Confident Cabrera remains the same despite success

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Angel Cabrera had nine birdies and two bogeys in the second round at TPC Sawgrass.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- He whipped up seafood and rice Thursday night; chicken and rice the night before. And the week started with steak.

Angel Cabrera doesn't need a sports psychologist. He cooks. A full Argentine asado, in fact, at Augusta last month. Five courses of different cuts of meat and a salad. No bread. No vegetables.

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But here? Well, the grill is a little too small and it's charcoal. Not a good fit for an two-or-three-hour asado for seven or eight hungry men. So tonight? He'll head to the local Publix, see what's fresh -- what catches his eye -- and whip something up.

It's the same routine he followed on the way to that Green Jacket last month -- and his second major -- so why change it? The only difference is that his coach and dishwasher -- Charlie Epps -- is back in suburban Houston working at his real job as director of golf and instruction at The Houstonian. With, of course, one eye on the TV set.

So, yes, he saw that shot into the 18th green -- from 198 yards -- that landed just inside 9 feet for birdie, a 7-under-par 65 and a spot in the top 5 midway through the second round of THE PLAYERS Championship.

"How about that?'' Epps said cell phone-to-cell phone. "How about those last two rounds? He's always had one good round there, one mediocre round. But now he's playing with a lot of confidence. He's feeling good about his game right now.''

Good enough that he's sitting four shots behind red-hot Alex Cejka going into the weekend. Good enough that he's thinking about following up his Masters by taking a run at THE PLAYERS. For the first time in career.

His line here? A T26 in his first PLAYERS (2001), a T36 in his second and four consecutive missed cuts. Now he has a chance to win against the best field of the year.

"I think it's more that I know I can win a big tournament now,'' Cabrera said of the difference. "I'm pretty much the same player, but the fact that I've won these big tournaments just gives me that confidence that I know I can do it, so I just have to go out and do it.''

Epps flew in Sunday for a little tune up. They worked on getting Cabrera a little closer to the ball with his driver -- "He's hitting it better, but he's still not 100 percent,'' Epps said -- and, of course, whipped through their regular putting work.

Cabrera is keeping the ball in play much better now, although he did get off to a rough start Thursday with a triple bogey 7 at the 10th -- his first -- hole. He followed that with three straight birdies, two bogeys and another birdie before parring Nos. 17 and 18. Whew.

"Yesterday I just wasn't getting it off the tee in the appropriate spots,'' Cabrera said of his opening 72. "Today I did that well, and you'll see the difference in my score.''

Nine birdies. Two bogeys. He left the course smiling. Well, sort of. He kind of half grins unless he's celebrating a birdie.

Cabrera went to Epps originally to improve his putting and short game. They did that and he won the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont. Then they added the rest of the game and he won the Masters. And just the difference a year makes? In 2008, he was 160th in putting and 120th in scoring. Now he's 58th and 37th, respectively.

And, even if his driver misbehaves this weekend, he's got the length and precision to take 2-iron off the tee most of the time.

"He can throttle it back a little and keep it in play,'' Epps said. "And his iron play into the greens is so sharp."

He's almost more mature. "He's more patient, more mature and more astute,'' Epps said. "He's learned to play golf . . . He hasn't played a lot in the U.S., but he's committed to playing more. He wants to move higher in the world rankings.''

Cabrera is 12th in the Official World Golf Ranking right now -- he was 14th at the end of 2007 -- and a win here would leapfrog him even higher. But don't think it will go to his head.

He'll turn 40 in September and his close friends are still the same ones he's always had. And his life? Two majors hasn't changed that.

"I've got the same friends, I hang out at the same places, and my game is the same,'' he said. "I just have, again, like I was saying earlier, the confidence that I know I can win these major tournaments. But in terms of day to day life, it's been pretty much the same.''

They threw him a party when he arrived back in Argentina after the Masters, but, he grinned, nothing had changed.

He showed off his Green Jacket, too -- and it's back home right now in his closet.

But did he let his friends try it on? "No,'' he said. "Me only.''

Well, kind of.

Cabrera did slip the jacket on Epps' shoulders that Sunday night back at their rental house in Augusta.

"He put it on me and it felt wonderful,'' Epps said.

The only thing that would feel better? Watching Cabrera holding THE PLAYERS crystal this Sunday night.