Tag: Trevor Immelman

Adam Scott gets a lesson from CBS’s Trevor Immelman as he chases a 91st straight major start

“I generally tell him to get his head out of his ass.”

HAMILTON, Ontario — Adam Scott possesses one of, if not the most, beautiful swings in golf. But even a Maserati needs a tune-up every once in a while.

On Saturday afternoon, having posted a third-round even-par 70 at Hamilton Golf & Country Club that left him T-49, Scott headed to the range to work on his driver after hitting just 3 of 14 fairways.

“I drove it a step into the first cut on nearly every hole. It was quite remarkable,” said the 43-year-old past Masters champion, pursing his lips in dissatisfaction.

Scott had a second set of eyes checking his every move – CBS’s lead golf analyst, Trevor Immelman, who didn’t have to go on air until 5 p.m. The two longtime friends had dinner Friday night and made an appointment to meet on the range after Scott’s round. Scott currently is without a coach, having parted with his brother-in-law, Brad Malone, around October. Lee Trevino always said he wouldn’t take a lesson from someone who couldn’t beat him. Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion, qualifies.

“I’ve enjoyed talking golf with Trevor and it’s just good to have someone that kind of knows me and my game so well so he can go, ‘You’re getting off base, what are you doing?’ ” Scott said. “He’s got a good eye and knowledge.”

RBC Canadian Open: Photos | Merchandise | Leaderboard

Scott said that Immelman has encouraged him to shorten his swing for months but it has been easier said than done.

“It’s good to have a purpose and work on stuff instead of aimlessly fiddling around to find something,” Scott said.

From the sound of things, Immelman was pleased with the length of Scott’s swing as he kept saying, “Yes,” as Scott took turns driving straight as a needle, with a slight fade and a draw on command.

“Adam is one of my best friends and we’ve known each other since we were teenagers,” Immelman wrote in a text. “He’s an amazing human being, all class. I fully believe that he still has what it takes to win at the highest level, and I really hope he does.”

Hitting balls next to Scott with a head cover placed under his right arm pit  was veteran pro Nate Lashley, who stopped to ask Immelman, “Are you trying to give the most perfect swing a lesson?”

Immelman smiled and replied, “I generally tell him to get his head out of his ass.”

Nate Lashley (front) asked Trevor Immelman, right, “Are you trying to give the most perfect swing a lesson?” (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)

Scott tabbed the session with Immelman “very productive,” and it could come in handy for the final round. He could use a low round on Sunday to move up the standings at the Canadian Open. He entered the week at No. 58 in the Official World Golf Ranking. A missed cut at the PGA Championship last month knocked him out of the top 60 in the world for the first time in nearly six years and cost him a berth in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in less than two months. A T-12 at the Colonial last week bumped him back inside the top 60, where he will need to remain following the conclusion of next week’s tournaments to gain a spot in the U.S. Open field. He hasn’t missed a major since the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills, a span of 91 straight starts in men’s golf’s big four.

In 2018, the last time he slipped outside the top 60, he played in a 36-hole qualifier in Columbus, Ohio and earned his way into the field. But Scott said he won’t be playing at Final Qualifying on Monday. He signed up for a site in Ohio — he wasn’t originally planning to play north of the border — and said he’s won’t be there. He also isn’t in the field for next week’s Memorial. That means Sunday’s final round of the RBC Canadian Open is his last chance to make his case. It’s down to the wire, but as Scott noted, “Some weeks you don’t play and you move up in the rankings,” he said, before adding, “I know the situation. It will be what it will be.”

Photos: Tiger Woods and Trevor Immelman watch their sons, Charlie and Jacob, play in AJGA event

The AJGA event was a family affair.

Tiger Woods missed the cut at the 2024 PGA Championship a few weeks ago, but his focus this week wasn’t on his game, but his son’s. On Wednesday, Woods and CBS’ Trevor Immelman were in Lake Worth, Florida, watching their sons, Charlie and Jacob, play in the UNIQLO/Adam Scott Junior Championship on the AJGA.

The tournament at The Falls Club of the Palm Beaches wrapped up on Thursday, with Pennson Badgett from Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, taking home the title at 11 under (68,65).

Charlie Woods finished in a tie for 27th at 2 over after consecutive rounds of 73, while Jacob Immelman grabbed a share of 32nd thanks to rounds of 76 and 71. (There were 47 players in the field.)

Pros, media and fans react to Gary Woodland’s incredible story and return to the PGA Tour after brain surgery

It’s good to have you back, Gary.

Gary Woodland is making his return to the PGA Tour this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii. On Sept. 18 of last year, Woodland announced via his social media account that he underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his brain.

“I had gone four and a half months of every day really thinking I was going to die,” he said during his pre-tournament press conference Tuesday at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. “Every day it was a new way of dying, new way of death. The jolting in the middle of the night scared the heck out of me.”

The Tour’s Twitter/X account posted a video of Woodland’s press conference, and various pros, media members and fans responded with words of encouragement and support.

Sony Open: Thursday tee times | Picks to win | Photos

Trevor Immelman Q&A: What to watch at Tour Championship, the big chair at CBS and Ryder Cup storylines

Immelman reflects on his first year as lead analyst for CBS and dishes on Tour Championship, Ryder Cup storylines.

This PGA Tour season has not disappointed fans in the least bit.

We saw Viktor Hovland steal the BMW Championship with a record-setting and career low round. Nick Taylor’s drought-ending bomb of a putt to win the RBC Canadian Open. Rickie Fowler returned to the top of the leaderboard at the Rocket Mortage Classic.

Trevor Immelman was there to call it all.

The 2008 Masters champion has been perched in the CBS Sports super tower off the 18th green as lead analyst alongside Jim Nantz for a full season now, and we caught up with him to discuss his year in the big chair, storylines for the Tour Championship and how he would go about picking players for the Ryder Cup.

How Butch Harmon helped Rickie Fowler get his groove back

“It took a little while to unravel the knot” — Trevor Immelman on Butch Harmon re-tooling Rickie’s swing.

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At the Farmers Insurance Open in January, I told Rickie Fowler that instructor Butch Harmon had predicted at the PGA Merchandise Show to me that his star-crossed pupil, winless for nearly four years at the time and having returned to his former instructor just months ago, would end his drought this year.

“Did he say which week?” Fowler asked with a wry smile.

It turns out Butch was right again. It wasn’t the U.S. Open, where Fowler shot a record-breaking 62 and held the 54-hole lead two weeks ago, nor the Travelers Championship where he carded a third-round 60 but couldn’t keep pace with eventual champion Keegan Bradley. But the stars were aligned on Sunday in Detroit, where Fowler birdied the 72nd hole to join a three-man playoff and birdied 18 again to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

“He’s the best golf coach out there,” Fowler said during his winner’s press conference shortly after defeating Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa in the playoff to earn his sixth career PGA Tour title. “He does a great job with players, taking what they have and ultimately making them the best that they can be with who they are and how they swing and making what they do well that much better and bring up the weaknesses.”

Fowler developed his flat, looping swing as a kid under the watchful eye of instructor Barry McDonnell, who taught at Murrieta Valley Golf Range in Murrieta, California. McDonnell died in June 2011 at age 75 from complications related to a heart attack. Fowler spent the better part of the next two years without a coach but in December 2013, he hooked up with Harmon for the first time in an effort to boost his performance in the four majors. That year, Fowler finished in the top 5 in all of golf’s biggest championships with his re-tooled swing. He won the 2015 Players Championship and reached as high as No. 4 in the world but never broke through at a major.

2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic
Rickie Fowler and his caddie Ricky Romano react with joy after making birdie on the 18th green to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic in a playoff against Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa at Detroit Golf Club on Sunday, July 2, 2023. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY Network)

Part of what has made Harmon an invaluable resource to top pros over the years is his willingness to call a spade a spade. The last thing pupils like Rickie, Phil or Tiger needed over the years under Harmon’s tutelage was another yes man. In 2017, Harmon recounted on Sky TV, where he worked as an analyst, that he gave Fowler some tough love.

“And he didn’t like it,” Harmon recalled. “I said, ‘You gotta decide are you going to be a Kardashian or are you going to be a golf pro?’ You’re the king of social media, you’re all over these Snapchats and all these things …

“You need to reach down and grab your ears and get your head out of your you-know-what and get back to work.”

Harmon remained in Fowler’s corner until he announced his retirement in 2019 and no longer was a regular presence at PGA Tour events.

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“Our split was really just because he stopped traveling, and then things weren’t working the last few years,” Fowler said Sunday.

He began working with instructor John Tillery, who had great success with Fowler’s friend Kevin Kisner. Fowler goes to great lengths in every interview to credit Tillery for teaching him many things during the ensuing years but the partnership didn’t bear fruit.

Fowler went 29 consecutive events without recording a top-10 finish, his ranking dropped to 185th and he rarely qualified for major championships. His ball-striking stats plummeted outside the top 100 and devoting so much time to re-tooling his swing had an unforeseen consequence: his trusty putting stroke began misbehaving to such an extent that he fell outside the top 160 in 2022.

rickie fowler butch harmon
Rickie Fowler and Butch Harmon ahead of the 144rd Open Championship at The Old Course at St. Andrews. (Photo: Steve Flynn-USA TODAY Sports)

To his credit, Fowler just kept his head down and soldiered on. He still signed every autograph and answered every media interview question wondering when he’d break out of his slump.

“He’s just stayed the same Rickie,” Max Homa said. “I think some people when they go through it, you kind of become like a shell of yourself and you go through maybe some mental torture when you’re playing golf.”

As tough as it was for Fowler’s fan base to stomach his dip in performance, it may have been toughest on Harmon.

“When Rickie went through his bad stretch, it was brutal to watch,” Harmon told Golf Digest. “I knew how good he could be, but his swing wasn’t producing. After a while, he lost his confidence, too. But he never wavered as a person, signing all the autographs, and giving his time. If the world was full of Rickie Fowlers, it would be one hell of a place.”

Fowler parted ways with Tillery in the fall and reconnected with Harmon. The results were instantaneous as Fowler finished T-6 at the Fortinet Championship in September and held the 54-hole lead at the Zozo Championship in October before faltering in the final round.

CBS lead analyst Trevor Immelman spent a couple of days with Fowler and Harmon in Las Vegas, where he lives and still teaches, during the Shriners Children’s Open and Butch walked Immelman through the changes. He loved what they were working on, and could see it bleeding in slowly on the golf course.

“Which is the last hurdle,” Immelman said. “It took a little while to unravel the knot.”

“Butch is great, just his voice and having him in your corner,” Fowler said during the U.S. Open. “Just telling you something to give you a little confidence to go out there and just go play golf and keep it simple.”

Simple to say, but harder to do. Nevertheless, Fowler’s game has been building to victory: 12 finishes inside the top 20 in his last 13 starts; impressive gains in nearly every statistical category; and back inside the top 50 in the world. (He jumped to No. 23 after the win.) Older and wiser, Fowler is married and a parent to Maya. He remains a darling of corporate America but his “Kardashian days” are behind him.

“It’s definitely been long and tough. A lot longer being in that situation than you’d ever want to,” Fowler said. “But it makes it so worth it having gone through that and being back where we are now.”

What Fowler has accomplished in eight months since he began sending swing videos to Harmon again is nothing short of remarkable. Speaking to Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio, Harmon said, “This one meant more to me personally than a lot of the major I’ve won with different guys.”

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Masters: The preview for Trevor Immelman’s sit down with Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Scottie Scheffler is outstanding

“13 Green Jackets” will air Saturday, April 8 at 2 p.m. ET.

We’re officially seven days away from the opening round of the Masters.

Man, that feels good to say.

On Saturday, April 8 at 2 p.m. ET, CBS will air a sit-down conversation entitled “13 Green Jackets” hosted by Trevor Immelman, the 2008 champion at Augusta National and Nick Faldo’s replacement in the booth. He chatted with Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and last year’s winner Scottie Scheffler.

Judging by the fantastic preview, the trio will cover everything from Tiger standing on the 12th green in 2019 while his playing partners hit their thirds after rinsing their tee shots, money games between legends and Scheffler’s Ernie Els impression on the 72nd hole in 2022.

Masters 2023 leaderboard: Get the latest news from Augusta

Watch the preview below.

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Tiger Woods’ chances at Masters 2023: Here’s what Brandel Chamblee, Trevor Immelman, Andy North and more have to say

Forget what will Phil do next? The more intriguing question is: What’s the next trick up Tiger’s sleeves?

Forget what will Phil do next? The more intriguing question is: What’s the next trick up Tiger’s sleeves?

Tiger’s opening-round 70 a year ago at Augusta National en route to making the cut was one of the most impressive rounds of 2022 when you consider that it was just some 13 months earlier that he was involved in a near-fatal car accident and could have lost his right leg.

Tiger’s game looked sharp in the first round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera in February, his lone start in an official PGA Tour event since missing the cut at the British Open in July. It reinvigorated talk about the possibility of a 16th major title for Woods, who has slipped into the winner’s Green Jacket on five occasions, most recently in 2019 at age 43.

Tiger’s quest to get closer to Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 majors (and six Green Jackets) already has the TV talking heads buzzing. Here’s a snippet of what the CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel analysts had to say:

Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel

How Tiger plays, I think, will captivate us beyond belief.

Notah Begay, Golf Channel

The fact that he was able to play (at the Genesis Invitational in February) at the level after basically being on the bench for six months, to come out and make a cut, I just can’t even get my mind around that.

Andy North, ESPN

To be able to get around there is so difficult. It’s just — for him it’s such an uphill battle. But in the back of your mind, you still believe that you get something rolling, you just never know.

Curtis Strange, ESPN

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he got us on the edge of our seat for the first couple of days, but can he sustain it? I think that L.A. kind of just made me look forward more to the Masters because he’s still got something in that body.

Trevor Immelman, CBS

If he somehow finds a way to get his name in and around that leaderboard come the second nine on Sunday afternoon it will be all systems go out there.

Scroll below for their takes on Tiger at the Masters.

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How will the networks cover LIV golfers at the Masters? CBS says, ‘We’re not going to put our heads in the sand’

How will TV broadcasters address – or ignore – the elephant in the room?

How will broadcasters address – or ignore – the elephant in the room that is the ongoing civil war in professional golf with 18 members of LIV Golf competing at the 87th Masters next week?

It was an obvious question and one that CBS Sports’s Chairman Sean McManus knew he was going to be asked during the network’s annual pre-Masters conference call – it’ll be the 68th consecutive year for CBS broadcasting the Masters! – with sports writers. And McManus, who has been reticent in discussing LIV, gave a good answer.

“We’re not going to cover up or hide anything,” he said. “As I’ve said often, our job is to cover the golf tournament. We’re not going to show any different treatment for the golfers who have played on the LIV Tour than the other golfer. If there is a pertinent point or something that we feel we should bring up in our coverage Saturday or Sunday or on our other coverage throughout the week, we’re not going to put our heads in the sand.”

It was an interesting choice of expressions because when asked on previous calls with journalists, he has been quick to shut down any discussion of the topic. In a January call before the CBS team kicked off its season at the Farmers Insurance Open, I asked CBS lead producer Sellers Shy if there were any guidelines or rules for his broadcast team pertaining to LIV Golf and what they can or cannot say? Before Shy could answer, McManus cut him off. “I don’t want to get into discussing any other golf programming. I’d like to keep it to CBS.”

When pressed to get a better sense of what viewers can expect, McManus said only, “he can expect coverage of the CBS golf event, basically, and I hope it’s the best in the industry.”

This time, McManus had more to say, and make no mistake, CBS won’t be leaning into the PGA Tour-Liv controversy. “Having said that, unless it really affects the story that’s taking place on the golf course, we’re not going to go out of our way to cover it. I’m not sure there is anything that we could add to this story as it already exists. It’s a factor and we’ll cover it as suitable.”

When Shy was asked if there is a part of him that roots for a LIV player to be in contention going into Sunday because of the interest it would draw to the telecast, he said, “We’re not cheerleaders here. We just want to cover the golf tournament. So, whoever is on that leaderboard, we’re covering them because they are invited to the Masters.”

When the topic resurfaced later during the call in a question posed to Trevor Immelman, CBS’s lead analyst said, “The Masters Tournament and Augusta National is bigger than any player that has come before, any player that is around now and any player that will come in the years ahead. That’s what we’re focused on is giving that tournament justice and crowning a great champion and putting a Green Jacket on a great champion on Sunday afternoon.”

During a Tuesday media call with ESPN, who will have live coverage of the Par 3 Contest as well as the first and second round tournament coverage, ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt said, “I make zero distinction between anyone. It’s an Augusta National Golf Club event. This isn’t a PGA Tour versus LIV tour conversation at all. A guy like (LIV player) Cam Smith, the last time we saw him in a major, he played pretty well. We’re there to cover whatever storylines there are.”

Golf Channel, who will show plenty of auxiliary programming, seemed to have the clearest vision for how to address LIV Golf.

“I don’t think there’s any way around it. This would be the first time that I can recall that Tiger Woods will very likely, certainly on Monday night barring any breaking news with respect to his health, first time that I can remember that on ‘Live From,’ we likely, underline likely, will not lead with Tiger Woods, but instead the presence of LIV Golf, the 18 players that are set to tee it up there,” said Golf Channel host Rich Lerner. “At this point not knowing what may be said or how LIV players may or may not interact with PGA Tour players, without knowing that at this point, our goal going in at this point is to cover LIV at least initially through the competitive lens.

“You cannot deny however you feel about LIV. You cannot deny their accomplishments at Augusta and at the majors in general. Six LIV players have won seven of the last 13 Masters, going back to 2010, LIV golfers have won approximately 40 percent of all the majors played. These are significant figures in the game. We’ll cover it and ask questions, how competitively sharp might they be, how much golf have they played, where have they intersected with PGA Tour players on the worldwide competitive circuit, the Middle East earlier in the year, things of that nature.

“And then we’ll have cameras trained to watch for any interactions in the tournament, the practice area. Will they be in the media center? Will Augusta make them available? Assuming they will, but we don’t know for sure at this point, so we’ll be ready on that front. Then from there, we cover the Masters and we remember always that — at Augusta you take a breath. You slow down a little bit. People are tuning in I think because they’re curious as to how all this is going to go with respect to LIV, but also because they love the Masters and they want to find out about the changes at the 13th hole…So we’ll be golfy. We certainly won’t be all LIV all the time. We’re certainly not going to shy away from that, but there’s so many other aspects to cover, as Brandel and Notah know full well.”

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Trevor Immelman becomes the new face — and lead analyst voice — of CBS Sports golf

“I’m going to be myself, I’m going to be authentic and I’m going to be honest.”

SAN DIEGO – Trevor Immelman was out early on Thursday walking the South Course at Torrey Pines as the Santa Ana wind blew tumbleweed across greens and cardboard recycling bins tumbled down hills.

“It’s a perfect day if you’re a fan watching, but as a player you’re freaking out. I just watched Patrick Rodgers rinse his third in the water on 18,” Immelman said. “Kind of happy with just being in the tower this week.”

Immelman, who won twice on the PGA Tour, including the 2008 Masters, will be in the CBS Sports “super tower,” and beginning Friday becomes just the fifth person to serve as “The Eye’s” lead analyst, following in the footsteps of Ken Venturi, Lanny Wadkins and most recently Nick Faldo, who stepped down in August after 16 years in the big seat.

Faldo’s departure came as a bit of a surprise to Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports, who said he had no intention of replacing Faldo until they had their annual breakfast during last year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and Faldo broke the news that he planned to retire and build a ranch in Montana.

“The first name that popped into my head was Trevor’s,” McManus said during a recent Zoom interview with Golfweek. “And I thought, you know, who can go into that booth in a seamless way? You know, he’s done television, he’s proven how good he is at television. So it really for me, listen, we thought about other people and we discussed other, you know, other possible folks to go into that slot. But no one came up to the level of Trevor. Every time I listened to him, I thought, boy, full time role working with Jim Nantz on most of our tournaments and Andrew Catalon on the others, he’s my choice.”

Nantz, who is kicking off his 38th year with CBS, has broken in new partners before, but as put it, “we’re not having to put the training wheels on here.”

Added Nantz: “I am not bringing in a new partner, I’ve got a partner who has got a tremendous amount of experience. I’ve worked with him numerous times and he is very skilled at this. He is a naturally gifted communicator, who carries himself in a way that exudes class and integrity. And there’s a high warmth quotient to the man; I think he’s going to be just such a hit for people to have in their living room.”

Immelman didn’t give TV a thought until he began battling various injuries and his game hit the rocks. In 2017, a Golf Channel producer convinced him to do a try out at the Wyndham Championship, and a new door was opened.

“I love the sport of golf so much, I was trying to think of ways that I could still stay involved and stay a big part of it, and fortunately, that’s when I got the opportunities to dip my toe in the water for TV,” he said. “I thoroughly enjoyed it, I could feel the energy. At the tournament, I felt the excitement and the adrenaline rush of trying to find the right words to explain to the viewer what was going on with the action.”

Nantz remembers distinctly that once Immelman started working with CBS as a hole analyst, Immelman would call him seeking constructive criticism on how he could improve at his new craft.

“He was so anxious to be great at this, and I was flabbergasted how good he was right away,” Nantz said. “He would call all the time. I was completely at a loss for words. I didn’t know how to tell him to get better. He was already there. And I think there was a period where he thought maybe I was just passing it off, didn’t want to invest in the hard truth. This is what you need to do. I was being truthful with him. You’re doing really well. Just keep getting more reps…He’s going to be brilliant.” (Immelman noted that broadcaster Brian Anderson has been a mentor and that his wife, Carminita, is his toughest critic – “My wife is straight to the point, always has been,” he said.)

With Nantz in Kansas City to call the NFL’s AFC Championship game on Sunday, Immelman and Nantz will call their debut this week at the Farmers Insurance Open from many miles apart. But Immelman said he expects at some point next week at Pebble Beach when they are seat side by side, “I’ll be like, Whoa, this is, you know, he’s the voice of – I don’t want to sound negative – but he’s the voice of my youth.”

Immelman, a native of South Africa, recalled being six years old and staying up after midnight to watch his first Masters in 1986 and hearing Nantz call Jack Nicklaus’s heroics.

“That moment is like etched in my memory,” said Immelman, who 22 years later sat next to Nantz in Butler Cabin as the champion and received his green jacket.

Immelman served as captain of the International team at the 2022 Presidents Cup and is deeply entrenched among the current players he’ll now be covering. He got some additional reps as analyst for Golf Channel this fall. His preparation also included a trip to Cincinnati in December to see how Nantz and partner Tony Romo called a football game (Bengals vs Chiefs) and sit in their production meetings.

“That was his idea,” Nantz said of Immelman. “And it’s typical of Trevor trying to find every means possible to try to make himself better.”

Making his debut at Torrey Pines is fitting for Immelman, who first visited these sun-soaked shores to play in the 13-14 age group of the World Juniors and won the 1998 U.S. Amateur Public Links here. In the years that followed, Immelman experienced the highs and lows of professional golf, and he believes that will serve him well in his new role.

“I wasn’t an elite player, was nice player, I won the Masters, which is, you know, huge. But, so I know what it takes to get to there, I know what it takes to play at that level. And to mix it up with the best,” he said. “But then I also have all the experiences of being on the other side, where it’s not quite going your way, where you’re struggling to keep your card. And it’s two different worlds, I can promise you, it’s two different worlds. But when you’re in it, you don’t realize how fine the line is. And so that’s what I think I have to bring to the table is the understanding of both sides of the spectrum. And I have a real passion for the game and love for the game. So hopefully I can find a way to tell those stories with the appropriate energy and enthusiasm to where people at home enjoy it.”

In his role as Presidents Cup captain, Immelman was an outspoken and opinionated leader. Will he be that strong a voice in the 18th tower and able to criticize players for whom he’s developed deep ties?

“I’m going to be myself, I’m going to be authentic and I’m going to be honest. If there’s something that I see that a player or a caddie or a coach or anything that’s happening on our air takes place that I disagree with, or if I have an opinion on, I’m going to go ahead and say that, that is my job. That’s what I’ve been put in that seat to do,” he said. “And if I don’t do that, we’re going to have millions of fans sitting at home, who can see that call me out. So, it’s up to me to make sure that I go ahead and be honest and be authentic.”

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Presidents Cup: Can the International team pull off a Quail Mary and upset the Americans?

The Internationals need to win 8½ of the 12 points up for grabs on Sunday to complete the comeback.

CHARLOTTE – The fat lady was warming up and it was only Friday evening of the 2022 Presidents Cup.

That is until 20-year-old Tom Kim, doing his best Ian Poulter imitation, led a spirited charge as the International team outscored the Americans in a two-session day for the first time since 1998.

“We were in a deep hole,” International team Captain Trevor Immelman said, “and we dug deep.”

The putts started to drop for the International side, none bigger than the 10-foot birdie putt on 18 at Quail Hollow Club by Kim to beat the U.S. team of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, and cut the deficit to 11-7 going into Sunday’s singles session.

“We got to refocus, and we’ve got a lot of pissed off guys that want to come out really strong tomorrow,” said Jordan Spieth.

“Guess I’d be one of those pissed off guys,” Schauffele, who was seated next to Spieth said.

Spieth and Thomas won the lone four-ball match of the afternoon session to stretch the U.S. lead to 11-4 before the International side captured the final three points up for grabs. It was shades of the 2012 Ryder Cup when Europe staged a furious rally on Saturday to set up a comeback dubbed the Miracle at Medinah – from four points behind. As if that isn’t enough of a coincidence, the U.S. captain that year was none other than Love.

“Four points is four points. It’s been a big number,” Love said. “I’ve been four behind before too, you know. We’ve been four ahead, four behind. We’ve watched the Solheim Cup be four ahead. So it’s a magical number.”

If the Internationals are to complete the biggest comeback in the event’s 28-year history and win on American soil for the first time, they’ll need to claim 8½ of the 12 points up for grabs.

Love has stacked his Sunday singles lineup with big names going out early: Justin Thomas in the leadoff spot followed by Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.

Speaking on Golf Channel’s Live From, Paul McGinley said, “it’s very important that they don’t leak any more oil. Then the pressure flips onto America in front of the home crowd. Every one of us thought here thought this was over yesterday.”

Despite playing on foreign soil and being outmanned and missing the likes of Cameron Smith, Immelman has molded a team that took his mantra of playing with freedom to heart. Immelman’s lineup is a bit more eclectic and surprisingly left the team’s Energizer Bunny, Kim, to the 10th match rather than send him out early to provide another spark.

“We have our system, and we try and run it,” Immelman explained. “If we’re 10 up or 10 down, we run our system, and we see what happens.”

Australian Adam Scott, who is competing in his 10th Presidents Cup, liked what he saw on Saturday. It was the future of a team that even if it doesn’t pull off an unlikely upset could be the core for years to come, including someday when he’ll be calling the shots. Saturday’s rally is a day that he’ll not soon forget.

“I think over the course of my career in this, there hasn’t been many times I’ve felt momentum going our way,” he said. “And today, we had the momentum. We certainly have it finishing this evening, and it will be great if we could keep it rolling tomorrow.”

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