Cabrera celebrates his win at teh Masters earlier this year
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The last time the Open Championship was staged at Turnberry, back in 1994, Angel Cabrera was still battling to earn a place on the European Tour.
His third visit to the qualifying school later that year ended in a third consecutive failure to claim a tour card, and it was not until attempt number four 12 months later that the Argentinian tasted success.
But now, some 15 years on from Nick Price's dramatic one-shot victory over Jesper Parnevik, Cabrera will travel to the west coast of Scotland a double major winner and one of the favourites to lift the Claret Jug.
It is a remarkable state of affairs given the understated 39-year-old's humble beginnings, which led to him being labelled golf's "Slumdog Millionaire" in some quarters following the USD1.35million first prize he collected following April's US Masters triumph.
"My parents didn't have any plans for me," Cabrera explained about his upbringing in Cordoba. "Economically it was rough.
"We were poor, there was no money for school so there was really nothing for me to do. There was not much hope of any kind of future.
"I wasn't able to finish primary school. I became a caddie when I was 10 to put some food on the table. I definitely had to play golf to make a living, to feed my wife and two kids. I had no other option."
Future star
It was Eduardo Romero who first recognised Cabrera had the ability to be a world star and he funded his compatriot's early ventures into Europe.
After eventually coming through the qualifying school in 1995, Cabrera comfortably held onto his card in his rookie season, making the cut in 14 of his 19 events and finishing second in the Oki Pro-Am in his final event of the year.
But it was a further five years and more than 100 tournaments before he broke into the winner's enclosure.
Even that was in his home country the one year it was part of the European schedule, but in 2002 he added the Benson and Hedges International at The Belfry and then in 2005 the BMW Championship at Wentworth.
The wins were getting gradually bigger and in 2007 Cabrera completed the upward progression with victory in the US Open at Oakmont.
The brutal course, set up in typical US Open fashion with narrow fairways and punishing rough, was not expected to suit Cabrera and his powerful, if sometimes erratic, game.
Stunning win
But the Argentinian came from four shots behind going into the final round, winning by one shot from Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk with a score of five over par.
Only eight sub-par rounds were recorded in the entire tournament, and two of them belonged to Cabrera.
It looked like the sky was the limit, but Cabrera admitted winning a major championship caught him "by surprise" and he struggled to reproduce that form again.
A month later he was 34th in The Open at Carnoustie and in three of the four majors after that he missed the cut. In the other he came 25th.
After more than a year without a top-five finish anywhere in the world, Cabrera arrived at Augusta this year somewhat under the radar - a position which no doubt suits a player who often gives the impression speaking to the media is akin to a trip to the dentist.
But after holding his nerve over the closing stretch in the final round, as Kenny Perry squandered a two-shot lead with two to play, Cabrera eventually slipped on the famous green jacket after defeating Perry and Chad Campbell in a sudden-death play-off.
Whether he can add the Claret Jug to his collection on July 19 remains to be seen, but unlike Oakmont and Augusta, this time there would be no surprise if he did.
