Champions Tour Insider: Argentina's finest golfers
By Vartan Kupelian, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
Vicente Fernandez was at Nordelta Golf Club, one of Argentina's leading courses, last week on the eve of the Masters doing what golfers do -- playing the game and talking about it.
Naturally, the discussion turned to Augusta National Golf Club. When the subject is golf, Fernandez becomes an inside source for Argentines everywhere.
"The club where I practice, they asked me who do I put my money on for the Masters?" Fernandez said soon after arriving at the TPC Tampa Bay for this week's Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.
"I predicted with my friends Angel Cabrera was going to win."
The prediction no doubt came as much from the heart as the head. Fernandez has known the new Masters champion for a very long time. He knows Cabrera's game, his personality, his frailties and his potential.
Fernandez has another prediction he believes will become reality: More majors in the future for Cabrera.
Fernandez did not see much of Sunday's final round, which featured Cabrera, Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell in an extra-hole playoff at Augusta National. He was already on his way to the airport in Buenos Aires -- Nordelta is just outside the city - and was seated in the airplane for the playoff that occurred at "exactly the time they told me to switch off the phone," he said.
While golf runs some distance behind soccer as Argentina's favorite sport, Fernandez is confident Cabrera's second major triumph will surpass the first -- the 2007 U.S. Open victory at Oakmont Country Club -- in its acceptance by the Argentine sporting community. That's because the Masters victory validates Cabrera as a sporting hero at a time when his popularity might have been waning, Fernandez said.
"The first (major) was very exciting," Fernandez said. "This one there is more excitement. People started not believing him because he didn't play well after the U.S. Open. I told him he has the potential to win a lot more majors."
What makes Cabrera so good?
"Everything," Fernandez said. "He has talent and he's very strong physically."
Cabrera's Achilles heel has been his temperament but at the Masters, just as he was at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, Fernandez saw a very calm and confident figure.
"That is the weakest part of his game, his strong temper," Fernandez said. "What I saw, it was unbelievable. The whole week he was very relaxed. His putting and strong temper have always been (a problem) but I saw that he was very confident on very tough greens. His putting stroke was very solid. He has a lot more to come."
After his victory at Augusta National, Cabrera said, "This win, to take back to Argentina, it's going to help a lot with our game."
But Cabrera is a realist and he knows that his successes won't elevate golf past Argentina's national pastime, soccer.
"Soccer has always been the biggest sport in my country," Cabrera said.
There is no question, however, that golf continues to gain traction with each accomplishment by Cabrera and his mentors on the Champions Tour, Fernandez and Eduardo Romero. The Masters champion is back home this week in Cordoba, Argentina, for the annual Abierto del Centro, along with Champions Tour winner Romero.
"It's always a big tournament in Argentina," Cabrera said. "It's going to be big ... and one more major with me, and Eduardo Romero with a major on the Champions Tour."
Romero won the JELD-WEN Tradition in 2006. Last year, he captured the U.S. Senior Open among his three victories on the Champions Tour, equaling Bernhard Langer for the most by any player. Romero became the fifth international player and second Argentine -- Roberto De Vicenzo was the other in 1980 -- to win the Senior Open.
Fernandez has won five times on the Champions Tour. He returns to the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am where he tied for eighth last year, one of his three top-10 finishes. All came in a quick Spring span. The Outback was preceded by a runner-up finish at the 2008 Cap Cana Championship. Shortly afterwards, he tied for ninth at the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill where he shot a final-round 69.
Champions Tour Insider notes:
• Tom Watson's victory at last year's Outback Steakhouse was his 50th win in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event. He joined Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Hale Irwin as the only golfers to have at least 10 wins on the Champions Tour, 20 victories on the PGA Tour and 50 combined titles on both tours.
• Watson will defend another title next week. Watson and Andy North will try to repeat at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf. They went wire-to-wire last year. North also won the event in 2000 and 2001 with Jim Colbert as partner.
• The first six events on the Champions Tour have ended in 1-stroke victories or playoffs. Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Derrick Brooks is the 2008 amateur champion from the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.
• The Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am has an impressive array of celebrity golfers. The list includes Nancy Lopez, George Lopez, Jerry Rice, Joe Theismann, Stone Phillips, Ronde Barber and Emmitt Smith.
• Comedian Bill Murray, the 2007 pro-am champion, also returns. The Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am Foundation has raised more than $3 million for charity in five years.
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