PNC CHAMPIONSHIP

December 19, 2025

Trevor Immelman

Jacob Immelman

The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back. So this marks your second year as the father/son duo coming back to PNC Championship. Tell me a little bit about from each of you what is your favorite part of this event?

JACOB IMMELMAN: I mean, I play with him often, but to play with him in a competitive environment is different and fun, and to have a crowd watch us is so fun. So I enjoy all of it.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah, really everything is just a blast for us. PNC, the organizers do a brilliant job putting this event together. It's just a real nice family environment from start to finish.

Even these couple days doing the pro-ams and getting to go hang out with the guests is a lot of fun. And I agree with what Jacob said. For us to be able to get out here and have a little competition and be on the same team together really adds an extra layer of special to that.

You know, for guys that played on TOUR for a long time, it's sometimes difficult for family and friends to understand what it's actually like because you are out there on your own in an individual sport.

Now to have the ability to compete with him alongside me is something a little different. You know, it's not the most high-stress environment in the world, but it's a lot of fun.

So to be able to be here with all these legends of the game and have a great time in my hometown of Orlando is what it's all about.

Q. Jacob, you play golf yourself. Do you guys do anything special to prepare for this tournament or just go out and have fun?

JACOB IMMELMAN: We've been practicing scrambles, which is something we've never done before.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: No.

JACOB IMMELMAN: So we've actually come out here and played quite a bit of golf. Yeah, it's been different because, you know, at home you play and mess around, but we're trying to hit good shots and pick whose is best. Yeah, so we been practicing scrambles and it's been fun.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah, for sure. I'm not a golfer anymore so I'm having to roll back the clock in my mind to remember some good shots I hit in the past.

Like he says, the last couple weeks we've been trying to do a little practice and hopefully not embarrass ourselves out there in the next couple days.

THE MODERATOR: That's fair. Have you gotten any advice from your dad that has changed your approach to both this tournament but then also your game overall?

JACOB IMMELMAN: I would say one thing just overall that he keeps telling me is keep low expectations. I feel like in golf it's so momentum-based; once you play good you're like oh, man I can't miss a shot. Once it goes bad, it's really bad. As long as, you know, you keep yourself calm and don't think too much of it you'll be fine.

Q. Trevor, as a kid and all the way through the height of your career, how much did you really love golf and how did you pass that on to Jacob since you can't tell somebody to love golf; they have to figure it out for themself?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I started when I was five and I was immediately obsessed by the sport. I've got goosebumps just saying that. Immediately obsessed. Growing up in little suburb outside of Cape Town, being able to watch major championships and PGA TOUR events on TV late into the night because of the time change. We used to record them on VHS and just used to play them back and watch golf nonstop, professional golf nonstop, and try and mimic these players and do the things that I saw them doing on TV, hoping that one day I would have the opportunity.

First major I ever watched on TV was the '86 Masters, which is one the most famous, and from that moment on I was thinking to myself, okay, everything I do from here on out, the decision and the answer to the decision needs to be, is this going to help me get to the Masters one day.

And so I was hyper focused as a youngster and the love was intense and deep and the fire was burning real bright, and so I got good quite quickly. I practiced a lot. My parents allowed me every opportunity that was possible to them to give me a shot at it.

You know, I had a little toughness, a little chip on my shoulder coming from the corner of Africa trying to make my way to the most competitive TOUR on the planet, and got there.

And then as your life starts to change a little bit and you've been on TOUR 10, 15 years and I started struggling a little bit it becomes a bit more of a grind. It happens to everybody if you play the sport long enough.

But that's where that love really comes back to help you, because at times, particularly in my case, I was getting beat up quite badly after I won the Masters, injuries, losing form, and struggling.

You have to have that love otherwise you're just going to roll over and quit. But at the end of the day looking at it now from a slightly different perspective because of the role that I have now, everything I have, everything he has, everything our whole family has is because of golf, the PGA TOUR, major championships, and quite frankly, the United States of America being able to have an opportunity to compete against the best players here.

So that love is pretty intense and I hope that people who watch me on TV on the weekends on CBS don't fall asleep and they hear that passion coming through the TV, because I really appreciate everything the game has given me.

Q. Let's turn it over to the Clemson kid. Why do you like golf?

JACOB IMMELMAN: Well, I've been around it my whole life. It was never -- I think why I love it is because it was never pushed on me. I feel like if it gets pushed on you you could grow to hate it. So playing it and falling in love with it was all my decision.

I can remember when I was three, four, five years old just going out with him, whacking balls, just, you know, causing trouble probably. Yeah, no, from then on I just loved it.

I played some other sports as a kid but when I was 12 years old I was like, man, I really like golf. Yeah, I love it.

Q. Thank you.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Thank you.

Q. I met your dad when I was 11 years old at a FlightScope headquarters. He was extremely proud of you, and after watching you play last year, I think you're extremely proud of your son, too.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah.

Q. My question is for both of you: Jacob, when your dad isn't playing golf he's an extremely important golf analyst. When you play with your dad, do you ever find him analyzing you like he does on TV or do you get to see a different side of your dad?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: You go ahead.

JACOB IMMELMAN: That's a great question. I mean, I feel like there is a bit of a difference. He's not out there commentating on my shots. He's very helpful. When I am struggling he is very quick to diagnose a problem, which I'm very happy about because I can kind of go down a rabbit hole trying to find something.

But, yeah, he becomes very -- he's very calm with me and patient because I can kind of lose my mind out there to be honest.

So, yeah, he's very -- I mean, I guess he's just a great father figure out there. Very calm. We just have fun out there.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: By the way, he gets the bad temper from his mother, not from me.

JACOB IMMELMAN: Exactly. Exactly.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: I got to say in the last few years in particular when I'm at home watching TV and watching golf on TV, I do find myself always commenting on what people are saying and what players are doing. It's just something that I enjoy. I'm such a huge fan of the game. I'm so invested in it in top to bottom.

So I love it. Any opportunity I get to be able to watch golf or be a part after tournament, I jump all in. I love it.

But I am very, very proud of this young man. He's a good kid.

Q. Thank you so much.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Thank you.

JACOB IMMELMAN: Thank you.

Q. Trevor, a lot of stories this week about Tiger turning 50 in a few more days.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah.

Q. What does it mean in your career to be one of the guys that handed him one of his seven runner-ups in a major?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah, I mean, it gets better and better as the years roll on, there is no doubt about it. You know, 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 in two decades.

A couple of them that I won over here he finished second, which is a lot of fun for me. It's obviously something I'm very proud of. 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. I've always told my kids. I've got a younger daughter, Maya as well. Told them if you're going send one Christmas card every year, you better send it to Tiger because without him we would be in a different situation.

Q. Is there one shot, one moment that you look back was the turning point of that Masters?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, you know, interestingly enough, I had a two-shot lead starting on the Sunday and it was a very blustery day. We had wind gusts up to 35 miles an hour. Because that course calls for you to be so precise on approach with your distance control the wind blowing that much really caused quite a lot of havoc out there, and I think because it was so difficult it didn't allow my mind to wander too far into the future.

Every shot was just a disaster waiting to happen, so it really kept me in the moment just trying to put one foot in front of the other and keep grinding out pars.

It was one of the final rounds where ordinarily we're used to the second nine at Augusta National, the big roars and eagles and birdies and guys coming back. You think about what Justin Rose did earlier this year to make a run and almost win.

It was a little different in '08 because guys were just -- we were surviving out there because the course was so difficult.

So I managed to just stay in my own little world for long enough to get across the line.

Q. Trevor, you had mentioned that this is a chance for Jacob to see what you went through inside the ropes for all those years. I'm going to ask Jacob, last year in your first experience, what struck you the most about what your dad has gone through inside the ropes as a professional?

JACOB IMMELMAN: I mean, the one thing that sticks out to me when we play this event is when there is a little crowd or people watching you get quite nervous. So I mean, just looking back, I mean, you know, even the Masters that he won, the amount of people that were following him, I don't know how you deal with that to be honest.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Sometimes you don't.

JACOB IMMELMAN: Yeah, yeah.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah, just got to keep rolling with it. I just found over the years I don't think you can control nerves. I think when you hear people say, oh, I'm just trying to control my nerves that's a complete and utter lie. We're all human. we all get anxious. We all get nervous. We're all unsure at times. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to it. Could happen on a three-foot putt or a tee shot on the 18th hole. It could happen at any moment, and you've just got to roll with it.

I just learnt that -- I always found it interesting that there would be times I felt super confident over a shot and hit a bad one, and then there were times I felt absolutely exposed and thought there was no way I could hit a good shot and then I did.

So I started to wonder to myself, well, how much does it really matter how much you feel. Just get on with it. Trust your training and trust what you've practiced. At the end of the day, if you give it your best shot, then you're going to be able to put your head on the pillow at night.

Q. Trevor, I was wonder, obviously you spend more time with the microphone in your hand than clubs.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah.

Q. I am wondering, how often do you get out and play a round?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah, as I stand here right now, I feel like not often enough. Talking about being exposed. I level feel like that, having to put pencil to participate here over the next couple days.

But like I said earlier, I love it so much. Any opportunity I get I come out and hit some balls. I've actually been coming out here. The course where I'm a member of has actually been closed for renovation this year, so the folks over at the Ritz have been nice enough to allow me to come out and practice here and do a little work when I can.

So it's probably a couple days a week, two hours at a time when I'm home, but thoroughly enjoying my role with CBS and that's the future for me.