Duck outlasts Tiger in brutal US Open conditions
OAKMONT, Pennsylvania: Heard the fable about the hare and the tortoise? What about the one about the duck and the tiger?
Argentina's Angel Cabrera, nicknamed "el pato" - the duck - in honor of his waddling gait down the fairways proved too hot to handle at the US Open on Sunday for the thoroughbred that is Tiger Woods.
While Woods is the epitome of the modern-day, laser-focussed, chiselled athlete, Cabrero is a throw back to the old days - overweight and puffing on a cigarette between shots.
But all that was irrelevant at Oakmont in Sunday's final round as Cabrero first of all caught Woods, who started the day two strokes ahead of him, moved ahead and then watched transfixed as the world's's top golfer tried to reel him in.
In the end he couldn't and Cabrero had etched his name into the golfing history books with the first ever win for a South American in the US Open and only the second from the continent in the history of the majors after Roberto Di Vicenzo's triumph in the 1967 British Open.
Cabrera, one of the few golfers on the major circuit to require a translator into English, admitted it had been a nerve-jangling experience finding himself in the cross-hairs of golf's superstar.
"I was definitely feeling nervous, but I assumed that this is the same sensation everybody was having in my place," he said.
The 37-year-old Cabrera has done it the hard way battling his way up from the streets of Argentina's second city Cordoba to reach the top in a sport that is very much a poor relation in his soccer-mad home country.
"I started as a caddie when I was 10 years old in Cordoba Golf Club, my home club, and they allowed caddies to play on Mondays and that's when I started playing golf, and I turned pro when I was 20 years old," he said.
"I wasn't able to finish elementary school and I had to work as a caddie to put some food on the table, so that's why probably these moments are enjoyed even more than the common things."
Sponsored by Argentina's top golfer of the last 20 years and fellow Cordoban Eduardo Romero, Caberero gradually worked his way up the European PGA Tour rankings winning the 2002 Benson and Hedges International and the 2005 BMW Championship.
He also came close to winning the British Open at Carnoustie in 1999 and has been in contention before at the Masters.
Cabrera has also been one of the most consistent players over the last few years at the US Open, making the cut every year since his first appearance in 2000.
But few picked him out as a possible winner prior to Oakmont, partly because he was deemed to be too much of a big hitter and not enough of a finesse player and strategist.
Even after taking the lead at the halfway stage on Saturday, he was expected to be overtaken by the juggernauts led by Woods.
But against the odds, Cabrera kept his cool, waddled his walk and puffed on his cigarettes - eight to 10 a round.
"Well, there are some players that have psychologists, some that have sportologists - I smoke," he explained.
AFP
(China Daily 06/19/2007 page24)
