Trevor Immelman has been named European Tour Golfer of the Month for April after his first major victory in the Masters. Immelman became the first South African to claim the Green Jacket since his mentor, Gary Player, 30 years earlier.

The 28-year-old, whose 8-under-par total gave him a three-stroke winning margin over world No. 1 Tiger Woods, became the first wire-to-wire winner at Augusta National since Seve Ballesteros in 1980.

The victory lifted him to the top of the European Tour Order of Merit and means he now keeps illustrious company alongside Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Bobby Locke and Player as South African major winners.

Immelman won the April Award ahead of several contenders, led by Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke, who claimed his first European Tour title in five years with a dramatic victory in the BMW Asian Open.

ANOTHER VOICE FOR THE OLYMPICS: Former world No. 1 Greg Norman has echoed PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem's call for golf to become an Olympic sport.

The last time golf was played at the Olympics was in 1904, and three years ago the International Olympic Committee rejected proposals for the sport to return at London 2012.

But Norman stressed the sport's global popularity makes it essential it is part of future Olympics.

"The game of golf is truly played on a global basis," he said. "It is played by all races and it is played on every continent.

"If you think about male and female professionals as well as the amateurs, the game of golf canvasses a lot of people," he added. "And when you think about what the game of golf has done from an economics point of view, you would think the logical choice would be for it to be in the Olympics.

"I can totally understand the IOC point of view that, if golf comes in, there is a cost factor," he explained. "If it comes in then something else has to be dropped, but I have seen what golf has done on a global basis and I would like to see it included.

"I had hoped to have played in Olympics myself and though that is a long time past me, hopefully other golf players will have the chance to experience it."

LAWRIE WANTS A TOUR EVENT: Former British Open champion Paul Lawrie hopes his proposed golf course in northeast Scotland can become a venue for a future European Tour event after his multi-million dollar development was granted outline planning permission recently.

Lawrie is looking to design a course on the site of the former Blairs Seminary in Aberdeenshire and the $230 million development, which will also see the building of new houses and a hotel, was given full backing by the Aberdeenshire council.

The proposal will now go to the Scottish government, which will make a final decision on the project.

"We are all delighted," said Lawrie. "It has been a hard slog to get it through, but we are pleased and extremely grateful to be given the chance to get a golf course put up there.

"We can now get plans down on paper and have a good look at what is going to go where, which we haven't done yet," he added. "It is not done yet, but once we get over the final hurdle we will be there.

"It is going to be a fantastic golf course and I feel we can hold tournaments there," he explained. "I don't think we have a golf course up here where we can hold a European Tour event on. Let's hope we can produce something like that."

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