Angel Cabrera survives and thrives to get in and win Masters playoff

Boy, you had to feel for Kenny Perry. The Masters was his to lose, and he did. A skulled chip shot on 17 and a hooked approach out of the bunker on 18 was his undoing. Then he hit another bad shot on the second playoff hole on 10 to open the door for Angel Cabrera, who somehow did just enough to be there when it counted.

On a day where Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson stole much of the thunder, Cabrera looked anything but a contender for most of the day, hitting an array of bad shots. (No matter what he says in Spanish, that was a shank on No. 8.)

He’s known as El Pato (the duck), but El Gato (the cat) might have been more appropriate, having used all nine of his lives on Sunday. His last one came on the first hole of the playoff on 18 when he hit his 3-wood into the trees. His next shot careened solidly off another Georgia pine and into the middle of the fairway. Somehow he got it up and down for par, while Chad Campbell, who hit the best tee shot of the three-man playoff group, made bogey out of a greenside bunker.

That’s when you know karma is on your side. Perry didn’t have a chance. Everything was now going right for El Pato, and everything was seemingly going bad for Perry.

Perry, at 48 years old, would have been the oldest guy ever to win a major. In his post-tournament TV interview, you could still see the tears in his eyes.

Perry will probably never be in this position again, but hats off to El Gato for grinding this one out.