Yes, it might seem tacky to question the record of a man who’s just rung up a near-epic win in a Major championship, but I’m a big Angel Cabrera fan, so I’m not doing this critically.

Honest.

But I wonder: Has any golfer in history proven himself so capable of winning on the big stage, yet hoisted so few trophies on the smaller ones?

For the record, Cabrera, Argentina’s biggest gift to the golfing world since either Roberto de Vicenzo or Henry Cotton’s wife, has won at least 14 events of significance in South America, including the Open Championships of his own country, Paraguay and Columbia. Unfortunately, such wins generally came against limited competition that would not, in the main, equate even to that of the average Nationwide Tour event. He has also enjoyed a bit of success against European Tour fields, claiming the 2001 Argentine Open (perhaps Ken Schofield’s farthest-reaching co-sanction ever...) and, more prominently, the 2002 Benson & Hedges International (played at The Belfry) and the 2005 BMW Championship at Wentworth.

But, rather remarkably, he has never won in America......outside of a U.S. Open and a Masters, that is, which is really rather perplexing.

This, after all, is a man who, in an era where distance is king, absolutely kills it off the tee. And it’s not just statistical length we’re talking about here; the ball comes off his club with a vengeance and carries, flying on an awesome parabola that immediately announces Cabrera as one of a handful of players literally capable of overpowering a golf course. Meanwhile, the rest of his game – at least what we’ve seen in several Major championships and President’s Cups – appears similarly high in caliber, and if Oakmont didn’t conclusively prove his mettle under fire, this past Sunday at Augusta certainly did.

And then there’s the icing on the cake: a 2006 Golf Digest piece in which the legendary Mickey Wright listed Cabrera (along with Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Gene Littler and Louise Suggs) as possessing one of the five finest swings she had ever seen – and that was before he won the U.S. Open.

Now that's impressive stuff.

Angel Cabrera is now 39 years old, a two-time Major champion and, barring blatant malfeasance, financially set for life. Breaking through to win U.S. Open was a career watershed – and, frequently, the sort of thing that takes the edge off one’s hunger as the well-earned rewards start rolling in. But by winning at Augusta, Cabrera has moved well beyond that, elevating his legacy and establishing himself as one of the elite players of his era. Thus isn’t it time he start winning regularly in America......or anyplace else he tees it up?

And one final, wonderful postscript: Not surprisingly, Cabrera was long ago taken under the wing of de Vicenzo, Argentina’s greatest-ever champion who, most conveniently, celebrates his 86th birthday tomorrow. More famous for his legendary scorecard snafu (and subsequent playoff disqualification) at the 1968 Masters than a 150-win career that included the 1967 Open Championship, de Vicenzo is reported to have given Cabrera a picture of the Green Jacket following the 2007 U.S. Open, instructing him that it was now time “to go after one of those.”

Given the torment that the extremely affable de Vicenzo has endured for decades since his Masters disaster, one can only assume that Cabrera’s victory has given him cause to celebrate his birthday in richly deserved style.

As for the rest of the week’s contenders/pretenders...

While we cannot help but be impressed by Tiger Woods’ ability to drag himself into contention despite clearly being far off his game, I find it sort of refreshing to see his occasionally alarming wildness off the tee actually prevent him from winning. This may, at a glance, seem faintly hypocritical coming from someone who penned a pre-Masters commentary in the Los Angeles Times decrying the artificial narrowing of Augusta National with rough and trees, but several of Tiger’s more errant drives wouldn’t have sniffed even Bobby Jones’s original mile-wide fairways – particularly his Sunday snap-hook off number one, which was so far left that it actually reached the edges of the 8th hole!  I’ve long believed that Hank Haney is merely a P.R. prop for Tiger, a red herring employed mostly so the press will bother someone else with whatever questions they have about Woods’ swing. But at times like these, I find myself wondering if perhaps Haney actually is calling the mechanical shots...

And then we have Phil Mickelson, whose outgoing 30 on Sunday represented all-time epic stuff, but whose ability to close the deal – particularly with the putter – remains a volatile thing.  When we consider that he came to the 72nd tee only a single stroke out of the eventual playoff after dumping a ball in Raes Creek at the 12th and missing short putts at the 15th and 17th, this one really was right there for his taking. Instead, Mickelson logs his fifth non-winning top-five at Augusta since 2001 and his 14th non-winning Major top-five overall......and yet we know he’ll be back. This, after all, is a man who lost the 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills by three-putting the 71st green from four feet (!), yet only a month later missed the Ernie Els-Todd Hamilton playoff at the Open Championship by a single stroke.

Say what you want about Mickelson, but his sheer resilience is something to marvel at.

Not so Sergio Garcia, whose whining about Masters playing conditions sounded far more like the self-pitying Sergio of 2007 than the apparently more mature model we saw in 2008. I’ve had several people in a position to know tell me that Garcia’s really a very nice guy, but he is once again looking like a petulant sideshow act – and yes, those New York galleries figure to be brutal at Bethpage in June.

And finally, we cannot close without a tip of the cap to Kenny Perry, a man whose career was resurrected from the ashes – at age 47 – during a three-win 2008, and who has somehow managed to carry this splendid form forward into the new golfing year. That Perry, who seemingly had his Green Jacket fitted after nearly acing the 70th hole, did not claim this championship will surely stand as one of the sadder golfing stories of the decade. But therein lies the difficulty of our game on the professional level, for unlike the World Series or Super Bowl, where half of the participants will emerge victorious, only one golfer gets to hold up the trophy on Sunday evening.

It makes for compelling drama, but a lot of sad endings.