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 theatre. 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 four-iron struck another one.
He managed to scratch out a par with a sand wedge to eight 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 stunning show.
“I think I lost my hearing on a few holes, they were screaming so loud,” Perry said.
He also lost the tournament.
Perry hit 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.
But he was gracious as ever, clapping for Cabrera when he holed an eight-foot putt for his unlikely par to stay in the playoff. And even in defeat, it was hard not to appreciate the give-and-take nature that was restored at the Masters.
“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.”
Calgary’s Stephen Ames finished the day 2-over 74 to tie at 19th. Mike Weir of Bright’s Grove, Ont., was even-par 72 and tied at 45th.
Two years after winning the U.S. Open at Oakmont, Cabrera became the sixth player this decade to win multiple majors.
And he finally gave Argentines some happy memories of the Masters.
It was 41 years ago when Roberto de Vicenzo made one of golf’s most famous gaffes, signing for the wrong score that denied him a spot in a Masters playoff.
When Cabrera returned home as the U.S. Open champion two years ago, de Vicenzo gave him a special gift.
“He gave me a frame where he has in his hand a green jacket, and he says, ‘I hope this gives you luck, so someday you can bring back a green jacket for yourself,”‘ Cabrera said.
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.
It was his second close call in a major.
Six years ago at the PGA Championship, Campbell was one shot behind on the 18th hole at Oak Hill when Shaun Micheel hit a 7-iron to 2 inches.
“I just got beat by a better shot,” Campbell said. “And today, I kind of blew it myself. I hit bad shots.”
The final hour was almost enough to make a dizzy gallery forget about the Woods-Mickelson fireworks hours earlier.
For those who feared Augusta National had become too tough, too dull and far too quiet, the roars returned in a big way.
Mickelson and Woods played together in a final round of a major for the first time in eight years, and they proved to be the best undercard in golf.
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 that captured the imagination of thousands of fans who stood a dozen deep in spots for a view.
But it ended with a thud.
Mickelson lost his momentum with a nine-iron into Rae’s Creek on the par-3 12th, and when he missed a four-foot eagle putt and a five-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 didn’t make a birdie until his 20-foot putt on the 12th curled into the side of the cup. Campbell, playing in the group ahead, 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, which has haunted Perry the rest of his career.
“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.”
Despite all the cheers and excitement that returned to the Masters, no-one really lit up the back nine the way Jack Nicklaus did when he won in 1986, or Mickelson and Ernie Els did in 2004.
