Crazy times over for Masters champion Immelman

By Tony Jimenez

SOUTHPORT (Reuters) - Trevor Immelman said on Wednesday he had finally come to terms with a "crazy" roller-coaster period of his life during which he won the U.S. Masters and also underwent surgery to remove a benign tumour.

In December, the South African went into hospital after a non-cancerous growth that was about the size of a golf ball was discovered on his diaphragm.

Immelman returned to competitive golf six weeks after his operation and then captured his first major championship at Augusta National in April.

"Mentally I kind of went AWOL for a couple of months (after the Masters) just trying to figure all of that out, just how crazy the last six or eight months had been for me," he told reporters on the eve of the British Open at Royal Birkdale.

"It has been a little bit of an up-and-down kind of roller-coaster. After Augusta, I was in a space where I was trying to understand and deal with what I had just achieved."

When Immelman first discovered he had a tumour, he wondered whether his golfing dreams would ever be fulfilled.

"When I was first told they would have to go in and take the tumour out, you think to yourself, 'man, maybe I won't be able to play another major championship', maybe that was it for me, maybe my opportunity had passed," said the 28-year-old.

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