AUGUSTA, Ga. — The heavyweight fight a few groups in front of Angel Cabrera was simply the undercard Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson may have delivered the fireworks, but the magic, the moment and the Masters championship ultimately belonged to Cabrera, who survived a sudden-death playoff with Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell to become the first Argentine to win a green jacket.

“This moment, also Oakmont in ’07,” Cabrera said through an interpreter after making par on the second playoff hole to win his second major, “are the happiest moments in my life.”

Sunday may have been among the most disappointing for Perry, who gave back a two shot lead with bogeys on each of the final two holes to allow Cabrera, who won the U.S. Open at Oakmont 21 months ago, and Campbell a chance.

“Angel hung in there,” said Perry, who shot 71 Sunday to finish at 12 under. “I was proud of him.”

Cabrera also posted a a 1-under 71 Sunday and survived a near-disaster on the first playoff hole. He managing to make par after pushing his drive right, and banging his approach off a tree. He got up and down from more than 100 yards to extend the match from the 18th to No. 10.

Campbell was not as fortunate on the first extra hole. After a perfect drive, Campbell found the greenside bunker and was unable to make a 5-footer to save par.

“Today, I kind of blew it myself,” said Campbell, the powerful Texan who started this Masters with a record five consecutive birdies. “I hit some bad shots.

“It’s not easy out there trying to win. For me and Kenny it would have been our first major; for Angel it’s his first Masters, so it’s tough out there.”

Perry, the easy-going 48-year-old Kentucky native, can say the same thing. He had at least a share of the lead since Friday night until Cabrera’s clinching putt on the second hole of sudden death. Perry’s approach at the par-4 10th went long and left, and the opening allowed Cabrera the chance to cap a relatively stress free two-putt par for the championship.

It denied Perry the chance to make golf history. Perry would have been the oldest major champion ever before his unexpected — his bogey at No. 17 was his first in 22 holes — malfunctions late.

“I may never get this opportunity ever again, but I had a lot of fun being in there,” said Perry, who is four months older than Julius Boros was when Boros won the 1968 PGA Championship. “I had the tournament to win. I lost the tournament.”

For the first three-plus hours of the event, the leaders were an afterthought. Woods and Mickelson matched around Augusta National, stalking birdies, and punctuating the tournament that brought the roars back to the Georgia pines.

When their charges fell short, it appeared to be Perry’s tournament to lose. His miscue at No. 17 — a poor chip from behind the green left him 25-footer for par — was his first bogey in 22 holes. Another one at No. 18 left his chance at history fading like the sunlight Sunday evening.

“I had a putt to win,” Perry said of his par try on the 72nd hole. “I’ve seen so many people make that putt. I hit it too easy. You’ve got to give that putt a run. How many chances do you have to win the Masters?”

Cabrera only needed this one opportunity, and with it he helped ease one of Augusta’s most unfortunate miscues.

Fellow Argentine Roberto de Vicenzo made arguable the biggest mistake in Masters history, signing for the wrong score that denied him a chance at a Masters victory in 1968.

After Cabrera won the U.S. Open, de Vicenzo gave him a picture of a green jacket and told Cabrera to try to win at Augusta. On this draining and challenging Sunday, Cabrera gave it everything he had.

“This is a great moment, the dream of any golfer to win the Masters,” Cabrera said. “I’m so emotional I can barely talk.”

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