Fiery Argentine
Angel Cabrera has been one of the most colourful - and successful - players in the world of
golf in recent times.
With his immense power and distinctive stocky frame, 'El Pato', or The Duck, has claimed two major titles and a host of other wins in a stellar career.
Born in Cordoba in 1969, the young Cabrera was just three years old when his parents split up, leaving him in the care of his paternal grandmother.
He would live with her until he was 16, but it was when he got a job as a caddie at the age of ten at the Cordoba Country Club that he found his calling, even if he did not realise it straight away.
"I didn't become a caddie because I wanted to be a caddie," he explained to Golf.com. "I was a caddie because that was how I could make money and feed myself. It was work. It was a dignified job."
When he was in sixth grade, Cabrera dropped out of school to work at the club full-time and slowly realised he had found a place where he belonged.
"I was very lucky because hanging out at a golf course was much better than being on the streets," he continued. "Golf taught me a great deal. I grew up surrounded by people who were professionals - lawyers, doctors, engineers. Around them I learned how to behave, speak, eat, dress. I had nothing at home. The club was my home."
As the young tyro started to turn into a formidable player, tales of his fury after hitting a poor shot are legendary, as are those of his fearlessness in a fight.
Cabrera eventually turned professional at the age of twenty and on his fourth trip to the European Tour Qualifying School in 1995 he made it on to the big stage.
He retained his card comfortably in his first three seasons and improved substantially to finish tenth on the Order of Merit in 1999.
By 2004 he had finished in the top 15 of the order of merit five times. And then came his greatest triumphs.
In 2007, he became the first South American to win the
US Open, beating
Jim Furyk and
Tiger Woods at Oakmont.
Then came a second major - this time at Augusta - when he secured the 2009 Masters crown in a nail-biting play-off with Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry.
The wild, brooding kid from Cordoba had become a two-time major champion, no mean feat for a player who got to the top the hard way, certainly when compared to most other pros.
Cabrera's ultra-aggressive playing style and his fondness for a drink and a smoke have made this most unusual of golfers a firm favourite with the fans, while a seventh-place finish at this year's Masters suggests a third major may not be far away.
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