AUGUSTA, Ga. -- And so they came to sudden death, an incongruous designation for a Masters Tournament as lively as any ever played. And then Chad Campbell putted his chance away. And Kenny Perry, who at 48 years 8 months would have been the oldest man ever to win a Masters, knocked a bad drive on the second playoff hole, and there was only Argentina's Angel Cabrera to step into the green coat that is sports' most-sought-after haberdashery.

Strange, strange finish with Cabrera the last man standing after he had fallen three strokes behind Perry early on the back nine.

Newspaper business what it has been lately, we probably can't afford the thousands of column inches it would take to detail the hundreds of ups and downs on this sunlit Sunday. Best to simply say you could thumb back through all 72 previous Masters and you will never find anything to top Sunday's for sheer, shouting, compelling drama across Augusta National Golf Club's emerald acres.

It had everything. Perfect weather. Near-perfect shots to lift the hearts of most of the field at some points. Soul-searing misses. And, finally, the endurance marathon that sent the championship hardware to Cordoba, Argentina, with the 39-year-old who had won the 2007 U.S. Open.

BEYOND APPEARANCES

Cabrera looks overweight and out of shape. His is not a classic swing. But golf is about appearances only when you pull on that green coat. The long and short of it: Cabrera turned out the best player in the world's most famous golf tournament.

When he was asked how it felt to draw on the green jacket, Cabrera replied: ``I got goose bumps, I was shaking, I can't even explain what was going on with my body.''

Perry, for his part, said, ''I lost this tournament today,'' in the way that makes him the most likable Masters contender since 1984-95 champion Ben Crenshaw. ``I lost it, but that shouldn't take anything away from Angel. He was great and he deserves to win.''

The whole thing was great.

Of all the glorious finishes by Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and all the rest of those champions, not one could outdo the theater uncoiling out there in this one.

Real smart, weren't we, all the pressroom geniuses who wrote off both Woods and Mickelson?

`A LOT OF FUN'

We suggested neither even dream of another wearing of the green at the end of this sun-kissed Sunday. And both almost pulled it off. Both were simply sensational until Mickelson went into water on that wretch of a 12th hole and double-bogeyed, and Woods got bitten by the treacherous last two holes.

Typically, Woods was disgusted by bogeying the last two holes. Before that, he had knocked six shots off par and was breathing right down Perry's neck, right along with Mickelson.

Woods said he ''had the worst warm-up I could possibly have had'' before he began savaging Augusta National. He is now 0 for 39 at coming from behind to win in the last rounds of majors, although his 14 major triumphs rank only four places behind Nicklaus' 18.

Mickelson said he ''had a lot of fun'' playing alongside Woods, and indeed he did with eight birdies until this treacherous course snapped back.

I usually bristle every time ''incredible'' trips off the tongue of an announcer. It is sports' worst cliché, and a false one at that, for almost nothing is really incredible in sports. But when CBS' Jim Nantz synopsized this finish as ''incredible,'' all of us could only nod.

A REAL SHOCKER

Incredibility spread all over the place between Cabrera, Perry, Campbell, Mickelson, Woods and even Shingo Katayama, who wound up only two strokes off the playoff competitors' 72-hole totals of 27 6 -- 12 under par -- and a shot ahead of Mickelson and two in front of Woods.

Incredible, then, was not just the right word for this riotous day.

It was the only one.

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