Jack Nicklaus accidentally injured Trevor Immelman at the Masters Champions Dinner on Tuesday, when the six-time champion's cane came down on the 2008 winner's foot. Nick Faldo said Immelman was left walking with a limp after the awkward moment at golf's most exclusive dinner.
Faldo said Nicklaus, 86 years old, came up with a cane that had four claws on the bottom and set it down while leaning on Immelman's foot. He said the exchange was brief and left the South African trying to carry on politely through the pain.
The dinner came 12 months after Rory McIlroy hosted the gathering following his Masters triumph, a year that shifted the atmosphere from celebration to succession. McIlroy's menu and wine selection drew praise from Fred Ridley, while Jordan Spieth said the food was incredible and the stories around the table were even better.
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That setting is part of what makes the Champions Dinner such a watched event. Attendees also passed around a driver once belonging to Ben Hogan, and the room included only the game’s Grand Slam winners, a group Faldo singled out as making a quietly rare photograph of Rory McIlroy, Nicklaus and Gary Player especially memorable.
Faldo has long been one of the bluntest voices when the meal misses the mark, criticizing Bubba Watson's menu in 2013 and again in 2015. This time, his remarks were about an accident rather than the food, but they still captured the odd mix of reverence and discomfort that can hang over a night built to celebrate golf’s greats.
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For Immelman, the episode was minor in the scale of the game, but impossible to miss in a room where every gesture gets remembered. The only real question now is how quickly the story fades once the next champion sits down and the conversation moves on to the menu, the wine and the small ceremonies that make the Masters dinner matter.
