This Open letdown called to mind Woods's sloppy final round two months ago at the Masters, during which he held a share of the lead on the front nine only to be undone by a series of unforced errors. That performance came on the heels of a quarterfinal loss at the Match Play Championship, in which, for the first time, Woods flat-out choked on a crucial putt, in this case a four-footer that would have ended his match against Nick O'Hern.
Woods lost on the next hole and afterward blamed the missed putt on a ball mark that he failed to see.
In the wake of the Match Play and the Masters, the Tour's uppity truth-teller, Rory Sabbatini, had said he liked the "new Tiger" because "he's more beatable now than ever."
As is his wont, Woods subsequently gave Sabbatini a beatdown on the course and in the press, but that couldn't diminish the basic correctness of Sabbatini's assessment. There's no question that Woods still burns to win, and he has not slacked off his punishing workouts on the practice tee or in the gym. But he is no longer a golfing automaton. He has a life. His wife, Elin, is due with the couple's first child any day now.
To make room for the baby, the Woodses are overseeing the construction of their dream house on a $44.5 million spread on Jupiter Island, Fla. As part of his commitment to build more youth learning centers, Woods has been busy organizing a new Tour event, the AT&T National, which is to be played in two weeks in Washington, D.C., with the Tiger Woods Foundation as the primary beneficiary. Then there's his burgeoning course-design business to worry about.
A palpable hunger to win has always defined Woods's career, but at Oakmont it was Cabrera who had the urgency of a man playing for his supper. He grew up in the town of Cordoba, the son of a laborer. At 10 Cabrera left school to work as a caddie at the Cordoba Golf Club.
"I had to help put food on the table," he says. Cabrera taught himself the game on Mondays when the club was closed and caddies were allowed to play. His natural talent was nurtured by Eduardo (El Gato) Romero, another Cordoba native. Romero, a longtime fixture in international golf circles and now a force on the senior circuit, bankrolled his protege in 1995 while Cabrera was trying to launch his career on the European tour.
For most of the 1990s Cabrera was considered an extremely talented underachiever, a titanium-denting basher who had never mastered the art of winning. Ironically, it was Woods who helped him break through.
In 2000 the World Cup of Golf was played at Buenos Aires Country Club, with Cabrera and Romero representing the host country and Woods and David Duval flying the Stars and Stripes. Tiger was at the tail end of the greatest season in golf history, and his appearance was billed as the biggest thing to happen to South American sport — nonfutbol division — since Muhammad Ali fought a pair of exhibitions in Buenos Aires in 1971. The Americans won the Cup, but Cabrera and Romero battled them to the final putt.
"For my confidence it was a very big thing," Cabrera says.
Not long after the World Cup, Cabrera won the 2001 Open de Argentina, his first victory in five years. Two significant European tour victories followed, in addition to six more wins in South America.
In 2005 Cabrera played in the Presidents Cup and was one of the standouts for the International team, impressing teammates with his game and his want.
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