Cabrera Prevails on Day That Tests Wills

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Please resist any temptation to call it anticlimactic, a multi-car pileup won by the least-damaged vehicle, a classic movie with a clumsy ending, a spectacular piece of drama ultimately doused by Rae's Creek and sabotaged by mental blunders. Yes, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods gave us four vintage hours in the Octagon, if the stuffy fathers at Augusta National allow UFC slang. Yes, they were followed by 99.9 percent of the patrons, with only friends and family types watching those actually leading the tournament in a scene both sad and surreal.

And, yes, Mickelson oh-so-predictably wilted after a historic front nine while Woods somehow lost his way when the usual clinch hold was expected.

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But on a day when golf's two most prominent figures tantalized us in a mano-a-mano conflict, only to take machetes to their chances of winning the Masters, wasn't this still about the survivor who maintained his equilibrium a bit longer than the pretenders who faded? Wasn't it about Angel Cabrera, known as "El Pato" (The Duck) in his native Argentina because he walks like one, becoming the first South American to win a green jacket even though he ricocheted a shot off tree bark on the first playoff hole? Wasn't it about Cabrera hitting the right shot on the second extra hole -- gambling on a fade and placing it in the middle of the green -- when poor Kenny Perry was disintegrating just as Chad Campbell had on the first playoff hole and Mickelson and Woods had late in regulation?

Don't be so immersed in Tiger and Phil that you can't honor a champion.

"This is the Masters. It's a course that you can do a lot of birdies, a lot of bogeys," said Cabrera, who now has two major titles on his expanding belt. "A lot of magical things happen here. It's simply the Masters."

In our lifetime, we won't see two or three more compelling days of golf than we did Sunday -- and that includes all the Tiger Sundays, the Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer Sundays. It ended in the fading twilight on the most prescious landscape known to sport, a slice of heaven that looks more beautiful then ever, especially when the rains and lousy weather of recent years finally disappear and let us appreciate Augusta's majesty. Just because Tiger didn't win his 15th major and Mickelson didn't prove his critics wrong doesn't mean it wasn't a memorable afternoon and early evening at the Washington Road pitch-and-putt course.

Golf was the winner Sunday, seizing the American attention span on the Easter holiday and proving why it can be the most emotional of sports, with golfers all alone out there, their flaws and reactions naked to the world.

"It was a very emotional day because it was very up and down, up and down, a lot of highs and lows," Mickelson said. "The crowd made the highs higher, and the moans made the lows even lower."

"I fought my swing all day and just kind of Band-Aided it around," said Woods, who has a way of coining new phrases even amid disappointment. "I almost won the tournament with a Band-Aid swing today. It was just terrible. I don't know what was going on."


Watching them come undone, when the masses were hoping for a Tiger-Phil duel to the last shot, was fascinating theater. Mickelson tied a course record with 30 on the first nine before -- you know the drill, Phil bashers -- foolishly using a 9-iron on No. 12 and pushing his tee shot into the creek, which was followed by two typical missed gimme putts that ended his chances. Then there was Tiger, who had grinded into contention while Mickelson was rising and falling, pulling his tee shot on No. 17 and finishing his first major tournament since knee surgery with consecutive bogeys. This was Ali and Frazier knocking each other out. This was Godzilla and King Kong both ending up dead. This was a $1.7 million Bugatti Veyron crashing into a $1.1 million Ferrari Enzo. And somehow, when it was all over, Woods and Mickelson managed to shake hands warmly while their respective caddies, Steve Williams and Bones Mackay, exchanged low-fives. Um, wasn't this the same Williams who recently said he despised Mickelson and made fun of his man-boobs (which, by the way, don't seem to be as obvious these days with Phil on a workout kick of some sort)?

"I enjoyed the chance to play with Tiger, but I don't think we were really paying much attention to what the other was doing," Mickelson said. "We were both more concerned with trying to make bogeys and catch the leaders."

When they fell short, you could feel the electrical current unplugged on these venerated grounds, where the crowd surrounding the Woods-Mickelson pairing appeared to rival the size of large American cities. And that was wrong, because a few holes back, Cabrera and Perry were playing for their own causes. Perry, the 48-year-old Kentucky gentleman, was trying to become the oldest player to win a major. He also was playing with a heavy heart. His mother, sick was cancer, was back in the family's hometown of Franklin with his father, Ken, who had called his son Saturday night and repeated what he has said many times.

"You need to win that green jacket," said Dad, a retired insurance salesman who built the town golf course.

Kenny seemed on his way, too, needing only a safe landing as he entered the 17th hole with a two-shot lead. But like everyone else, Perry wobbled, ending regulation with two bogeys and surprising those of us who thought he was too smooth to choke. He had another misstep on the first playoff hole, appearing to save himself with a terrific pitch until it was matched by a clutch Cabrera putt. On the next hole, where Campbell eliminated himself with a missed putt, Perry was sloppy again while Cabrera, who won the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont, was letting his poise shine through. Perry, who never has won a major, may not have this chance again to expand his place in golf history, enhanced last year when he eschewed the majors -- amid considerable criticism, so he could more easily accrue Ryder Cup points -- and wound up vindicated when he helped the U.S. win in his native state. He wanted this so badly for his father, saying, "I'm still burning inside, wanting to kick everybody's butt. I've got a will inside of me that my dad taught me. He beat on me so bad as a kid and any kind of game -- sport, whatever -- he beat me so bad, I cried all the time because he just beat on me. And then he would laugh in my face as he was doing it. He was a smart man. He taught me a lot."

So when he lost the holy grail, sure, he was devastated. But not so torn up that he couldn't maintain the good-guy demeanor that makes him so popular in the locker room. "I'm not going to hang my head from this," Perry said. "I fought hard out there. I was nervous, but I was proud of the way I hung in. You know, I might never get this opportunity again, but I had a lot of fun being in there. It was a blast for me. I had the tournament to win. I lost the tournament. But Angel hung in there, and I was proud of him."

Proud? Mighty nice of you, Kenny. "Definitely. I don't root against anybody," he said. "I'm going to congratulate him because I know how hard it is, as a professional and a competitor. I know how the momentum swings here and there, and if they execute and beat you, I'm going to shake the man's hand."

In victory, maybe Cabrera soothed a countryman who has had to live in pain for years. In 1968, Roberto De Vicenzo was set for a Masters playoff with Bob Goalby when he signed an incorrect scorecard. He had made a birdie on No. 17, but he signed for a par -- and Goalby was declared the winner. I know, it's one of those silly golf rules that seem sillier when no dishonesty involved. "What a stupid I am," De Vicenzo said. Finally, 41 years later, a South American has won what he could not.

"De Vicenzo had bad luck. He had a bad moment," Cabrera said through an interpreter. "It's not going to change what happened to him. This win, to take back to Argentina, it's going to help a lot with our game.

"When I won the U.S. Open, Roberto gave me a nice picture with a green jacket inside. He said, 'Go for it.' "

El Pato went for it, all right, even when the thwack of ball hitting tree trunk seemed to end his chances. "I only had a spot, like, this big, and only trees, so I've got to put it through there. That's it," he said of his second shot, which luckily bounced into the fairway. "It was as easy as that."

Chuckles bounced off the walls of the interview room. Clearly, nothing at all was easy about this day, one that left us exhilarated, exhausted and wanting more. A lot of golfers lost Sunday.

But we won.