AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger and Lefty waged a golf duel for the ages.
But Angel Cabrera of Argentina was the last man standing at the Masters.
Not that anybody in America noticed. Or cared.
So here’s to Cabrera, now the world’s 18th-ranked player who beat 48-year-old Kenny Perry and Texan Chad Campbell in a gambling, scrambling playoff to add a green jacket to his wardrobe.
This Masters, however, will be remembered for bringing the roars of the crowd back to Augusta National.
The guys who did it were Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. The five-star celebrity twosome teed off early, seven shots off the lead, then waged a dramatic, made-for-TV battle that ultimately proved to be for fifth place.
No matter.
“It was fun,” Mickelson said.
And fun is precisely what the Masters had been missing during recent years that saw architects Tiger-proofing the course, Mother Nature in a foul spring mood and cruel pin placements that made it extremely difficult to post low scores.
But here was an Easter Sunday that rocked and rolled like a U2 concert. There was a gallery of 30,000 amped fans, and most of them seemed obsessed with following every step of Woods and Mickelson to scream approval for every big putt they sank.
“I think I lost my hearing on a few holes, they were screaming so loud,” Perry said.
For the record, neither Lefty nor Tiger ever reached the top of the leaderboard.
The final round’s electricity, however, was given a jump-start by Mickelson’s remarkable 30 on the front nine. He got within a single shot of the lead, only to rapidly fall apart after a badly hit 9-iron led to a double bogey at the par-3 12th that can make Amen Corner one devil of a test for any golfer’s soul.
Woods stayed in contention until consecutive bogeys ended his round with a 68. “I fought my swing all day,” he said.
Two holes from becoming the oldest pro to win a major tournament, Perry held a two-shot lead. Woods and Mickelson were finished, showered and far out of contention.
But oops happens. Perry surrendered strokes at Nos. 17 and 18, giving Cabrera and Campbell new life in a playoff, which the Masters wages as sudden- death in fading light.
While it took two extra holes to eliminate his competition, the shot that won the tournament for Cabrera was probably his second swing in the playoff, taken from behind a massive pine after an errant tee shot.
He somehow got back to the fairway and in position to save the most crucial par of the tourney with an unintentional bank shot off a tree.
Did Cabrera see how the miracle happened? No.
“I heard,” said Cabrera, admitting to a little blind, dumb luck.
He laughed. Winners always do.
Angel Cabrera bio
Born: Sept. 12, 1969, in Cordoba, Argentina
Major victories: Two — 2009 Masters, 2007 U.S. Open (his only PGA Tour victories)
European Tour victories: Three
Nickname: “El Pato” (The Duck)
Turned pro: 1989 (age 20)
World ranking: Climbed 51 spots to 18
2009 season: Before the Masters, he played in six PGA Tour events, making three cuts with one top-25 finish.
PGA Tour career: In 114 events, he has the two major victories, no second- or third-place finishes, and 14 top-10 finishes.
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