Angel Cabrera won a dramatic three-way playoff on Sunday to capture his first Masters, rallying to defeat Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell.
In winning, Cabrera became the first South American to win one of golf’s most-prized crowns. Cabrera, Perry and Campbell all finished 72 holes on 12-under par 276 to force the eighth sudden-death playoff in Masters history The 48-year-old Perry was leading heading into the 18th hole, but bogeyed to fall even with Cabrera and Campbell. He would have become the oldest major champion in golf history. It was the first Masters playoff since Tiger Woods beat Chris DiMarco in 2005 and the first three-man playoff since 1987, when Larry Mize chipped in to beat Greg Norman after Seve Ballesteros was eliminated on the first hole. Woods finished in a four-way tie in sixth place at eight-under par after hitting four-under on the final round.
Two-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson finished in fifth place after hitting five-under on Sunday. The 39-year-old Cabrera has been used to final-day pressure of a major having won the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2007, holding off Woods and both men will find comfort in the statistic that 17 of the last 18 winners of the green jacket having come from the final pairing on the last day.
