As usual, there will be many sub -intrigues in the masters. None is 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 for the benefit of Angel Cabrera that Augusta National is not the kind of place where tolerance is tolerated, but even the most unofficial corner of sport will find it difficult to monitor private thoughts in the gallery.
As winner in 2009, he was invited. But should he have been? Should golf lend one of its greatest stages to a man sentenced in 2021 for assault and intimidation against two former partners?
On the other hand, has sport has a responsibility for rehabilitation after an athlete has served his sentence?
These are questions that will plant thorns in the middle of the Azaleas when the tournament begins on April 10. That golfers are ready to manage the atmosphere by raising them, remains to be seen.
For Cabrera, now 55 years old, going up on these terrains is part of what he calls his “second chance” in life, with a 21st appearance at the Masters to come six years after his last.
Angel Cabrera is back in Augusta National for the first time since his prison
Argentinian won the green jacket in 2009 after defeating Kenny Perry in the second eliminatory of sudden death
Cabrera spent 30 months in prison for domestic violence after being sentenced in 2021 for assault and intimidation against two former partners
“These years have been really difficult,” he told Mail Sport, in his first interview with a British publication since its release in 2023. His manager, Manuel Tagle, is reflected in Argentinian.
“Right now, I’m fine,” says Cabrera. “But I regret everything I did wrongly in my past and I am also frustrated to have threw very, very important years in 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.
“Lack of freedom is something really difficult, really difficult. 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 come back to the right track.
The case of Cabrera was alarming, just like the accompaniment of a position of affection. Known as El Pato, “The Duck”, because of his approach, he was painted like the golfer of everyone, inflating cigarettes while he exceeded his power to two major titles.
That he did it of a difficult education in Cordoba, Argentina meant that his story was atypical. Cabrera’s father was a handyman, his mother a maid, and after their separation when he was a baby, he was raised by his grandmother. At 10, he was a shopping cart, at 12, he had indeed left a formal and 16 -year -old education, he started a relationship with a 30 -year -old mother.
Among these unconventional circumstances, he selected Tiger Woods by a shot to win the United States Open in 2007, took the Masters in a three-to-three eliminatory match in 2009 and finished fourth in open in 1999. People loved it and admired it.
But other aspects have remained invisible – he already talked about how his childhood has left him emotionally damaged and once his game began to slip in 2012, alcohol difficulties have become serious. These are factors that have been fed as an attenuation after a succession of charges were deposited by several ex-partners about his closed-door actions.
Cabrera says that “lack of freedom” was “really difficult” to deal with bars behind
In the photo with Cecilia Torres Mana, one of her former girlfriends who accused her of domestic violence
Cabrera says he “regrets everything” and is bored to have wasted “very important years”
The complainants included two former girlfriends, Micaela Escudero and Cecilia Torres Mana, who showed up to accuse Cabrera of domestic violence. In one case, Torres Mana said that Cabrera had launched a phone on his head, injuring his scalp, which he admitted later. A third woman, Silva Rivadero, with whom he has two children, alleged physical assault and verbal threats.
Cabrera’s arrest occurred in January 2021 after missing an audience date in Argentina to play a senior tour event in the United States, which prompted Interpol to put it on their red list – his team thinks that it was a factor that later contributed to a childcare sentence.
When he was finally recovered by the Rio de Janeiro police, he would spend five months in Placido of his Carvalho awaiting judgment.
“It was probably the worst part and the most difficult for me,” he explains Mail Sport. “Above all the time, I was locked up. There was not much walk or move or something like that.
“I slept in pieces of fabric on a bed that was essentially cement. I was locked up with someone else, so there were two of us locked up there, and the cell was like two meters by two meters.
Cabrera initially denied the accusations in court, where he was finally sentenced to two years in prison, but he has since apologized publicly with his former partners, affirming that he is “ embarrassed ”.
In an interview with Golf Digest in 2023, carried out in Spanish, he explained: “They had the unlucky to cross the paths with me when I was at my worst. I was not the devil, but I did bad things and that his time in prison brought the realization.
After her five months in Brazil, the majority of the Cabrera sentence was devoted to Carcel de Bouwer in Argentina, described as “hell prison”, for a population who includes murderers and rapists. He was kept separated from the most dangerous prisoners and largely confined to his cell or his work to clean the main hall before serving the last months of his mandate in Monte Cristo, a nearby minimum security establishment.
He says that a prison in Rio de Janeiro was the “worst part” because there was not much walking or moving “
The 55 -year -old was held in a “hell prison” in Argentina for the majority of his sentence
“When I was sent to Argentina, it was much better (than Brazil),” he says. “People in prison with me, most of them were elderly and educated and it was a relatively correct environment. It was not dangerous.
Cabrera tended to describe this period as characterized by episodes of depression, therapy and a progressive acceptance that its situation was of its own manufacture.
His only link with the golf course at that time came from a handful of letters and visits to his manager. Sometimes, in Monte Cristo, he used a handful of broom to repeat his swing.
“My manager would bring different golf magazines,” he says. “It was good because I could see what’s going on in golf and have the feeling that I was in contact with a sport that I love so much. I thought of Augusta, the United States, but I was absent.
“The Gary player sent me a letter and it was very kind of him. And also Ernie Els sent me several times on several occasions by knowledge that I know.
Since its release, Cabrera has made several appearances on the senior circuit, culminating with equality for fifth place in senior open in Carnousie last year.
“The players who played with me throughout their careers, they all made me feel welcome,” he said. “I am grateful.
Time will say how it is considered in Augusta. So far, no golfer has spoken of his return, club president Fred Ridley said last year that the club “ would definitively welcome him ”. An homologous American visa killed this possibility in 2024.
No golfer spoke of his return and he was a popular figure before his controversy
He describes Augusta as a “special place” (illustrated to celebrate in his hometown of Cordoba with a Villa Allende flag)
“It gives me great joy to go back,” added Cabrera, who was also the finalist of Adam Scott in 2013. He continues to list some memories of 2009, which he won in a sudden death match against Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry.
“I remember the third day, I was tied for the head, and after the round, I was in a golf cart, going to the press conference with my manager. I told him to tell the national people of Augusta that I am a regular of 46 (for the green jacket). I felt good.
“The other is the nerves of elimination. I knew I had to do two putts from 15 feet to win the masters. It is incredible the amount of pressure I felt at that time. The amount was something that I had never felt like that before.
These are thoughts of a different moment. Covid and imprisonment mean that he has not returned 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. “This is where each golfer wants to be.
The debate on the question of whether such a chance should be on the table will be awkwardly in the background of the championship this year.