|
Before we look at Cabrera's win we have to look at Cabrera himself. He was born in Villa Allende, Cordoba, Argentina and as a teenager was a caddie at the home club of internationally successful Argentine professional Eduardo Romero, who became his mentor. Cabrera turned professional at the age of twenty but on his first three visits to the European Tour Qualifying School was unsuccessful. He just about gave up on the game but Romero stepped in and gave him the financial assistance that he needed for a fourth try, which was the charm as he got his European Tour in 1996. He retained his card comfortably in his first three seasons and improved substantially to tenth on the Order of Merit in 1999. He has since finished in the top 15 of the Order of Merit on six occasions, with a best placing of fifth in 2005.
Cabrera's first two professional wins came in Latin America in 1995 and his first European Tour win was the 2001 Argentine Open, which was sanctioned by the European Tour. In 2005 he won the BMW PGA Championship, which is the most prestigious event on the European Tour schedule. However it was only his third European Tour win, a tally which was perhaps a little disappointing given his consistent form on the tour. At that point he had also won seven non-European Tour events in Latin America, where the standard of play is much lower than on the European Tour.
Now the skinny on Cabrera is that he may have one of the best swings in the world. In a way it looks like Sam Snead, very flowing and smooth. Just like with Snead, Cabrera has a lot of power and doesn't show it with his swing, it's that good. Unfortunely Cabrera has the same twitch with the putter that Snead had, one of the reasons he hasn't experienced super-stardom. Cabrera is also a very nervous guy and sometimes gets down on himself which has cost him tournaments in the past. Some in Europe say that Cabrera has a tendency to blank out, "a 15-minute brain frat" in which all of the good is ruined. In a way we saw some of that on Sunday as he bogied the 16th and 17th holes basically by not thinking right. One last fault that many on the European Tour report is that Cabrera doesn't like working on his game as he will be the first to be sitting for a nice steak dinner instead of practicing. What is funny about Cabrera is the fact that he has totally gone under the radar screen even though he has that flowing perfect swing. Maybe it's because Cabrera doesn't speak very good English and has never had much written about him outside of Argentina.
So how did all of this work together for a U.S. Open win?
Keys to victory for Angel Cabrera
This week Cabrera overpowered the field. Cabrera was the second longest hitter at 310.9 yards, but the fact that he hit 27 of 56 fairways, a low number was just as important. His rank of T48th is the second highest in U.S. Open history, of all players Tom Kite was ranked T51st in 1992. What that really means is that the rough really didn't penalize him, probably because he was able to over power it. So that means that in a tournament that was suppose to penalize wayward drivers, allowed Cabrera to overpower that disadvantage to win.
|
Here are some other keys for his victory:
- Of course the main key is the fact that Tiger Woods only made one birdie in his last 32 holes. That figure alone is a astonishing fact.
- For the week, Cabrera had only two three putts, one came on the 5th hole on Friday and the other on the 7th hole on Saturday. This was a big key because only five players had better with just one three putt, Tiger Woods being one of those.
- Another advantage that Cabrera had was hitting greens, he hit 47 which was T3rd and just two off the 49 that Tiger hit to lead the field
- Only eight rounds were under par with Cabrera having two of them, his first and last round 69.
Cabrera's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 27 of 56 ..... (T48) Driving average: 310.9 ..... (2nd) Greens hit: 47 of 72 ....... (T3rd) Putts: 124 (31.00 a rd) .... (T28th) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 0 1-putt greens: 22 2-putt greens: 48 3-putt greens: 2 Play on par 3s: +1 Play on par 4s: +6 Play on par 5s: -2 Eagles: 0 Birdies: 13 ................ (T2nd) Scrambling: 9 of 25 (36.00%)... (T50th)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
What This Win means for Cabrera
- Cabrera fired rounds of 69-71-76-69=285 score making him the first U.S. Open champion to win with a score of 76 since Johnny Miller had in the third round in 1973 at Oakmont Country Club.
- Becomes the 14 player to win his first PGA Tour victory at the U.S. Open going back to 1916, joining Michael Campbell (2005), Retief Goosen (2001), Ernie Els (1993), Jerry Pate (1976), Lee Trevino (1973), Orville Moody (1969), Jack Nicklaus (1962), Jack Fleck (1955), Julius Boros (1952), Sam Parks (1935), Johnny Goodman (1933), Bob Jones (1923).
- This week was the 400th major championship and Cabrera is the 193 different winner.
- He becomes just the second Argentine to win a major championship. Roberto De Vicenzo won the British Open in 1967
Now we haven't really addressed being from South America and winning a major. Many don't realize that the continent has developed some good players, yes we all know about Roberto De Vicenzo but there have been others:
Before this week's U.S. Open the highest finish by a player from South American was Argentina Jose Jurado who was 6th in the 1932 U.S. Open at Fresh Meadow in New York.
Now in a major, of course we had the win by Roberto De Vicenzo at the British Open in 1967, but De Vicenzo was also was a runner-up in the 1950 British Open and the 1968 Masters. Jurado also was a runner-up in the British Open, in 1931 at Carnoustie. Another top finisher was Antonio Cerda, who was runner-up in the 1951 and '53 British Open. Talking about Carnoustie, Cabrera finished T4th in 1999 as he was just one away from getting into the playoff.
Now for some other Argentinas we have the ever famous Leopoldo Ruiz, who had his moment of glory in the 1958 British Open finishing T5th.
Eduardo Romero was T7th in the 1997 British Open, and Andres Romero, no relation, was T8th last year at Hoylake.
Of course we can't forget about Vicente Fernandez, who was T10th at the 1976 British Open.
Last but not least we have Jose Coceres, who was T10th at the 2002 PGA Championship.
Now we can't forget some other countries in South America, the best outside of Argentina has to be Paraguay with Carlos Franco who was T6th in the Masters in 1999 along with a T7th in 2000.
Of the others the best from Brazil was Mario Gonzales, who was T11th in the 1948 British Open. Chile gave us Roberto Salas, who finished T33rd in the 1956 British Open while Columbia gave us Eduardo Herrera who was T58th in 1995. Lastly we have Venezuela who gave us Gilberto Morales, who played once in the 1999 British Open and shot 80-76.
Tiger Woods - Why he lost
Hard to imagine Tiger Woods in a final group at a major championship and not winning. This has now happened in two consecutive majors.
|
This week was the second time that Woods has been a runner-up in the U.S. Open, matter of fact this week was almost the spitting image of the last runner-up in 2005. That is because in that Open, Woods hit the most greens of anyone in the field but was very high in putts, in 2005 128. This week Woods hit 49 greens and took 126 putts again a sign that hitting a lot of greens is sometimes a disadvantage on a course like Oakmont. Yes Woods avoided three putts only having one on the 15th hole on Friday but again he wasn't able to get it up and down as well doing it only 11 of 23 times he missed the green.
Here are some other keys for his loss:
- Tiger's lack of birdies also hurt him, he made only eight all week only the second time as a professional in U.S. Open's that cuts were made in which he was in single digits. In 2003 at Olympic Fields he made nine, but he did have an eagle so this year was the lowest.
- Of the eight birdies made this week only three came on par 4s which means he has only made six birdies in both the Masters and the U.S. Open on par 4s.
- Again Woods was dismal in scrambling only getting it up and down 11 of 23 times.
Woods's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 31 of 56 ..... (T25th) Driving average: 302.1 ..... (T11th) Greens hit: 49 of 72 ....... (1st) Putts: 126 (31.50 a rd) .... (T41st) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 0 1-putt greens: 19 2-putt greens: 52 3-putt greens: 1 Play on par 3s: -1 Play on par 4s: +8 Play on par 5s: -1 Eagles: 0 Birdies: 8 ................ (T27th) Scrambling: 12 of 25 (47.83%)... (16th)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
What This loss mean for Woods
- More disappointments for Woods, he was looking to become only the second player to win all four major three times (Nicklaus was the other) and again he hasn't won a major championship when coming from behind.
- For Tiger the bad news is that this is the second consecutive major he has finished runner-up in. He also his looking at the Woods runner-up slam, he has played in the last group in both majors this year. Remember Greg Norman was four for four in 1986 in playing in the last group.
- An ugly stat, Tiger made 12 bogeys and one double bogey this week, again making more higher scores than birdies and eagles. li>Tiger Woods' second-place finish gave him his fifth career Top 3 finish at the U.S. Open. Only seven other golfers have had at least five Top 3 finishes at the U.S. Open: Jack Nicklaus (9), Bobby Jones, Jr. (8), Ben Hogan (8), Gene Sarazen (7), Arnold Palmer (6), Sam Snead (5) and Julius Boros (5).
Jim Furyk - Why he lost
For the second year in a row Furyk had a chance at winning the U.S. Open only to falter down the stretch. Last year it was the 72nd hole this year it was the 71st hole, bad times to make bogey.
|
With his second place finish Furyk becomes the first golfer to finish runner-up in consecutive years since Arnold Palmer did it in 1966 & '67.
Here are some other keys for his loss:
- Just didn't get it done on hitting greens. While Furyk was the second best driver, missing 18 fairways (11 more than Cabrera) Furyk was only able to hit 42 greens (five less than Cabrera)
- You have to wonder if Furyk didn't get too far behind with his 2nd round 75.
- You have to also look at Furyk's play on the 17th hole, he played the hole in two over with two pars and two bogey's. If you look at his stats he missed the fairway three of the four days and only hit the green twice, on the days he par the hole. Sunday, in looking for a birdie on the hole cost him when he made bogey.
Furyk's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 38 of 56 ..... (T2nd) Driving average: 286.6 ..... (T44th) Greens hit: 42 of 72 ....... (T17th) Putts: 120 (30.00 a rd) .... (T12th) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 1 1-putt greens: 24 2-putt greens: 45 3-putt greens: 2 Play on par 3s: +1 Play on par 4s: +6 Play on par 5s: -1 Eagles: 0 Birdies: 12 ................ (T6th) Scrambling: 14 of 30 (46.67%)... (20th)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
