Down at Lake Nona in Florida where some of English golf's young guns hang out, Trevor Immelman is part of the gang, one of the lads. When Justin Rose and Ian Poulter wanted to practise at Augusta National a few weeks ago, Immelman travelled with them. Immelman would call Paul Casey if he wanted someone to dine with in Masters week.

Immelman knocks around with the English golfers, owns a house in Richmond upon Thames, southwest London, and his home in Florida is on a street called Covent Garden. You could mistake him for English if not for the South African twang. And the green jacket, obviously.

Aged between 27 and 32, Immelman, Luke Donald, Casey, Rose and Poulter have much in common, having opted to set up home to try to make it big in America. Now the South African has set himself apart with his victory in the Masters on Sunday when the admirable solidity of his game - plopping into the water on the 16th apart - was in stark contrast to the flakiness of some of his buddies.

A closing 76 for Rose in the eighteenth major championship of his career moved the 27-year-old down the field in a distant tie for 36th and exposed a bizarre, you might say slightly troubling, anomaly. His tie for fourth place in the 1998 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, when he was still an amateur, is one spot better than he has managed as a professional in any of the majors.

Normally it is Poulter's clothes that make you grimace, but his shank at the 9th on Saturday was followed by a final-day 78. “I've not done an awful lot wrong and there's no way I'm going to walk off today thinking that I've just had a 'mare,” he said after a round that included three consecutive double bogeys. Never mind what he did with a lob wedge, beat that for positive spin.

Casey's 79 was the third-worst score on a day when he expected to press for victory and followed his collapse at last year's US Open after the round of the tournament. Donald did not make the cut, which kept his profile low but should not allow him to evade the critical analysis.

For this trio, there are two ways of looking at Immelman's victory. Either the success of one of their friends proves that, if Trevor can do it, why not them? That was the way Casey was coming at it on Sunday night. “It's going to make me work even harder because he's one of my mates and is someone I want to beat,” he said.

Rather more pessimistically, there is the notion that Immelman is going to leave them behind. What if he has a talent that they do not possess? What if, deep down, only he has the nerve that can convert comparable talent into victory in a major?

On the plus side, many kind things have been said about Immelman's swing, and not just by his mentor, Gary Player, but his career trajectory has not been so different from his fellow Englishmen. He was an outstanding youth player in South Africa and spent a few good seasons in Europe without tearing up the place.

His victory on Sunday has actually helped to debunk the criticism, levelled at the likes of Rose and Donald, that they went to America too soon, before they had built up a formidable winning record. Becoming the king of Europe, as Colin Montgomerie managed year after year, did not do him much good when it came to the majors.

Like Immelman, England's young turks decided to go in search of the big competitions, and the big money, and they have proved their ability to challenge. As well as the names above, there was Nick Dougherty, the 25-year-old Liverpudlian who would have recorded a top-20 finish except for a late brace of bogeys.

Lee Westwood tied with Casey just outside the top ten and, while he is a little older, his slimline silhouette shows a newfound hunger to challenge for the top honours.

Among the English, there remains plenty of promise but, as one wise commentator said of Rose after all the hope at Augusta turned to dust, he resembles a finely cooked dinner without the salt. The worry is that the phrase, which might equally be applied to some of Rose's compatriots, points towards character flaws rather than simply inexperience.

Why we like Tiger

The idea is still peddled that Tiger Woods has a glitch in his game, or his brain, that prevents him coming from behind to win a major and it was probably bound to resurface when he failed to secure the Masters. All 13 of his triumphs in golf's main events have come as a frontrunner on the final afternoon.

It is a quirky statistic but far less remarkable, surely, than him coming second at Augusta while hitting several drives into the trees and ranking 27th with the putter. His game was C minus, yet he was only three shots away from Trevor Immelman.

Woods has come from behind in the final round 28 times to win professional tournaments. He has reeled in distinguished competitors such as Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh and, most recently, Ernie Els, whose four-shot lead he overhauled at the Dubai Desert Classic.

One day soon, clad in red, he will come flying through in a major and it will be one of the great sights in sport. I hope I am in the gallery.

Why we don't like Tiger

“I learnt my lesson with the press,” Woods said as he walked away from the Masters. Our mistake? To take his comment that the grand slam was “easily within reason” and turn it into a story.

Correct me if I am wrong, but if the world's greatest golfer declares that he can pull off an historic and unprecedented feat, it seems our duty to bring it to your attention. Particularly when the remark is posted on his own website. It was not forced out of him, nor was it twisted.

Facing the media before the tournament, Woods had the choice of clarifying it, withdrawing it or toning it down. Instead, when asked if he had seen anything to persuade him from that opinion, he said “No”. Which seemed pretty categoric.

In many of the American golf writers, Woods has a crowd of followers who are even more cowed than his rival players. They are wary of upsetting the biggest name in the game, so he was allowed to get away with Sunday's nonsense unchallenged. He was allowed to blather on about not getting “overspin” with his putter, whatever that is.

As he walked away from Augusta, Woods warned that “I am not going to say anything again”, least of all about grand slams. Boo hoo.