Trevor Immelman and a Young, Unburdened International Team Are Hoping for a Perfect Storm

The overwhelming underdogs will be guided by a captain who has navigated many curveballs in recent months. Could his steady hand make the difference?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Outside of winning majors, Ernie Els' life work was to win a Presidents Cup.

It didn’t matter if he was a player, assistant captain or captain, he just wanted to win, just one time.

Eight Presidents Cup appearances and a winning record of 20-18-2 as a player was not enough.

It never happened.

Els knew he had given his all to the Presidents Cup on the Sunday night in Australia when his team came so close but fell short to a Tiger Woods-led USA team, 16-14 at Royal Melbourne.

That is when Els told his team he would not return as captain and put all his support behind Trevor Immelman.

Trevor Immelman (pictured with Tom Kim) was named captain of the International team in April 2020 and will try to keep the momentum from a close defeat to the U.S. in 2019 :: Peter Casey/USA Today

“That’s as good as I can do,” said Els, explaining his reasoning when it was announced he was stepping down. “I gave it all. This is another change I wanted to make in our team. I get one opportunity, win, or lose. You don’t get a second chance.”

So next up is Immelman, the 42-year-old South African.

With a record of 1-6-1 in the two (2005, 2007) Presidents Cups he played in, you must wonder if somewhere a mistake was made.

In talking to Els, he showed unwavering support behind Immelman on that Sunday night in Melbourne, and over the next couple of months before confirming with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan that he was, in fact, done as captain.

Every time Els talked to Monahan, Immelman was the only option.

In Immelman’s mind, he was the de facto captain if not the du jour pick, until it was made official in April 2020.

“I certainly am not dwelling on anything, and to be perfectly honest, looking back at Melbourne, although that was one that stung for sure, I thought so much changed, the direction of this team changed there, and I think that's carried over,” 10-time international participant Adam Scott said. “Trevor has embraced that a lot and done an incredible job.”

Immelman has not only embraced the job but he also must play politics as well, navigating the loss of much of his team to LIV Golf over the last couple of months, including British Open champion Cameron Smith.

Scott said Immelman has dealt with what he has called "curveballs" incredibly well.

“That's why he's the captain,” Scott said. “He's a well-put-together guy. He really embraces the things he does and he does a really good job at it, whether it's his work, whether it's his captaincy, whether it's anything.”

All those that jumped to LIV have been in constant communication with Immelman before jumping, making the departure not any less difficult, but not a surprise.

“Am I disappointed that they're not able to be here? Absolutely,” Immelman said of Smith and the others. “But we have the 12 guys here that we love and wanted to be here, and now we get to go.”

As the clear underdog with eight rookies, Immelman knows exactly what the world thinks about the Internationals' chances of winning for only the second time in 14 competitions.

At the same time, neither Immelman nor his 12 charges seem fazed by the difficult task they are being asked to undertake, but instead believe that Quail Hollow can be a perfect storm.

Els created a winning environment in Melbourne, like what Tony Jacklin created as captain in 1983 for a then-European Ryder Cup team unfamiliar with victory.

The USA won by a point at PGA National at West Palm Beach, Florida, needing all the luck it could muster for the victory.

Jacklin's approach was to create a winning environment and not have the Europeans feel like second-class citizens. While they lost in 1983, victory came in 1985 and 1987 with a tie in 1989 before Jacklin passed the baton.

In a story by The Guardian in 1983 during the week of the Ryder Cup, Nick Faldo was quoted explaining the importance of changing the atmosphere for the players, including his insistence on the team traveling by Concorde and having first-class treatment all the way. “If on the surface you have everything— even if all hell is breaking loose deep down—you can forget it, Faldo said.”

Els did the same.

For Els, traveling first class wasn’t an issue, but creating an identity for a group pulled from the four corners of the planet was important to create a bond.

The result was the shield that now is recognizable by many worldwide.

“He did a lot with the Tour to sort of get our team a little bit more respected in the whole show, to step up the level of the whole thing of the Presidents Cup for us to excite—the players are so excited,” assistant captain Geoff Ogilvy said. “You should see the looks on their faces when they went in the hotel room this week and when they come in the team room and stuff.”

Except for the players who change every Cup, Els didn’t leave an empty cupboard and even though Els is playing at Pebble Beach in a PGA Tour Champions event this week, his spirit and his words still resonate at Quail Hollow.

“There's a lot of wisdom and there's a lot of respect for Ernie,” Ogilvy said. “Him and Trevor, I know, had lots and lots of chats. Trevor was there last time learning it all, and he's just taken the ball. He started working as soon as we got home. He got home from Royal Melbourne, 'how can we do this better? How can we just continue on?'”

Immelman takes the reins of a young team with an incredible foundation, a team that he says can play as free as they and Immelman want.

No scar tissue for most and wide-eyed excitement all around.

The veterans see Immelman as the most buttoned-down and prepared captain they have seen, now it comes  down to the players and what they can do with the best preparation possible.

“If you haven't been in these teams or been in the rooms, not to throw anything out there, there are all these little nuances, but we can't really explain why it's just feeling more and more and more like we've got an identity and we're a team” Ogilvy said. “We're incredibly organized.”

And then Ogilvy added: “My cart's really fast. Have you seen our carts? They're really nice.”

At least Immelman got one thing right. Now can he captain a winner?

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