Quickly turning into one of the top voices in the game, Mark Immelman is entering his 20th season at Columbus State University.
Immelman spent his first 14 years as the head men’s golf coach before being elevated to Director of Golf in the summer of 2015. As director, Immelman oversees the operations of both the men’s and women’s golf programs.
In addition to his coaching duties, Immelman is featured on countless PGA Tour events, including the Masters and PGA Championship, serving as a commentator for CBS Sports. He also does work for PGA Tour LIVE, a streaming channel from the PGA giving fans the most exclusive coverage of professional golf on any platform, and hosts his own podcast on PGATour.com “On the Mark”. He often contributes articles for PGATour.com and has been published in the Complete Golfer and Golf Digest magazines. In addition, he has written eBooks including “Scandalously Simple: The Easy Way to Accurate Golf Shots” that can be found on iTunes.
Since taking over the Cougar golf program, Immelman quickly reestablished Columbus State as one of the elite NCAA Division II programs in the nation. CSU has reached the NCAA Regional in all but one season under Immelman’s watch, including a second place finish at the 2006 NCAA Championship. The Cougars have also grabbed two other top-five finishes (2007 & 2009) at the NCAA Championship in that span. Since Immelman’s appointment in 2001, the Cougars have appeared in seven NCAA Championships.
In the highly competitive Peach Belt Conference, Columbus State has won a pair of championships under Immelman capturing the 2007 and 2016 titles. Under his watch, two Cougars have been named PBC Golfers of the Year (Andrew Georgiou, 2007 & Jordan Doull, 2019) while 30 have earned All-Conference accolades. In 2017-18, he coached his first ever PBC Freshman of the Year after Jordan Doull earned the honor.
Immelman has produced 12 All-Americans with multiple Cougar golfers turning professional after their careers ended at CSU. In July 2012, he had his first former player reach the pinnacle of the golfing world as Georgiou participated in the Open Championship.
In 2015, Immelman turned his attention to the women’s side as the program was trying to find it’s footing after starting the team in the fall of 2009. Immelman hasn’t disappointed as the Lady Cougars completed the best year in program history during the 2018-19 season winning three tournaments while Victoria Libaak became the first female golfer in CSU history to win the individual PBC Championship. In the spring of 2019, the Lady Cougars were featured in a national poll for the first time in program history.
The 2018-19 also saw Immelman’s first two female All-PBC performers in Libaak and Anna Meleshkina.
Immelman has won numerous awards in his stint at Columbus State including being named the 2009 NCAA Division II Coach of the Year and the 2007 Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year.
In June 2019, Immelman served as a coach for Team International in the legendary Arnold Palmer Cup, which features the best U.S. and International collegiate golfers. Team International and Immelman were victorious 33.5-26.5.
A Columbus State alumnus, Immelman had quite the career for the Cougars. In addition to being named a three-time All-American (1992, 94, 95), Immelman helped the Cougars to two national championships (1992, 94) and a runner-up finish in the 1993 national tournament. He also produced in the classroom twice being named an Academic All-American. In 2017, Immelman was enshrined in the Columbus State Athletic Hall of Fame.
After his graduation, Immelman became a professional golfer before a two-year stint as a sports agent. It was not to long before Immelman learned his new passion, teaching the game of golf. At the end of 1998, Immelman returned home to South Africa to open his own golf academy in his hometown of Somerset West.
In 1999, Immelman was offered the opportunity to coach on the European Tour where he stayed until his appointment as head Columbus State golf coach in 2001.
Immelman was also critical in the planning and fundraising to open CSU’s state-of-the-art Key Golf Studio in the fall of 2015, a 13-acre facility that is equipped with the latest golf technology. The facility features a 30,000 square foot tee box, two chipping greens surrounded by an acre and a half of Bermuda grass chipping area, a 10,000 square foot TifEagle putting green, five Zoysia grass target greens and a fairway bunker all within a 300-yard practice range. It also features a clubhouse for both the Cougar and Lady Cougar teams.
Immelman is the main instructor at the Mark Immelman Golf Instruction, located at the Key Golf Studio, working with a plethora of professionals including Trevor Immelman (younger brother, 2008 Masters Champion), Larry Mize (1998 Masters Champion), Louis Oosthuizen (2010 British Open Champion) and many other PGA, European, Nationwide and Africa’s Sunshine tours professionals.
Immelman and wife Tracy were married in 2002 and have two daughters Isabel (born 2007) and Sophia (born 2011).
