Masters Doesn't Disappoint

First appeared on April 15th, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

I suppose its true all good things must come to an end. So it was, after 72 years and 15,000 episodes, that CBS announced the end of their long-running soap opera Guiding Light. For the historically inclined this means the show began on radio in 1937; making it quite possible President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself listened to that first episode perched in his rocker beside the White House fireplace.
Of course Guiding Light is just one of a myriad of traditions CBS has woven into the fabric of America over the years. And while the network has forced us to part with some (Dick Stockton calling the NBA Finals comes to mind), we were reminded over the weekend of just how special some still are. “A tradition like none other”, the 75th Masters took place at Georgia’s famed Augusta National Golf Club and while everyone from Vegas oddsmakers to the groundskeepers themselves believed Tiger Woods would lay claim to his 5th green jacket before play began, in the end Argentina’s Angel Cabrera won the event in a two hole playoff.
Sunday at Augusta did not disappoint. In fact, it was spectacular. For a time it seemed as if destiny would propel Woods and Phil Mickelson back to the top of the leader board. Playing in the same group, the two men began gathering momentum early in the day as, like a pair of frenzied sharks circling, they gobbled the front side of Augusta National up. As they made the turn, each player was under par with Woods at three and Mickelson a hefty six. For a time both men were in good position to throw on another Green Jacket.
One can only imagine the kind of heart-pumping silence that must have been swarming the clubhouse as the leaders heading into the day were busy lacing their spikes up. Each no doubt making a futile effort at tuning out Jim Nantz’s recount of the charge of Woods and Mickelson. After a double-bogey at the always dangerous par three 12th, Lefty finished with a 67. Woods looked as though nothing would stop him after an eagle at 8 and birdies on three of four holes on the back nine. But ultimately he faded too with bogeys at 17 and 18 (the latter being a hole he bogeyed three out of four times on the tournament).
Cabrera’s ascent to the top was not nearly as dramatic. In the midst of a nightmarish final round that included three bogeys, it seemed as if the Argentine spent most of the day just hanging around; his mannerisms suggesting he had resigned himself to enjoying a round of Sunday golf in lieu of making an actual attempt at winning the tournament. And just when it seemed as though he would sign his card and check his oversized Ping bag on the next flight for Buenos Aires, Kenny Perry missed a par put that would have sent everyone home and Cabrera suddenly found himself in a three way playoff for the title.
After a serendipitous ricochet off a pine tree, Cabrera managed to save par on the first playoff hole before ultimately outlasting Perry to claim his first green jacket and second U.S. major. Hoagy Carmichael once crooned that Georgia was a magical place, and for Angel Cabrera life definitely imitated art on Sunday at Augusta National as, despite nearly everyone’s vision being clouded by a forest of other possible winners, Cabrera’s win came “sweet and clear as moonlight through the pines”. Or perhaps more to the point, “sweet and clear as a seven iron off the pines”.