One man wins the Masters Tournament after shanking a shot and hitting another off a tree. Another man loses after skulling a chip and leaving a putt short.

Kenny Perry reels back after his third shot on the first playoff hole. The loss brought back bad memories of his playoff loss in the 1996 PGA Championship. (Annette M. Drowlette/Staff)

There's a fine line between immortality and merely mortal. Kenny Perry landed on the wrong side once again.

Perry seemed poised to erase the memory of his failed PGA Championship bid at Valhalla 13 years ago. Instead, he just replaced it.

"I've got two to think about now," Perry said as Angel Cabrera was up the hill slipping on a green jacket that was so close to hanging on his own shoulders.

In the face of crushing disappointment on the most famous stage in golf, Perry handled it with all the grace that 48 years can possibly allow. He didn't deny the nerves that led him to skull the chip on the 17th green.

"I tend to do that when I get a little nervous," he said.

He didn't hide his disgust that his 12-foot putt on the 72nd hole lacked conviction.

"I mean, how many chances do you have to win the Masters?" he said. "That was very disappointing."

In short, Perry didn't hide the fact that he's human.

He has been through this drill before. He has lived with the sting of losing in a playoff at the 1996 PGA Championship in his home state.

"You try to unlive that past, but it showed up again today. I had it, and I let it get away again," he said.

We've seen so often how Tiger Woods handles the stress of the big moments with a casualness that leaves his peers in awe. More often than not, majors are defined by the nerves and failings of normal men such as Perry and Chad Campbell.

"You try to raise your game and be better than the average player," Perry said. "I'm still down there with the average players."

That is unnecessarily self-deprecating. Perry is way better than average. He has won 13 times in some of the most testing conditions on the PGA Tour at places such as Colonial, Muirfield Village and Bay Hill. Yet he can still get so nervous that he can't control his right hand on simple little chips in the most mundane of tour events, such as last year's John Deere.

On a week when the atmosphere at the Masters was electric, Perry kept fighting his nerves and lingering atop the leaderboard. He didn't wilt when Phil Mickelson and Woods were stoking the patrons into a fury six groups in front of them. He watched them climb the leaderboards all the way to his heels but didn't buckle.

Then, when he very nearly aced the 16th hole and walked off with a two-shot lead with two to go, it looked like he was ready to join golf's elite.

"I was under the most extreme pressure you can be put under on this golf course, and I was able to do it for 16 holes," Perry said. "It was there."

But he gave the strokes back and had to once again go to a sudden-death playoff in a major. If Cabrera misses a 6-footer on the first extra hole as Campbell did, Perry is the Masters champion.

"Angel's won two majors. Give him credit," Perry said. "He's got the heart to make it happen. I thought I was there. I thought I was going to win. I believed I was going to make the putts. In the past I never felt I was good enough. I felt average. Today I felt like I was good enough. It didn't happen."

Perry didn't go all woe-is-me. He didn't cry. His 23-year-old son, Justin, looked devastated with bloodshot eyes, but Perry remained stoic.

"I'm not going to feel sorry," he said. "If this is the worst thing that happens to me, I can live with it. I really can. Great players get it done, and Angel got it done. This is his second major he's won. I've blown two, but that's the only two I've had chances of winning."

His wife of 27 years, Sandy, said that's not just a line.

"I think he's going to be all right," she said. "I see a big difference today from '96. In the interview he's talking about positives instead of negatives. He got in a position he hasn't been in a long time, I just think it comes with being older. There's a lot more things important in life than golf."

Winning the Masters would have changed his life and his legacy, but it wouldn't have changed Perry. He is still the favorite son of Kentucky. He's still the Ryder Cup hero. He's still the guy who built and operates a golf course where anyone can play. He's still the guy who loves his family.

"Well, I hope they are not too sad," he said of his parents back in Franklin, Ky., where his father, Ken, was tending to his mother, Mildred, who is battling cancer.

Perry leaves Augusta disappointed but not disheartened.

"I would have loved to know I could come here each and every year and play this golf course because it's such a beautiful place," he said. "But I have my wife and kids here. I had a great time playing here. It's something we can talk about forever."

When we talk about it, let's try to remember the incredible perspective of a remarkable human.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.