Jacob Immelman is now 18 years old and just finished the first semester of his freshman year at Clemson, where he plays golf collegiately for the Tigers.
He’s a terrific player, one who had a tremendous junior career before heading to play in college. Not many young golfers can say they have won 18 amateur events in a given year. But Immelman can, having done so in 2023.
Despite these impressive accolades, the younger Immelman has yet to accomplish a grander goal though. He allegedly has never beaten his father, Trevor, who won the 2008 Masters by three strokes over Tiger Woods.
The story behind this tale is quite amusing, which this father-son duo revealed ahead of this week’s PNC Championship.
“Basically, I’ve lost by one many times,” Jacob said Thursday.
“Many times.”
Well, those “many times” are, in essence, a secret agreement between Jacob and his father, who now serves as the lead analyst for CBS Sports.
“When he was about fifteen and a half, and he got his learner’s permit, he was starting to learn how to drive, and just like any kid, he wanted to have a car once he got his license,” Trevor explained.
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“[Jacob] started to get a growth spurt and some power and was starting to play better. I said, ‘I’ll make you a deal. We’ll get a car for you, but here’s what’s going to happen. From here on out, for the rest of your life, I’ll take care of your gas, car, and all the payments and everything, but whenever anybody asks you if you’ve beaten me, you’ve always got to say you lost by one.’ So that’s the story.”
That deal remains ingrained in Jacob’s mind, who acknowledged that detail with a simple response:
“Never beat him,” he said.
Whether that is true or not, Jacob has always been fascinated with golf and the PGA Tour.
“Jake was born right after I won the Western Open, and he was 18 months old when I won the Masters. So he really grew up on the PGA Tour, going to daycare and getting to know all the players and their families and wives and kids,” Trevor explained.
“And I think when you spend enough time around the Tour, you start to understand how great it is and how special this sport is and how it has the ability to — sounds weird at this point, but unify a lot of people together.
“So it’s fun that he got into it and wanted to keep playing. And for me, selfishly, it was awesome because for the majority of his teenage years, I was still somewhat competing, and I was still able to spend a lot of time with him when I was out practicing because he would always tag along and practice and play and what have you. So we became pretty close through that.”
Now, this father-son duo will compete alongside each other at the PNC Championship for the first time this week. But we will not be able to see if Jacob can beat his father because of the event’s format. It’s a 2-man scramble; one player has to have won a major while the other cannot hold any status on any tour. That obviously applies to the Immelmans, but if Jacob keeps trending in the right direction, his status will change sooner rather than later. And if it does, one will have to assume that, yes, at some point, Jacob finally beat his father, but he will likely never admit it.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
