Trevor Immelman might have won his first PGA Tour event, the Western Open ’06, against Tiger Woods, but it wasn’t until his 3-stroke 2008 Masters win that his life changed. For that, even almost 2 decades later, he is grateful, and he asks his kids to show the same gratitude.

“I’ve always told my kids, ‘If you’re going to send one Christmas card every year, you better send it to Tiger because without him we would be in a different situation.'” Immelman told the media at the 2025 PNC Championship.

Before Woods arrived in 1996, the Masters winner took home only $450,000, but when Immelman won in 2008, he earned $1.35 million. A whopping 200 percent increase in just over a decade. This possibly wouldn’t have been possible if Woods hadn’t won the tournament 4 times by that time and established himself the way he did. Tournament prize money increased by 13 percent every year as big sponsors rushed in, compared to just 4.5 percent before his debut.

Even Woods hailed his rival, calling him talented and determined. He had to. This was the first since Seve Ballesteros’s 1980 win that anyone who was leading from the start had won. And to think that Immelman had this life-changing moment at a critical time of his life is flabbergasting.

In December ’07, barely four months before the 2008 Masters, doctors found a non-cancerous golf-ball-sized tumor between his lungs and diaphragm. He underwent surgery to remove it and arrived at Augusta with a new perspective. He had understood that golf was his passion, but not his whole life.

With this win, Immelman became the first South African golfer to wear the Green Jacket. And also, he is one of only 6 golfers who have handed Tiger Woods second-place finishes in his quest to win 15 majors, and he still teases him about it. The banter, however, comes with even more gratitude.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be good friends with Tiger for many years. Every time I see him, I give him a hard time about it, purely because we played against each other for about two decades, and I’m not sure I beat him a handful of times,” Immelman shared with the media at the PNC Championship ’25. “But very understanding that without him and everything he did on the golf course, our sport wouldn’t be where it is today. So very thankful for that and how he changed our game. Even today, what he’s doing for our sport and the PGA Tour is very commendable.”

Woods served as the leading face in negotiations with PIF for the $3B merger. Now, he is serving as the chairman of the Tour’s new Future Competition Committee that is focused on driving significant change in the competitive golf model. He is also attempting to make golf more accessible to the younger audience with TMRW Sports and TGL. His firm, TGR Designs, is also working on a project to design the new nine-hole par-three layout at Augusta Municipal Golf Course in Georgia. His philanthropy organization, TGR, helps young golfers.

This wasn’t the first time the veteran had praised Woods. He had called it a “privilege” to compete against him, as he had to work on his game because Woods would hit shots his brain couldn’t even fathom. “If it’s all said and done, if you look at the greatest athletes of all time, you put his name in there. For me to have been able to compete against him and the two big events that I won here in the U.S., the Western Open and Masters, the fact that he finished second is pretty cool,” Immelman told Golfweek in 2022.

Presently, Immelman believes that Tiger Woods will come back, and his remarks come from a lost bet.

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Tiger Woods will return, believes Trevor Immelman

The 82-time PGA Tour winner has not competed professionally since missing the cut at the 2024 Open Championship and underwent yet another back surgery in September to repair a painful nerve impingement in his spine. To make matters worse, Woods also ruptured his Achilles earlier this year while preparing for the Masters. All of this forced him to even skip the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie Woods. Despite these heavy odds, old friend Mark Immelman believes the legendary icon will eventually return.

“Yes, I do think he comes back,” Immelman said on the Awful Announcing Podcast in early August. “I have been the fool that bet against Tiger Woods in the past, and it cost me mightily. I didn’t believe he could win a major again, and then he turns around and wins the 2019 Masters.”

Although Woods might not be as dominant now, as the competition is too stiff, and he is spotting too many years to the new and talented golfers. But will he show up and contend once in a while? Immelman believes so.