Cabrera emerges to win at Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The cheers came from every corner of Augusta National, the kind of mayhem that had been missing at the Masters.

The last one was for Angel Cabrera, a most unlikely champion.

He heard the roars for Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, a supercharged duel that was pure theater. Cabrera never lost hope when a roar rattled the pines after Kenny Perry got within inches of an ace on the 16th hole to build a two-shot lead with two holes to play.

This is how it’s supposed to be on Sunday at Augusta National.

And it was.

“It’s a course that you can do a lot of birdies, a lot of bogeys,” Cabrera said through an interpreter. “A lot of magical things happen. It’s simply the Masters.”

And the most magical thing of all happened just as the sun began to set.

Perry, a 48-year-old on the verge of becoming golf’s oldest champion, had gone 22 consecutive holes without a bogey until he dropped shots on each of the last two holes for a 71 to force a three-man playoff that included Chad Campbell.

Cabrera, who also shot 71, looked like the odd man out when his tee shot on the first playoff hole landed behind a Georgia pine, and his 4-iron struck another one. But he managed to scratch out a par with a sand wedge to 8 feet and a pressure-packed putt.

When luck turned against Perry on the second extra hole – a splotch of mud on his ball in the fairway that led to a bogey – Cabrera made a routine par to become the first Argentine in a green jacket.

At No. 69 in the world, he became the lowest-ranked player to win the Masters since the world ranking began in 1986.

“This is a great moment, the dream of any golfer to win the Masters,” Cabrera said during the green jacket ceremony. “I’m so emotional I can barely talk.”

Ditto for the 30,000 fans who witnessed this show.

“I think I lost my hearing on a few holes, they were screaming so loud,” Perry said.

He also lost the tournament.

Perry bladed a chip across the 17th green for one bogey, then hit into a bunker on the 18th hole and narrowly missed a 15-foot par putt that would have brought him the major championship he covets.

“I may never get this opportunity ever again, but I had a lot of fun being in there,” Perry said. “I had the tournament to win. I lost the tournament. But Angel hung in there. I was proud of him.”

Two years after winning the U.S. Open at Oakmont, Cabrera became the sixth player this decade to win multiple majors.

Campbell finished with a 69 to join the playoff at 12-under 276, but he was eliminated on the first extra hole when he found a bunker from the middle of the 18th fairway, then watched his 6-foot par putt lip out of the hole.

The final hour was almost enough to make a dizzy gallery forget about the Woods-Mickelson fireworks hours earlier.

Mickelson tied a Masters record with a 30 on the front nine to get into contention. Woods chased him around Amen Corner, then caught him with three birdies in a four-hole stretch.

But it ended with a thud.

Mickelson lost his momentum with a 9-iron into Rae’s Creek on the par-3 12th, and when he missed a 4-foot eagle putt and a 5-foot birdie putt down the stretch. He had to settle for a 67 that left him three shots behind.

Woods bogeyed the last two holes for a 68 to finish another shot back.

Then came the Main Event.

Perry did not make a birdie until his 20-foot putt on the 12th curled into the side of the cup. Campbell narrowly missed two eagle putts on the back nine to forge a brief share of the lead.

It looked like Perry had the green jacket buttoned up when he hit his tee shot to within a foot of the cup on the par-3 16th hole for a two-shot lead over Campbell and Cabrera, who made an 18-foot birdie putt on the 16th just to stay in the game.

Then came his stunning collapse, the second time he has lost a major in a playoff. The other time was 13 years ago at Valhalla.

“I’m not going to feel sorry,” Perry said. “If this is the worst thing that happens to me, I can live with it. I really can.”