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Duck Bites Tiger, Tames Oakmonster

DUCK BITES TIGER, TAMES OAKMONSTER

Angel Cabrera roars from behind, claims U.S. Open at Oakmont

OAKMONT, PA – At 2:10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the sportswriter from Japan was his cell phone shouting.  “Anybody can win this thing except Cabrera” he bellowed. Maybe that guy should take a mulligan.  Angel Cabrera may have shot 76 on Saturday to slide well down the leaderboard, but he out-dueled Tiger Woods on Championship Sunday and withstood a furious rally by Jim Furyk to claim his first victory in a major and secure his first professional win on American soil. 

 

            Holding a three shot lead at one point, Cabrera missed an 8-foot put for par on 16, then bogeyed 17 when he decelerated on a greenside chip and then burned the lip on his par attempt.  With his lead dwindled to only one over Woods and Furyk, Cabrera boldly took driver again – he had missed seven times in a row at one point with it – and hit a frozen rope down the middle at 18.  He then safely lofted a short iron in the middle of the green, posted his par and +5 score of 285, and retired to the clubhouse with his caddie Eddie Gardino to wait.

 

Furyk, who had surged into contention with three consecutive birdies at 13, 14 and 15, bogeyed late and missed a playoff by one shot for the second year in a row.  Furyk bogeyed 18 at Winged Foot last year and lost to Geoff Ogilvy by one shot. 

 

On the short seventeenth, Furyk tried to hit driver down the left side as he had all week, but actually drove through the fairway into a severe approach angle.  From there he could not find he green and failed to get up and down to save par.

 

“I never thought I’d hit it far enough to lose my angle” Furyk explained as he bravely faced the media after his round.  “The no-no with that hole was to go left, but at that distance I haven’t hit a ball all week that was far enough up that left side where I didn’t have an angle.  I guess I had extra adrenaline and hit the ball pretty well.  I hit that ball really, really hard and it actually got way too deep.  Then I had no shot at the pin. It cost me a shot at a playoff.”

 

Nevertheless, the bitterly dejected Furyk showed the mettle and sportsmanship that earned him Tiger Woods’ friendship and the respect and adoration of fans throughout the world when he rallied himself in this low moment to claim gallantly and resolutely, “I’m disappointed. I played my heart out.  I shot 140 on the weekend, probably as good as anyone on the weekend.  I came up one shot again, but hey I went down in flames.”  He smiled and seemed to straighten a bit, pulling himself to his full 6’2” height and gave himself a compliment that true “gamers” understand – “I went down swinging hard.”

 

We will feel badly for Furyk for a while.  Two years, two agonizing near misses, two shots he’ll rue the rest of his life.  Still, he was a total gentleman about it and smiled through the golf pain – easier said than done.  It’s bad enough for us bogey golfers to forget about that humiliating nine we took on a par-3 or something, but he’s certainly going to feel like it’s deja vu all over again.

 

            Woods can make the same claim, but it was a putter that turned cold that betrayed him.  “It seemed like all week I hit so many good golf shots that ended up 10-12 feet away, but playing two or three feet of break.  I had to be really defensive and the putts didn’t fall.”

 

            Even though Woods missed every birdie putt from the 4th hole on, he still had a chance to surge into a tie with a birdie at 18.  He striped a drive, but it ran into the first cut of rough and the dicey lie caused him to hit the approach 25 feet long.

 

“It was a putt where I could play eight feet of break:  it’s not like I could hit it inside right firm.  It was a putt I had to die…it was actually a triple breaking putt.  It took a while to come left and by then it was past the line I needed it to be on.” 

 

It was the second time Woods played in the final group in a major, but could not come from behind to claim victory.  The loss left the normally dominant Woods searching for answers.  When asked what he needs to do differently to finally surge to victory in a major from behind he stated somewhat deflatedly “I haven’t gotten it done.  I need to go back and analyze why.”  He then reiterated the putts on what he called “the hardest greens I’ve ever seen.  “These greens are harder than Augusta.  They at least have flat spots where they put the pins….All they [The USGA] needed to do is go two feet off the slope to a flat spot, but they put them just on a slope.  So all the putts had a little more break.”

 

Perhaos Woods’ soul-searching should not last long because he didn’t lose this tournament, Cabrera – known as El Pato, “The Duck” – just went out and took it.  Cabrera shot bookend 69s and was the only player to fire two under-par rounds at Oakmonster.  Shed no tears for Woods’ future because the next three U.S. Open venues play right into his strengths.  He has won at Torrey Pines, Bethpage Black and Pebble Beach on many occasions.  If he makes his putts – and none of those courses has greens like Winged Foot and Oakmont – his length advantage will give him a big edge.

 

            In winning this U.S. Open, Cabrera turned the normal formula of “fairways and greens” on its ear.  Cabrera hit only five fairways all day.  That’s the stat of a man who normally shoots a final day 79 – not the sparkling 69 he turned in to take the title.  Before finally hitting driver in the short grass on 17 and 18, he missed seven consecutive fairways.  That’s a record for a US Open winner in the modern era.  Cabrera was 48th out of 63 players in driving accuracy, but he was ranked number 2 in driving distance, trailing only George MacNeill, who finished last.  On 12 Cabrera’s drive measured a Paul Bunyan-esque 397.  On 18 he crushed it 346.

 

In that respect, Cabrera proved Ernie Els prophetic when Els said “this is a second shot golf course.”  Cabrera was ranked third in Greens in Regulation.  Tiger was ranked first. Cabrera finished 28 in putting while Woods tumbled to 41st.  Any claims that Cabrera may have backed into the title or that Tiger through it away are unfounded.  Cabrera made five birdies on Sunday while Woods made only one.  Woods may have had only one double bogey this this week, but Cabrera had no doubles.  He didn’t back into this, he went out and drove past Woods on the final round 69-72.

 

It’s a feel good story.  Not since Roberto DiVicenzo, another Argentinian, won the 1967 British Open has a South American player won a major.  Cabrera dropped out of elementary school to become a caddie and help feed his family.  It’s a blue-collar effort just as worthy of respect as the hard work of rank and file Americans and we should embrace him dearly.  No more mistaking him for “The Hispanic Mechanic” (uh, that’s Miguel Angel Jimenez for those of you scoring at home), no more comments about Argentina’s failures in the World Cup.  Cabrera looked into the face of the Gorgon that is Oakmont and came back with the head.

 

Perhaps his caddie said it best, “Yes, he is a surprise winner.  He’s never won a major he’s never won in the U.S.  But he’ll be a national hero in Argentina.”  Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.  Cabrera has never missed a cut in 8 tries at U.S. Open – “This week everybody was missing putts so it gave me an advantage.”

 

NOTES AND NEWS

 

The former caddie from Cordoba Country Club in Cordoba, Argentina endeared himself to smokers as he puffed “shorts – size 72” all day.  “He smoked a lot,” said his caddies, Italian Eddie Gardino, “but no more than he usually does, about 8-10 a round.”

 

When asked about celebrating Cabrera said “I’m going to sleep with the trophy!”  Well at least that better then Mickelson sleeping in the green jacket!

 

Woods rolled in every short putt for par, but missed every birdie putt save one on the par 5 4th.

 

The USGA did water the course last night.  The natural contours of the greens and fairways were brought into play with a reasonable chance of holding a good shot.  As one golf course architecture expert said, “The U.S.G.A. kept control of the course. Watering the greens on Friday and Saturday nights were prudent moves, ones that the U.S.G.A. has not always made. The fall-away greens like the 1st, 10th, and 12th are playing to perfection.  The fairway width is fine, with canted fairways like the 12th playing well.  Mike Davis gets an “A” for this year’s setup.  They never got to that razor’s edge where they lost control of the golf course.  The half par holes in particular point out the majesty of the design.”

 

Woods 0 for 28 trying to come from behind in a major.  He’s 12 for twelve when he’s got the lead or tied.

 

Looking forward to carnoustie, Cabrera was one shot shy of a playoff in ’99 at carnoustie.  “He’s so long and so straight, every course is a short course” said Gardino.  “He has a good chance to play well.”

 

Playing in final group w/woods, Baddeley shot 80, leaving him t-13, still his best finish in a major.  Last birdie to TIE was hale Irwin in 90 at medinah

 

Which is harder?  Winged Foot or Oakmont?  We had the same score as winged foot last year, +5 285

 

Looking forward, we should beg the USGA to keep Oakmont and Winged Foot fused at the hip like Siamese Twins.  I know we’ll get Erin Hills as well and that The Country Club is bitter about not getting the 2013 Open to celebrate St. Francis of Ouimet’s mega-versary, but Oakmonster and the Graveyard of Champions are a power coupling that deliver blue lightning from the dynamo.

 

SOUTHWARD HO!

 

For the fourth year in a row, the U.S. Open went to a player born in the southern hemisphere.  Cabrera joined South African Retief Goosen, Kiwi Michael Campbell and Aussie Geoff Ogilvy in the winners circle.  The Duck, the Goose and the Kiwi…what’s next, The Chipmunk?  The Platypus?  The Small White Church Mouse?

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