Angel Cabrera became the first Argentine to win the green jacket at Augusta National yesterday by surviving a wild final round that began with a supercharged duel between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and ended with a stunning collapse by Kenny Perry. Indeed, this Masters had it all.

Two shots behind with two holes to play, Cabrera worked his way into a three-way play-off when the 48-year-old Perry, on the verge of becoming golf's oldest major champion, bogeyed the final two holes. Even in a play-off, Cabrera looked like the odd man out.

Scrambled for par

He drove into the trees, hit another shot off a Georgia pine, but still scrambled for par with an eight-foot putt. He won with a routine par on the 10th hole when Perry missed the green badly to the left and made yet another bogey, this one the most costly of them all.

"I may never get this opportunity ever again, but I had a lot of fun being in there," Perry said. "I had the tournament to win. I lost the tournament. But Angel hung in there. I was proud of him."

Cabrera, who won the 2007 US Open, finally earned a green jacket for Argentina.

He closed with a one-under 71 to get into the first three-man play-off at the Masters in 22 years.

Chad Campbell closed with a 69 and was eliminated on the first play-off hole when he found a bunker from the middle of the 18th fairway, then watched his six-foot par putt lip out of the hole.