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Five months ago, Trevor Immelman was stretched out in a hospital bed in Somerset, South Africa, wondering if the tumor the doctors spent an afternoon digging out of his diaphragm was malignant. Today, healthy and sporting a 7-inch scar across the right side of his back that he doesn't mind showing, Immelman is leading the Masters.

"Definitely made me realize that golf wasn't my whole life," he said.

Rich Addicks/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)

Trevor Immelman waves to the gallery after making birdie on 17.

Immelman posted his second consecutive 68 on the receptive Augusta National course by using the same formula of consistency: hitting fairways (13) and greens (13) and through economical putting (27). Immelman made only one bogey in his first 36 holes and was one of two players to birdie the final two holes.

"As severe as the golf course can be, I'm real happy with that," he said. "That means I didn't get myself out of position too badly."

Immelman, 28, had quite a health scare in December. A tumor was discovered by his childhood doctor on the eve of a three-week trip to China. The surgery took place on Dec. 18, and Immelman left the hospital on Christmas Eve.

Immelman, who received calls of encouragement from Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, Tim Clark, Nick Price and Gary Player, first had to work his way off the morphine required to stifle the pain. It took him two weeks to regain the ability to walk. Six weeks later, he was ready to hit a few chip shots, and another couple of weeks passed before he felt confident enough to make a full swing on the range.

"It was a couple of months that I was operating quite gingerly, and after that I could be back to it," he said.

His return to the PGA Tour hasn't been seamless. His best finish this year was a tie for 40th at the WGC-CA Championship at Doral, but he doesn't blame any surgical aftershocks.

"The first few weeks out on Tour, every tweak and every ache, my mind was wandering," Immelman said. "But at this point, not at all. I feel normal."

Immelman, whose brother, Mark, is the golf coach at Columbus State, tied for fifth in the 2005 Masters, his best performance in a major. A year ago, he lost 20 pounds after picking up a stomach parasite at the Masters, which limited him to 21 tournaments.