Caddie's Role:Friday evening in Allegheny county and 18 professional golfers lingered around the Oakmont country club locker room trying to figure out if they were going to play the final two rounds of the 107th US Open.
There was one player left on the course that could scupper their weekend plans. He was the burly Argentine, Angel Cabrera. We had been fortunate enough to have played with him for the first two rounds. There is a flair about the Argentine golfers that is almost a South American preserve and does not pervade any other nation so collectively.
If you look at the way Angel's countryman, confidante and best buddy Eduardo Romero swings the golf club you instantly recognise a natural style based on fluency, elegance, elan and power. There is no entourage of swing coaches, mental gurus and fitness fanatics in tow, the Argentine way is the natural way. Angel smokes a cigarette instead of consulting a psychologist. It would be facile to say that they grip it and rip it but there is very little pomp and ceremony to their shot-making.
There is a trait amongst all of them and how they swing their golf club; Jose Coceres, Ricardo Gonzalez and more recently Andres Romero, free-flowing, non-mechanical and enormous power at the hitting zone.
Cabrera stood on the ninth tee on Friday last at one over par for the championship. Those on the projected cut mark felt reasonably confident that if Angel made a par on the extremely difficult par four that they would all be playing at the weekend. He crushed his drive, starting it just inside the flag-pole by the clubhouse supporting the Stars and Stripes, Oakmont and USGA flags and it drifted towards the left gable end of the clubhouse which was the line that we had all identified on the blind tee shot as being the edge of the hazard that runs just off the left side of the fairway.
As with many tee shots at Oakmont you are never quite sure if you have hit a good one or not. It is hard to let yourself say good shot with confidence. Cabrera looked at his caddie Eduardo for reaffirmation, he glanced in my direction with an inquisitive look on his face. He shrugged his big shoulders, turned his lips down and suggested his ball's fate was out of his hands. As we reached the top of the hill on the ninth we saw that his ball was in a perfect position on the left side of the fairway about 30 yards past my player Retief Goosen who had hit his best drive of the day.
The prospective cut makers took a collective gulp as Cabrera held his pose steady as he stared his sand wedge approach shot down as it headed towards the tight right pin. Most of the field had hit medium irons into this hole all day. Angel stuck his shot to within two feet of the hole and almost guaranteed his birdie. There was a flurry of activity in the locker room as many of the 18 players on 11 over par started packing their bags. Not only did Cabrera become the first Argentine to eventually win the US Open, he also knocked 18 other competitors out of what they had assumed would be an 11-over-par cut.
As we mounted the stairs to the clubhouse I had to side-step some of those 18 coming the other way with all their belongings and a bitterly disappointed look on their faces. Luke Donald, our other playing partner, jokingly said to Cabrera as we shook hands after the round "what have you done to us Angel?".
There is a boyish charm about the 37-year-old from Cordoba; with his head sunk into his ample shoulders, his cap tight on his head revealing the tops of his ears, his impish grin after he hits yet another good shot and his ungainly gait which looks like he is not really too sure about where he is going. You could be forgiven for not taking him too seriously.
His golf, which I witnessed first hand for two rounds last week, was pure art. He hit fairways and greens with boring repetition and his deft touch around the greens confirmed what a complete player he is. The only chink in the Argentine's armour to date has been his volatile nature on the course. I knew he was playing great golf but I didn't think he had the patience to overcome the ultimate endurance test in golf, the US Open.
As with any major in America, there is such a repetitive fascination with American players that if the leader is a non-American the chances of him getting any airtime or press is minimal until the point is reached where they can ignore him no longer.
Saturday's local paper had a full frontal of Phil Mickelson on their front page who was 11 shots behind the leader and still sleeping at home in California having been edged out of the cut by the eventual winner.
I sense the remarkable talent of Cabrera will be conveniently overlooked in the star-obsessed world that is sports coverage in the US. Tiger looking at his yardage book was more important than Angel settling over his birdie putt on the final hole.
Cabrera gave me big smile as we walked off the 16th tee on Friday. Being ignored by the US media mob is not something that would unduly bother the affable Argentine.
