quickly.

"It was about six weeks before I could hit a few chips and putts and another week before I could hit some balls and get out on to the course.

"So it was a couple of months that I was, you know, operating quite gingerly and after that I could kind of get back to it."

(Editing by Ken Ferris)