AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP)—There were so many ways this most thrilling of Masters could have ended.
What if Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson had carried their duel into a playoff? Now that would have turned Augusta National upside down.
Or how about Kenny Perry, the ultimate grinder, winning his first major at an age when most players are prepping for the senior tour? Boy, that would have been something.
Instead, it was a burly man from Argentina who crafted an ending no one could have envisioned. Down at the 10th green, long after Woods and Mickelson had headed for exits and dragged many of the patrons with them, Angel Cabrera barely beat the setting sun with a gimme of a putt as Perry looked on helplessly.
OK, it wasn’t Hollywood.
But Cabrera sure earned it.
When his swing got loose and produced two straight bogeys on the front side, he hung in there. When he faced a two-stroke deficit with two holes to play, he didn’t give up. And, most impressively, when his first tee shot of the sudden-death playoff rolled to a stop behind a big tree on the first playoff hole, he never lost hope.
“I only had a spot like this big”—meaning tiny—“and only trees, so I’ve got to put it through there, that’s it,” Cabrera said, a translator relaying his words. “Easy as that.”
Cabrera somehow hooked his ball around one tree and past several more, getting it back to the fairway. Then he knocked it up on the green, 8 feet behind the hole, and made the putt to save a remarkable par. Perry messed up his approach and had to settle for par, too. The third member of the playoff, Chad Campbell, missed his 6-footer and the race was down to two.
Only one more hole was needed. Perry found mud on his ball in the middle of the 10th fairway, and his shot veered left of the green. Cabrera knocked his below the hole and—for perhaps the first time all day—he was finally the one in command. Perry’s chip raced past the flag, and he missed the putt coming back.
Perry didn’t even get a chance to finish. Cabrera’s putt stopped next to the hole. He marked it, took a quick look to make sure there was nothing on it, and calmly delivered the winning stroke on his second career major.
At Oakmont two years ago, Cabrera stared down Woods and Jim Furyk to win the U.S. Open. Now he has joined the green jacket club and wiped out any perception that his first major title was a fluke.
“I was happy with my game and I had confidence,” Cabrera said after a closing 71 left him at 12-under 276. “I was just trying to enjoy the moment.”
He wasn’t the only one. From the time Woods and Mickelson stepped to the tee, sharing a firm handshake and icy stare, there was a sense this would finally be the day the Masters delivered an Augusta-like finish. Another day broke warm and sunny. The flags drooped limply atop the scoreboard. The greens were still soft and inviting after a fierce storm a couple of nights earlier.
This was finally a Sunday for some fireworks, and they were soon going off all over the course.
The main event was Woods vs. Mickelson, or so it seemed most of the day. Mickelson scored the early blows, delivering six birdies before the turn for a record-tying 30. Woods bounced off the ropes with a 30-footer for eagle at No. 8. They both had a shot as they headed to Amen Corner, trailed by a gallery that grew to 10-deep in spots.
“It was fun,” Mickelson said. “We’ve had some good matches in the past. I’m usually on the wrong end of it, but it was fun playing with him.”
The script began to unravel at No. 12, the devilish little hole known as “Golden Bell.” Mickelson pulled out a 9-iron and took a tentative swing. The ball checked up short of the flag, spun backward and didn’t stop rolling until it splashed in Rae’s Creek. Mickelson wound up with a double bogey, which seemed to suck all hope out of his game.
“The ball went in the water,” Lefty said, “and I stopped making putts.”
A 4-footer for eagle at No. 13 missed the cup by a good inch or two— basically an airball for someone of his caliber. His last opportunity faded away when a 5-foot birdie try slid by the cup at 17. A bogey at the final hole left him with a 5-under 67, three shots shy of the first three-man playoff since 1987.
Woods was one stroke out of the lead after he planted his tee shot next to the flag at No. 16, producing his third birdie in four holes. But golf’s greatest closer couldn’t finish the comeback. His last two tee shots were both wide and outside. He slammed another shot off a tree. A bogey-bogey finish left him one stroke behind Mickelson and tied for sixth, his worst finish at Augusta since 2004.
Padraig Harrington of Ireland hits down the first fairway during the third round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., Saturday, April 11, 2009.
He’s now gone four years without a green jacket, the longest drought of his Masters career.
“I was right there,” Woods said. “I hit a good tee shot down 17, the wind just held it just enough, wouldn’t let it cut back, and I was dead from there.”
At least he has a Masters title—four of them.
Perry headed to the penultimate hole with a two-stroke lead and seemed the most unlikely guy on the course to let it slip away. He had gone 22 holes since his last bogey, and merely needed a nice, safe finish to add some green to his wardrobe.
Then, he seemed to realize just what was happening. His hands got a little sweaty, his arms a little shaky. He was caught up in the moment, and it got to him.
“I can’t stop my right hand when I get a little nervous,” Perry conceded. “It wants to shoot a little bit and I can’t calm it down.”
He knocked his second shot at 17 over the green and took bogey. He tried to calm down, kept telling himself he still had a one-stroke lead. He just had to get through one more hole to become the oldest player to capture a major, some four months older than Julius Boros when he won the 1968 PGA Championship.
Padraig Harrington of Ireland checks his course notes with his caddie Ronan Flood on the first fairway during the third round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., Saturday, April 11, 2009.
But Perry put his tee shot into a bunker. He scattered the gallery on the left with his second shot. A delicate chip left him with a 15-foot putt for the win. But it crept up short of the hole—the tentative stroke of an average golfer who choked, Perry’s own brutal assessment of the miss.
“I had that putt everybody makes,” he said. “Mark O’Meara has made it. Tiger made it. I knew exactly what it did, and I hit it easy. I mean, I just hit it bad.”
This was Perry’s second heartbreak in a major. In 1996, he squandered another lead on the 72nd hole at the PGA Championship, then lost in a playoff to Mark Brooks.
Perry knows this might be his final chance.
“It just seems like when I get down to those deals, I can’t seem to execute,” he moaned in his Kentucky drawl. “Great players make it happen, and your average players don’t. That’s the way it is.”
Angel Cabrera wins 3-way playoff at Masters
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Angel Cabrera won a three-way playoff on the second extra hole after taking advantage of a late collapse by 48-year-old Kenny Perry, who lost a two-stroke lead with two holes to play with back-to-back bogeys. That caused a three-way playoff that included Chad Campbell, who was eliminated on the first playoff hole.
Cabrera's victory is his second major, following his 2007 triumph at the U.S. Open. It comes 41 years after another Argentine, Roberto de Vicenzo, appeared to win the Masters but was later penalized two strokes for signing an incorrect scorecard. That goof gave the 1968 Masters to Bob Goalby.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods roared into contention but came up short. Mickelson tied the tournament record with a 6-under 30 on the front nine before settling for a 5-under 67 that left him in fifth place.
Woods finished off a 68 with back-to-back bogeys that left him tied for sixth.
Cricket News
Third One Day International Cape Town:
South Africa 289-6 (A B de Villiers 80, J H Kallis 70, M G Johnson 4-34) v Australia 264-7 (J R Hopes 63 no, C J Ferguson 63)
South Africa beat Australia by 25 runs
South Africa recorded a 25-run win in the third One-Day International against Australia in Cape Town to go 2-1 ahead in the five-match series.
The Proteas managed to post a total of 289-6 that proved just out of reach for the tourists, despite a defiant 63 not out from James Hopes.
The all-rounder belted five fours to equal his career-highest score, though it was not enough to steer his side to an unlikely victory after they had collapsed to 114-5.
Solid contributions
Solid contributions from Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers, who shared a century stand for the third wicket, had helped the hosts set their opponents a demanding target.
The pair had come together with the score at 50-2 after Herschelle Gibbs had holed out to deep mid-wicket off the bowling of Nathan Bracken.
Graeme Smith had earlier departed for eight when he became the first of four victims for the impressive Mitchell Johnson.
However, the left-arm paceman received little support from his fellow bowlers, Hopes coming in for the most punishment as his eight wicketless overs went for 64.
Kallis eased his way to 70 off 86 deliveries before giving his wicket away when he pulled a long hop from Brett Geeves straight to Hopes at mid-wicket.
Johnson ended de Villiers' stay at the crease on 80, deceiving the right-hander with a superb slower ball that took a leading edge and looped straight to mid-off.
Despite the loss of two batsmen when well-set the Proteas made full use of their five-over batting powerplay in the closing stages of their innings.
JP Duminy contributed 32 off 26 balls before Albie Morkel (29) and Mark Boucher, who finished unbeaten on 28 from just 15 deliveries, added 53 in a hurry.
Australia's reply suffered an early blow when Brad Haddin was run out with the score on 30. Skipper Ricky Ponting failed to make the most of several let-offs, including being dropped twice in successive balls, as he made only 20.
Spun out
The right-hander chipped a return catch back to Johan Botha, as South Africa's spinners turned the screw in the middle overs.
Roelof van der Merwe picked up 3-37 off his 10 overs while Duminy's occasional off-spin claimed the key wicket of David Hussey (20).
Callum Ferguson's 63 off 68 balls kept Australia just about alive, Hopes helping him add 97 before a floodlight failure forced a stoppage in play.
The game was eventually able to get back underway and South Africa comfortably held on to clinch a crucial victory to go ahead in the series ahead of Monday's fourth ODI.
Football News
Chelsea v Liverpool
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is winning his battle to be fit for the Champions League clash with Chelsea as he recovers from a groin injury.
The Reds will also have midfielder Javier Mascherano back from suspension.
Chelsea will be without centre-back and skipper John Terry, who is suspended after being booked during the Blues' 3-1 first-leg victory at Anfield.
Ricardo Carvalho will be joined by Alex in the centre of the Blues defence but Jose Bosingwa (hamstring) is still out.
Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez revealed that Gerrard was responding well to treatment ahead of the match at Stamford Bridge, with the Reds facing a major uphill battle to overturn the 3-1 deficit from the first leg.
"Steven is getting better, he has been working with the physio and will train later today (Monday)," he said.
"We will then discuss the situation with the doctors, but Steven will travel with the party to London and I will make a decision tomorrow (Tuesday).
"We are 3-1 down and we know that everything can change if we have Steven in the side and he plays well."
Chelsea coach Guus Hiddink is hoping his side can continue where they left off at Anfield and maintain their impressive form under his stewardship.
"It is important that we take the momentum gained from winning at Anfield into this game and keep our level of performance up," he said.
"There is a fantastic spirit around this club at the moment - everyone believes in what we can achieve this season and it is exciting to be a part of that.
"But we must not lose our focus for one game or one minute and that means each game is as important as the next one. We have the same aim, which is to try and win all of them."
BIG MATCH STATS
Liverpool and Chelsea will face each other for the 10th time and in the fifth consecutive season in the Champions League. Only Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have met more often in the CL (12 times).
The first leg ended in a 1-3 win for Chelsea. Branislav Ivanovic scored twice in his second CL appearance.
Chelsea knocked Liverpool out of the CL in last year's semi-final: 1-1 and 3-2 AET.
In 2004-05 and 2006-07 Liverpool eliminated Chelsea in the last four of Europe's premier club competition.
Liverpool have failed to score in three of their previous four CL matches at Stamford Bridge. Last season they scored twice in their 3-2 defeat after extra time at Chelsea. Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel providing the goals.
This will be their 24th meeting in five seasons in all competitions and their fourth clash this term. Liverpool have already done the double in the Premier League (0-1 at Stamford Bridge and 2-0 at Anfield), but Chelsea lead 10-7 over the piece, with six draws.
CLUB FORM
CHELSEA
Can reach the semi-finals of the CL for the third consecutive season and the fifth time in the last six seasons.
Won their last seven CL home matches.
Strong favourites following the 1-3 triumph over Liverpool at Anfield. Sides winning the first leg 1-3 away, historically have a 97% chance of advancing in European competition.
LIVERPOOL
This is their 300th match in European competition. They have won 169, lost 64 and drawn 66.
Won the last two CL away matches and undefeated in four.
Scored at least once in each of their last 19 CL matches; last failed to score on 3 November 2007 at home against Olympique Marseille, losing 0-1.
Four of 151 teams losing their home leg 1-3 in Europe have recovered and moved on, most recently VfB Stuttgart against Feyenoord in the 1998-99 Uefa Cup.
KEY PLAYER NOTES
Petr Cech, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba have played in all of Chelsea's nine CL matches against Liverpool.
John Terry has also played all nine previous matches against Liverpool but he will be suspended for this match.
Didier Drogba has scored in each of Chelsea's last four CL matches. If he nets against Liverpool he will equal the CL record for scoring in most consecutive matches. It has been achieved on eight occasions; the most recent by Liverpool's Steven Gerrard in 2007-08.
Drogba is the top scorer against the Reds in this competition, with three goals.
Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka played for Liverpool from December 2001 until June 2002.
Anelka and Ashley Cole will face suspension if they receive a yellow card.
Gerrard has scored seven goals in this season's CL for Liverpool, one less than top scorer Lionel Messi.
Gerrard needs two goals to equal Manchester United's Paul Scholes as English CL top scorer with 21 goals.
Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have played in all of Liverpool's nine CL matches against Chelsea.
Javier Mascherano is available after suspension.
Alvaro Arbeloa and Andrea Dossena will be suspended if booked.
OTHER MISCELLANEOUS FACTS
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez and Chelsea interim boss Guus Hiddink have both won the CL, or its equivalent, once as a manager. Both successes came after a penalty shoot out in the final.
Benitez and Hiddink have faced each other once, before last week's quarter-final first leg. Benitez coached La Liga side Extremadura when Hiddink's Real Madrid came to visit on 31 October 1998. Real won the league match 1-5.
The pair have also both worked as head coach of Valencia.
Tennis News
Murray preparing for clay test
Andy Murray is looking forward to the clay court season which gets under way with the Monte Carlo Masters this week.
The world number four has hired former dual French Open runner-up Alex Corretja to help with his preparations as he looks to up his game on the slowest surface of all.
The Scot has never got past the last eight in a clay court event and while he has improved a good deal since this time last year, Murray is leaving nothing to chance.
"I haven't hit a ball on clay since the French (Open) last year," Murray said. "So it's getting used to sliding, not being 100 percent sure under your feet, takes a bit of time but I'm hitting the ball well.
"I don't think your game needs to change that much. If you look at Federer, I don't watch him on clay and think he's playing completely different to how he does on the other courts.
"You can play a similar game style. It's just the movement and the mental side, repeating your patterns of play three or four times instead of twice to win your points. I find the whole thing pretty challenging but good.
"You can't get out of trouble with big serves or one or two groundstrokes, you need to repeat things over and over.
"Physical strength is important because on clay you need to be consistent with your mentality, with your strokes. It's like you panic if you are feeling a little bit tired...and on clay that's obviously more important than on the other surfaces because the points are longer.
"I think (Rafael) Nadal is probably is going to win the majority of the tournaments, but I think guys like (Juan Martin) Del Potro and (Gael) Monfils will come through and win some big matches."
Relief for Hewitt after win
Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt clinched his first title in more than two years on Sunday with a 6-2 7-5 victory over Wayne Odesnik in the US Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston.
The Australian, battling his way back up the rankings after undergoing hip surgery last year, appeared set for a three-set battle with the American making his first appearance in an ATP final.
Odesnik led 5-3 in the second set but Hewitt broke back twice to clinch victory in just over two hours.
"This is what all the hard work is for, to play weeks like this and have this kind of feeling at the end," Hewitt said. "It makes going through the surgery and all the hard work worth it.
"It's a big day to win a clay court event. I feel every year I'm getting better on clay. Now I'm looking really forward to the French Open - with a good draw I think I can do some damage there."
The 28-year-old cruised through the first set and took a 3-0 lead in the second without much opposition from Odesnik.
The American rallied by breaking Hewitt in the fourth game of the second set, then withstanding five break points to hold his serve in the fifth.
Two more breaks saw Odesnik win five games on the bounce before the world number 88 finally stopped the rot, clinching the match on a forehand error.
"Clay is a tough surface to close players out," Hewitt added. "I was playing great tennis up to that point (3-0, second set), but he's a tough player and he doesn't give you any cheap points out there. He makes you work for all of them.
"I felt I was able to put pressure on him up to that stage. Even though he got back in that second set every game he won, I had game points. It could easily have been 6-1 in the second set."
No comments:
Post a Comment