Winning Ways: Cabrera

Last updated: 13th April 2009

Golf365 reveals the secrets of success for this week's new Masters champion.

US MASTERS CHAMPION - ANGEL CABRERA

In The Bag

Driver - Ping Rapture
Fairway wood - Ping Rapture V2
Irons - Ping S57 Irons & G10 2-iron
Wedges - Ping Tour-W and Ping Tour-W TS
Putter -Ping i-Series ½ Craz-E Putter
Ball - Titleist ProV1x

The final pair

For the 18th time in the last 19 Masters tournaments the winner emerged from the last group out on the course. Only Zach Johnson has bucked this trend.

It seems to back up the theory that Augusta is not a course on which to chase a score - or, indeed, the two leaders.

As Justin Rose said last year: "If you start going at pins that you probably shouldn't be going at, this course destroys you. When you press on this golf course, it just seems to get further and further away from you."

Final round calm

Although not know for being the most tranquil player (he won the US Open whilst furiously sucking on cigarettes between shots) and despite playing the front nine carelessly, Cabrera's back nine was the model of an unflustered chasing down of a leader.

He departed the 12th green trailing Perry by three shots but refused to panic. A birdie on 13 reduced the deficit by one, but although he played 15 and 16 in two under par he was outgunned by even better birdies from Perry. Still, Cabrera didn't go for broke, but played the long game.

He needed to hole difficult putts on the 18th green in regulation and in the play-off until he had ground Perry down, almost allowing the weight of the moment to defeat his opponent.

Cabrera's stats

The big Argentinean won this week less by doing one thing better than anyone else, than by having almost no weakness.

He was ranked in the top 15 for all of the critical aspects of the game: Driving Distance, Greens in Regulation, Putting Average, Putts Per Round, Scrambling, Sand Saves, Birdie Conversion and Par Breaking.

It was a supremely solid performance that belied his gung-ho reputation.

The green jacket Argentina is owed

Famously, in 1968, Cabrera's fellow Argentine Roberto De Vicenzo missed out on an 18-hole play-off at Augusta when he signed for an incorrect score in the final round. He went on to utter the immortal line, "What a silly I am."

After Cabrera won the US Open in 2007 De Vicenzo sent him a photograph of a green jacket, indicating that it could be his next prize. In earning the right to wear it, El Pato (The Duck) has righted a wrong.