So much for 2008 being the year that Tiger Woods wins the "Grand Slam" of golf by capturing all 4 of golf's majors. Trevor Immelman of South Africa was solid for 4 rounds of play and captured The Masters title for 2008. Woods, who missed a number of reasonable putts in yesterday's final round, finished 2nd, three shots behind Immelman.

As we discussed on our show this past weekend, The Masters is HUGE business.

CBS earned a 8.9/18 overnight Nielsen rating for Sunday’s final round coverage of The Masters, down slightly from a 9.1/21 last year, when the final round was played on Easter. CBS earned a 6.1/14 overnight for Saturday’s third round coverage, up slightly from last year.

Meanwhile, ESPN’s coverage of the second round of The Masters on Friday averaged 3.0 million households, up 26.2% from 2.4 million HHs on USA Network last year, and marks the most-viewed cable golf telecast ever according to the Sports Business Daily.  And ESPN's Masters Video Podcast was the most downloaded sports podcast on iTunes this weekend.

So on the TV front, even though Tiger and Mickelson were never really in the thick of things this past weekend, ratings held their own.

Nike Golf enjoyed significant exposure, with its athletes representing three of the top five (Immelman, Tiger and Stewart Cink), and five of the top 20 positions on the final leaderboard - all using Nike Golf equipment and wearing Nike Golf apparel and footwear.  Nike Golf currently leads the PGA Tour in driver and iron wins with five in 2008.

Using Nike Golf’s SQ SUMO 5000 driver and the new Nike ONE Platinum ball featuring Power Transfer technology, Immelman ranked first in the field in driving accuracy, hitting 48/56 fairways and averaging 85.71%.  He impressively ranked fourth in driving distance averaging 287.50-yard drives.  With the combination of his Nike CCi irons and ONE Platinum ball, Immelman tied for second in greens in regulation hitting 51/72 greens and averaging 70.83%.  Completing his full bag of Nike Golf arsenal were his 17? SQ SUMO Fairway Wood, his 21? SQ SUMO Hybrid and his SV 50, SV 54 and SV 60-degree wedges.

Immelman is a marketable player in my opinion. He's well spoken, good looking, has an outgoing personality and a nice smile. But because Nike Golf has the exclusive rights to his hat and apparel, it will be impossible for another sponsor to get any exposure on Immelman's hat or shirt in the future. Just as you don't see Tiger Woods wear anything but the Nike swoosh on his hat or shirt, the same holds true for Immelman.

Immelman can appear in ads for non-Nike sponsors though and I'd be surprised if someone doesn't snatch up the 2008 Masters champ to endorse their product before too long.

And I am going to predict that this won't be Immelman's lone grand slam win. I don't think he is a flash in the pan. I've spoken with Kel Devlin from Nike Golf's sports marketing division previously and he tells me that Immelman is a super talent.

Give credit to Nike Golf for getting in on Immelman before he won his first grand slam. And congratulations to Immelman for a gutsy performance. He's battled back from a serious illness last year and now sits atop the golf world basking in his Masters victory.