As far as the current world number one is concerned, there is a pattern here. Ominously for the rest of the field, he took the lead at the Masters during the final round but was still unable to close the deal. As early as the second hole on Sunday at Oakmont, he had the lead again and once again came up short.

If Zach Johnson . . . with his precision off the tee and disciplined short game . . . and the fag-smoking, power-hitter Cabrera are as different as chalk and cheese, there was some similarity in that neither player had a track record at the majors, yet both managed to hold off Woods under the most intense pressure.

Maybe Rory Sabbatini was right, maybe Woods is more "beatable" than ever.

On the second tee last Sunday . . . just a couple of minutes after the overnight leader, Aaron Baddeley, had triplebogeyed the first hole . . . it seemed as if the championship's defining moment had taken place. The ground around the tee box and both sides of the fairway were packed with spectators and in the distance you could see people on other stands looking back with binoculars towards Woods, who stood waiting for the green to clear.

Following his calamitous opening, it appeared for all as if Baddeley had shrunk . . . you could hardly find him amid the sea of faces. Whereas Woods, looking as if he could make a block at a Superbowl just as easily as win another major, stood out from the throng in his customary red.

Playing 307 yards in the final round, Oakmont's second hole offers the players a choice: take a medium iron off the tee and lay up, or take the driver and attack the green. There was a pause as Woods considered his options but when he chose the driver there was a roar as loud as anything that had been heard all week.

If the galleries needed a statement of intent, this was it.

With Baddeley already out of contention, Woods had grabbed the tournament by the throat and it seemed as if there would be no letting go.

But, within minutes of smashing his drive through the second green, he had double-bogeyed the third hole . . .

where he uncharacteristically fluffed two short pitches. Later, he would miss the 11th green with a wedge from just under 120 yards, leave himself with a series of treacherous downhill putts and fail to register the one birdie he needed over the last three holes.

There are two ways of looking at another modest performance by Woods's own exalted standards. Earlier in his career, victory would have been almost pre-ordained once he took the lead in the final round. If a putt had to be made, he would invariably make it. But against that, between 2002 and 2004, he played in 10 majors in succession without winning one.

So, it's not as if Woods has suddenly lost his ability to win when it really matters. He responded to that barren spell some years ago by winning the Masters and the British Open in 2005, then the British Open again and the USPGA Championship in 2006. In his last four majors, he has won twice and finished second twice. Hardly the record of a player on the wane.

However, the feeling remains that this US Open and a 13th major title were there for the taking. In the Sunday swirl, when Woods himself, Cabrera, Baddeley, Stephen Ames and Steve Stricker all led at one time or another, there was every reason to expect that the best player would rise above the twin obstacles of final-round pressure and a brutally difficult golf course.

On the Saturday, he had struck the ball supremely well . . . if he brings that sort of form to Carnoustie next month where the greens are far less demanding than at Oakmont, he will surely win . . . but took 35 putts. The following day, he was less authoritative and the putts he did make were almost all for pars.

In the end, it had nothing to do with the statistical anomaly that all of his major victories have come when he has been leading going into the final round . . . it was just that, unlike before, he was unable to land a killer blow even when he could see from the scoreboards that Cabrera had faltered with bogeys at the 16th and 17th holes.

His laser-beam focus could have been affected by the imminent birth of his daughter or, more likely, an unforgiving course presented him with fewer birdie opportunities.

Woods's frustration though might have been less than Jim Furyk's. Whereas Woods knew what he had to do to catch Cabrera, Furyk should have known what he had to do.

Playing the 17th hole, it certainly appeared that neither he nor his caddie, Mike 'Fluff ' Cowan, were aware that they were tied with Cabrera at five over par.

It is true that no scoreboards are visible from Oakmont's 17th tee, however, on the walk from the 16th green, Cowan could easily have found out what the position was.

Furyk later admitted that when he saw Cabrera in the group ahead making a putt on the 17th green, he wasn't sure whether it was for a birdie or a par. In fact, it was for a bogey.

Believing he needed to press, Furyk hit his driver and ended up short-siding himself in the heavy rough to the left of the green from where he made the bogey that would lose him the tournament. In the circumstances, a more conservative approach with a long iron and a wedge to the green would have been the best option.

"The play I made was the play I made, " said Furyk, who has finished second in the last two US Opens. "Now if I went back, I wouldn't hit it left of the green for damn sure."

Where Woods and Furyk missed sending the championship to a play-off by agonising margins, Cabrera unquestionably produced the shot of the day with his thunderous 346-yard drive at the final hole. On the back of two dropped shots . . . and with a reputation for cracking under pressure . . . he found a perfect swing from somewhere. "I got to my ball and it was still crying, " he told his manager later.

At a time when elite golf is criticised for its proliferation of super-fit, one-dimensional, faceless players, it was refreshing that someone who has never seen the inside of a gym came through. For much of the 37-year-old's career, he has struggled on the greens but at Oakmont, where everyone struggled, he was at less of a disadvantage.

He has always had the game and now Cabrera has the selfbelief of a major champion.

"He put a lot of pressure on Jim and I, " said Woods.

That was the ultimate compliment.

REMAINING 2007 MAJORS
BRITISH OPEN Carnoustie, 19-22 July Holder Tiger Woods
USPGA CHAMPIONSHIP Southern Hills, 9-12 August Holder Tiger Woods