The framed photo must have seemed a strange gift to Angel Cabrera.

Angel Cabrera reacts to his par on the final hole of regulation to force a playoff Sunday during the final round of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. The Argentine won the playoff on the second sudden-death hole with a par. After hitting a tree on the first extra hole, Cabrera was able to salvage par and keep the playoff alive. (Jackie Ricciardi/Staff)

He had just won the 2007 U.S. Open, coming from behind to defeat the most clutch golfer in history, Tiger Woods, and become the first Argentine in 40 years to win a major championship.

Naturally, Argentina's original golf legend came out to congratulate him. Roberto De Vicenzo brought with him the framed photo of a chaqueta verde.

A green jacket.

The message: "Go for it."

The U.S. Open is nice. The British Open, which De Vicenzo won in 1967, is special. The PGA's Wanamaker Trophy looks nice on the mantel.

But the Masters, at least to De Vicenzo and Argentine golf lovers, was the ultimate.

Because the Masters was the one that got away.

Until Sunday.

Cabrera will soon have another green jacket photo to frame.

In the new one, though, Cabrera will be wearing the famous sports coat.

Angel Cabrera is not close with Roberto De Vicenzo, whose incorrect scorecard cost him a shot at the green jacket in 1968. (Michael Holahan/Staff)

Cabrera won the Masters on Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club. He made three late birdies to make a playoff, got a fortunate bounce off a tree trunk to help him save par on the first extra hole and won with par one hole later.

Cabrera ended 41 years of Argentine torment in the process.

De Vicenzo should have slipped on a green jacket on Easter Sunday 1968. He shot 7-under-par 65 in the final round of the Masters that year to tie Bob Goalby and force a playoff.

De Vicenzo signed for 6-under-par 66, though. His playing partner, Tommy Aaron, marked him down for a par 4 on the 17th hole when he'd really made a birdie 3.

In golf, your partner keeps your official score, and at the end of the round, you check the scorecard for accuracy and sign it if it's correct.

De Vicenzo, angry over a three-putt bogey on his final hole, missed Aaron's mistake. He signed the card to lose the Masters by one stroke.

"I think maybe he give me so much pressure on last few holes I lose my brains," De Vicenzo told an Augusta Chronicle reporter later. "I so unhappy after 18 I look at card three, four times but I see nothing wrong. I sign card and give it to official."

Vicenzo also uttered the most infamous butchered phrase in golf history: "What a stupid I am."

The gaffe has stayed with De Vicenzo for decades.

In Argentina, the 1968 Masters is the antithesis of the 1986 World Cup soccer quarterfinal against England, the so-called "Hand of God" game. Argentina's Diego Maradona scored the first goal in his team's 2-1 victory by using his hand to illegally knock the ball in the goal.

To hear Cabrera tell it, he and De Vicenzo are not close. De Vicenzo lives in Buenos Aires; Cabrera is 300 miles away in Cordoba. De Vicenzo's Masters heartbreak happened before Cabrera was born in 1969.

Cabrera didn't dedicate his Masters win to De Vicenzo and Argentina's golf past, but to its future.

"De Vicenzo had bad luck. He had a bad moment. It's not going to change what happened to him," Cabrera said.

"This win, to take back to Argentina, it's going to help a lot with our game."

The last time Cabrera brought home a major title, his countrymen lined the streets to congratulate him and held a parade in his honor.

It wasn't a Maradona-like reception or even as big a deal as what the country's current sports idol, basketball star Manu Ginobili, receives.

But this time could be different. He's the Masters champion now.

After 41 years, Argentines will finally see one of their own wearing the chaqueta verde.