Immelman: Keeping calm
Winning a major is a career-defining moment - it's not something that happens once a year to be honest with you.
Trevor Immelman
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Trevor Immelman is going to do all he can to avoid falling into a couple of traps when he defends his Masters title.
The first is reliving what happened a year ago.
"There will be a lot of memories and a lot of emotions, so I plan on going there a few times," said the South African.
"That way when the tournament kicks off I can be focused on that event rather than worrying about the previous year's goings-on."
The second possible pitfall is building too many expectations because of his three-stroke victory over Tiger Woods.
"To say that not winning a major this year would be a failure is, I think, a little bit drastic," he added.
"Winning a major is such a big deal and such a small percentage of guys get to achieve that."
Padraig Harrington, though, has won three of the last six and Tiger Woods, of course, took his total to 14 at last June's US Open.
"Tiger has spoilt everybody and even Paddy has spoilt people in the last couple of years," adds Immelman.
"What they have done is phenomenal.
Confidence
"Winning a major is a career-defining moment - it's not something that happens once a year to be honest with you. I feel like golf is too much of a fickle sport and too difficult to go out and stick your neck on the line and make predictions. I'm not that kind of a guy.
"The key for me is that I now know that when I play my best golf, it's good enough to win the biggest tournaments. That is definitely a confidence boost for me.
"The goal for me is to try to find a way to do it more regularly. I seem to play that type of golf maybe every year to 18 months and I need to try and find a way to do it maybe three or four occasions a year.
"I've been a pro for a decade now. Hopefully I can start using all of that stuff to my advantage and just become a smarter player and a better player and just keep climbing steps that way."
Immelman's win last April came out of the blue. He had undergone surgery to remove a tumour - thankfully benign - on his diaphragm the previous December and in eight events on his return he managed only one top 20 finish.
Yet he led from start-to-finish and could afford a 75 that matched the highest closing round by a champion.
In the season's other three majors he was 65th at the US Open, 19th in The Open and missed the cut at the US PGA.
