Angel Cabrera welcomed back to the Masters after serving prison sentence

Augusta, Georgia CNN —

The Argentine golfer Angel Cabrera has been away for some time, but he returns to Augusta National this week with a spring in his step, as a winning golfer looking for a warm embrace.

Despite the lifetime invitation that accompanied his Masters triumph in 2009, Cabrera hasn’t teed it up here since 2019. Instead, he’s been serving time at the notorious Carcel de Bouwer prison in Argentina, an establishment nicknamed “The Prison from Hell.”

Two former girlfriends accused him of domestic abuse, according to the Associated Press. When he skipped a mandated court appearance in Argentina to play a PGA Tour Champions event in Ohio in 2020, it triggered a red notice from Interpol, and he was subsequently arrested in Brazil. Cabrera spent four and a half months at the infamous Placido de Sa Carvalho prison in Rio de Janeiro before he was extradited to stand trial in Argentina.

Fred Ridley, the chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club, has described Cabrera as “one of our great champions,” and Ben Crenshaw, the unofficial host of the traditional Champions Dinner which has a seat at the table for Cabrera, said he was excited to have him and would welcome him personally, according to Golfweek.

The fallout from Cabrera’s crimes lingers. Even after he’d been jailed for abusing his former girlfriend Cecilia Torres Mana in 2021, she said that she and her family were still afraid of the two-time Major champion. In a written first-person account, Mana detailed the misery she endured to Orato First-Person News, saying that during their relationship Cabrera “physically, psychologically and sexually abused me.”

Mana wrote that Cabrera would hit her if she refused his requests and that he followed her in public because he was paranoid that she was seeing someone else. She accused him of locking her in a closet when they were in Texas for a tournament, saying he controlled her movements and forbade her from seeing her dying mother, and he threatened her safety if she ever dared to leave him, according to the 2021 Orato story. Cabrera previously denied the allegations but in a 2023 interview said he “made serious mistakes.”

Having also been found guilty of threats and harassment of another ex-girlfriend in 2022, Cabrera served 30 months behind bars in Brazil and Argentina before he was paroled in 2023. He could have played at Augusta the following April, but he was unable to secure a travel visa in time. According to his longtime coach Charlie Epps, the former Masters champions Bernhard Langer and Gary Player wrote to Cabrera while he was incarcerated and now the Augusta community is welcoming him back into the fold.

For many years, Augusta National was accused of defiantly dragging its heels on progressive issues, but a change of direction within the last 15 years means that the club is now an influential leader in one of the world’s most traditional sports. In 2012, Condoleeza Rice and Darla Moore became the club’s first female members, and since 2019 it has hosted the Augusta National Women’s Amateur tournament. But the Masters now seems to be eagerly welcoming back a man found guilty of crimes against multiple women.

Speaking through a translator on his return to Augusta on Tuesday, Cabrera addressed concerns about his participation.

“I respect their opinion, and everybody has their own opinion, and I respect that,” he said, adding, “life has given me another opportunity, I’ve got to take advantage of that, and I want to do the right things in this second opportunity.”

Speaking in a press gaggle specifically about whether he should be able to play in the tournament again, he responded bluntly: “I won the Masters, why not?”

Ridley told the media that he defended Cabrera’s right to play, with a caveat.

“We certainly abhor domestic violence of any type,” he said. “As it relates to Angel, Angel has served the sentence that was prescribed by the Argentine courts, and he is the past champion, and so he was invited.”

Cabrera himself has previously expressed remorse, telling Golf Digest in 2023 that he has asked his former partners for forgiveness.

“They had the bad luck of crossing paths with me when I was at my worst,” he said. “I wasn’t the devil, but I did bad things. … I refused to listen to anyone and did what I wanted and when I wanted. … I am deeply embarrassed because I disappointed the people closest to me and everyone who loves me through golf.”

Cabrera also lamented the personal cost, telling The Daily Mail, “I regret everything that I have done wrongly in my past. I am also frustrated that I dumped very, very important years of my life.”

Nicknamed El Pato – the duck – because of his waddling gait, Cabrera has spoken of the difficulties of his incarceration, and he’s hoping to make the most of his second chance. According to Sports Illustrated, Cabrera didn’t touch a golf club during his time in prison, but at the age of 55 he’s winning again.

On the eve of his Masters return, Cabrera won The James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in Florida on Sunday, his first victory on the senior Champions Tour and his first significant win anywhere for almost 11 years. He was only able to compete in the field because another player withdrew from the tournament.

The last three times that Cabrera played the Masters, he missed the cut and was gone by the weekend. But it’s also a course upon which he has enjoyed considerable success: Six top ten finishes, including a win and a playoff defeat. If he plays well again this week then his name will likely have an outsized prominence on the leaderboard and so too will his story. Opinion would surely be divided about whether it’s a comeback worth celebrating.

Click here to read article