As usual, there will be many subplots to The Masters. None are as provocative as the presence of a former champion making his first return after spending 30 months in prison for domestic violence.
It will be to Angel Cabrera’s benefit that Augusta National is not the sort of place where jeering is tolerated, but even the most officious corner of sport will struggle to monitor private thoughts in the gallery.
As the winner in 2009, he has been invited back. But should he have been? Should golf be lending one of its grandest stages to a man convicted in 2021 of assault and intimidation against two former partners?
On the flipside, does sport have a responsibility towards rehabilitation after an athlete has served his sentence?
They are questions that will plant thorns amid the azaleas when the tournament begins on April 10. Whether any golfers are willing to gatecrash the ambience by raising them remains to be seen.
For Cabrera, now 55, stepping back onto those grounds are part of what he terms his ‘second chance’ in life, with a 21st appearance at The Masters coming six years after his last.
Angel Cabrera is back at the Augusta National for the first time since going to jail
The Argentinian won the green jacket in 2009 after beating Kenny Perry in the second sudden death playoff
Cabrera spent 30 months in prison for domestic violence after being convicted in 2021 of assault and intimidation against two former partners
‘Those years have been really tough,’ he tells Mail Sport, in his first interview with a British publication since his release in 2023. His manager, Manuel Tagle, is translating for the Argentine.
‘Right now, I’m fine,’ Cabrera says. ‘But I regret everything that I have done wrongly in my past and I am also frustrated that I dumped very, very important years of my life. I made mistakes.
‘It is one of the worst things that can happen to a human being, not being able to have freedom.
‘The lack of freedom is something really difficult, really hard. And on the other hand, you know, I can tell you that the most important thing I feel right now is the second chance, the opportunity to get back on the right track.’
Cabrera’s case was alarming, as was the accompanying fall from a position of affection. Known as El Pato, ‘The Duck’, because of his gait, he was painted as the everyman golfer, puffing cigarettes as he power-faded his drives towards two major titles.
That he did so from a difficult upbringing in Cordoba, Argentina meant his story was atypical. Cabrera’s father was a handyman, his mother a maid, and after they split when he was an infant, he was raised by his grandmother. By 10 he was a caddie, at 12 he had effectively left formal education and aged 16 he began a relationship with a 30-year-old mother of four.
Out of those unconventional circumstances, he held off Tiger Woods by a shot to win the US Open in 2007, took the Masters in a three-way play-off in 2009 and was fourth in the Open in 1999. People liked and admired him.
But other aspects went unseen – he has spoken previously about how his childhood left him emotionally damaged and once his game began to slip in 2012, difficulties with alcohol became severe. They are factors that were fed in as a sliver of mitigation after a succession of charges were filed by several ex-partners about his actions behind closed doors.
Cabrera says the ‘lack of freedom’ was ‘really difficult’ to cope with behind bars
Pictured with Cecilia Torres Mana, one of his former girlfriends who accused him of domestic violence
Cabrera says he ‘regrets everything’ and is annoyed that he wasted ‘very important years’
The complainants included two former girlfriends, Micaela Escudero and Cecilia Torres Mana, who came forward to accuse Cabrera of domestic violence. In one instance, Torres Mana claimed Cabrera threw a phone at her head, injuring her scalp, which he has subsequently admitted. A third woman, Silva Rivadero, with whom he has two children, alleged physical assault and verbal threats.
Cabrera’s arrest came in January 2021 after he missed a court date in Argentina in order to play a seniors’ tour event in the US, prompting Interpol to put him on their red list – his team believe this was a factor that later contributed to a custodial sentence.
When he was eventually picked up by police in Rio de Janeiro, he would spend five months in Placido de Sa Carvalho jail awaiting trial.
‘That was probably the worst part and the most difficult one for me,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘Pretty much all the time, I was locked down. There was not much walking or moving or anything like that.
‘I was sleeping in some pieces of cloth on a bed that was basically cement. I was locked in with someone else, so we were two locked down there, and the cell was like two meters by two meters.’
Cabrera initially denied the accusations in court, where he was ultimately sentenced to two years in prison, but he has since apologised publicly to his former partners, saying he is ‘embarrassed’.
In an interview with Golf Digest in 2023, conducted in Spanish, he elaborated: ‘They had the bad luck of crossing paths with me when I was at my worst. I wasn’t the devil, but I did bad things and that his time in prison brought the realisation.’
After his five months in Brazil, the majority of Cabrera’s sentence was spent in Carcel de Bouwer in Argentina, branded as the ‘Prison from hell’, for a population that includes murderers and rapists. He was kept separate from the more dangerous inmates and largely confined to his cell or his job of cleaning the main hall before serving the final months of his term at Monte Cristo, a minimum-security facility nearby.
He says a jail in Rio de Janeiro was the ‘worst part’ as there was ‘not much walking or moving’
The 55-year-old was kept in a ‘prison from hell’ in Argentina for the majority of his sentence
‘When I was sent over to Argentina that was much better (than Brazil), he says. ‘The people in prison with me, they were mostly older people and educated and so it was a relatively okay environment. It wasn’t a dangerous one.’
Cabrera has tended to describe that period as characterised by bouts of depression, therapy, and a gradual acceptance that his situation was of his own making.
His only connection to golf in that time came from a handful of letters and visits from his manager. Occasionally, in Monte Cristo, he would use a broom handle to rehearse his swing.
‘My manager would bring different golf magazines,’ he says. ‘It was nice because I was able to see what’s going on in golf and have this feeling that I was in touch with a sport that I love so much. I thought about Augusta, the US Open, but I was away.
‘Gary Player sent me a letter and that was very nice of him. And also Ernie Els sent me his best several times through acquaintances that I know.’
Since his release, Cabrera has made several appearances on the senior’s circuit, peaking with a tie for fifth at the Senior Open at Carnoustie last year.
‘The players that played with me all through their careers, they all made me feel welcome,’ he says. ‘I’m thankful for that.’
Time will tell how he is regarded at Augusta. So far, no golfers have spoken against his return, with club chairman Fred Ridley saying last year the club would ‘definitely welcome him back’. A lapsed US visa killed that possibility in 2024.
No golfers have spoke against his return and he was a popular figure prior to his controversy
He describes Augusta as a ‘special place’ (pictured celebrating in his home town of Cordoba with a Villa Allende flag)
‘It gives me great joy to be going back,’ adds Cabrera, who was also the runner up to Adam Scott in 2013. He goes on to list a few memories from 2009, which he won on a sudden-death play-off against Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry.
‘I remember the third day, I was tied for the lead, and after the round I was on a golf cart, going to the press conference with my manager. I told him to tell the Augusta National people that I am a 46 Regular (for the green jacket). I felt good.
‘The other is the nerves in the play-off. I knew I had to make two putts from 15 feet to win the Masters. It is unbelievable the amount of pressure that I was feeling at that moment. The amount was something I never felt like that before.’
Those are thoughts from a different time. Covid and incarceration mean he has not been back since 2019.
‘It is a special place that gave me a lot of great moments and happiness in my golf career, especially in 2009,’ he adds. ‘It is the place where every single golfer wants to be.’
The debate over whether such a chance should be on the table will sit awkwardly in the background of this year’s championship.
