Does Angel Cabrera belong at this Masters? Not everyone’s convinced

AUGUSTA, Ga. — On a bluebird Tuesday afternoon at Augusta National, 55-year-old Angel Cabrera was banging balls on the right end of the gleaming practice range in preparation for his 21st Masters start but first since 2019. Gone were the Ping and South Africa Airways logos he wore on his hat and shirt, respectively, when he won here in 2009, replaced by his interlocking initials, AC, in both spots. Attentive golf fans might recognize Cabrera in this environment but perhaps not if they strolled by him on the street. He’s wider around the middle than he was when Trevor Immelman slipped the green jacket over his shoulders. The bags under his eyes have grown heavier, and his neatly cropped beard is mostly gray.

Cabrera’s swing lacks some of the pop that you might remember from when he beat Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell in a playoff to become South America’s first Masters champion, but you don’t need to watch him groove drivers for long to deduce that he can still golf his ball. He proved as much just last week when he shot 11 under in a 54-hole PGA Tour Champions event in South Florida to win by two over K.J Choi.     

That victory garnered much attention because it was Cabrera’s first since he was released on parole from an Argentine prison in March 2023. Over the previous 30 months, Cabrera had served time in three different prisons for various charges, including domestic violence allegations filed by two former girlfriends; in one instance, Cabrera admitted to hurling a cellphone at his partner’s head.

Cabrera’s jail time began in Rio de Janeiro in early 2021, where for five months he awaited a trial date in his native Argentina. He had a cellmate in Rio but not much else: four square meters of living space, as he recalled it, with a cement mattress and cloth pieces for bedding. In June 2021, he was extradited to his homeland where he was convicted and incarcerated. “It was a relatively okay environment,” Cabrera told the Daily Mail last month. “It wasn’t a dangerous one.” He said he practiced his swing with a broom handle and read golf magazines to stay in touch with the game. “I thought about Augusta,” he told the Mail, “but I was away.”

On Tuesday, Cabrera was back.

The Augusta National range was bustling under cloudless skies, though not around Cabrera and his son Angel Jr., who is on the bag this week. There were two vacant bays to their left and three to their right. As the elder Cabrera began winding down his session, 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir approached him, said hello and set up shop two bays down. A couple of minutes later, José María Olazábal’s caddie, Lorenzo Gagli, strolled over to the Cabreras and clasped hands with both of them. When Cabrera had finished practicing and was waiting for his ride next to the range, Justin Rose snuck up behind him, squeezed his shoulder and congratulated him for his win in Florida. The scene represented what Cabrera said Tuesday is among the things he has most missed about playing competitive golf: the camaraderie, or, as he put it, “the family of golf.”

Not everyone, though, has welcomed Cabrera back to the Masters with open arms.

Several columnists have criticized his presence (including here, here and here); social media has not lacked for similar takes; and Jamie Klingler, co-founder of the social-justice organization Reclaim These Streets, told the BBC, “It seems as long as male athletes can excel at hitting a ball, we excuse those same men hitting women.”

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Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe you believe Cabrera has no business returning to such a prestigious golf tournament, let alone one that has thrown its support behind the women’s game in recent years with the introduction of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Cabrera, some have noted, also has been welcomed back to the same club where 15 years ago, the then club chairman, Billy Payne, publicly scolded Tiger Woods for committing not a crime but serial infidelity. “It is simply not the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here,” Payne said. “It is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids. Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.” Perhaps you feel those same words should be applied to Cabrera.

Or maybe you don’t feel that way at all.

Maybe you feel that justice has been served, Cabrera paid his penance and now he deserves a second chance, both in life and in golf. You might also feel that it’s not Augusta National’s place to decide whether Cabrera — who is in the field by way of his past champion’s status — is unworthy or unfit to compete and, despite his crimes, has as much right to his place in the field as, say, Fred Couples or Rory McIlroy.

Or maybe you’re still not sure how you feel.

Cabrera knows that. After playing a Tuesday practice round with Jhonattan Vegas, Cabrera met with reporters in the customary press-scrum area behind the clubhouse. As he has been in other interviews, he was remorseful if not expansive. Five questions in, Cabrera was asked, “What would you say to the people that maybe think you shouldn’t be here?”

“I respect their opinion, and everybody has their own opinion and I respect that,” he said.

Two questions later: “Personally, what you’ve done in the past, do you think you belong here?”

“I won the Masters,” Cabrera replied. “Why not?”

More difficult questions will surely come Wednesday — if not for Cabrera, then for Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley, who is scheduled to meet with media at 11 a.m. Ridley, a lawyer by trade, will be prepared. His answers will be direct but measured. A year ago, when asked about Cabrera’s then-uncertain status, Ridley said: “He presently is not able to enter the United States. He doesn’t have a visa, and I know that that process is being worked through. We certainly wish him the best of luck with that, and we’ll definitely welcome him back if he’s able to straighten out those legal issues.” On Wednesday, Ridley will more than likely do just that: welcome back the 2009 Masters champion without delving into specifics about whether the club waffled on its decision to give him a starting time.

When he spoke to reporters through an interpreter Tuesday afternoon, Cabrera said that thus far this week he hadn’t had much of a chance to catch up with friends and peers. He said the only player with whom he has any contact in recent years is three-time Masters winner Gary Player, who wrote Cabrera a letter when he was in prison. “He wanted to give me advice, that things were going to happen and things would get better,” Cabrera said.

On Tuesday night, Cabrera saw many more familiar faces, at the Champions Dinner on the second floor of the Augusta National clubhouse. On Scottie Scheffler’s menu was Texas-style chili, wood-fired cowboy ribeye and blackened redfish. Fine wine and cold beer flowed. Stories were told and laughs shared. In a group photo released by the club, Cabrera, in his green jacket and a yellow tie, was flanked by Weir and the 2021 winner, Hideki Matsuyama.

Cabrera was asked Tuesday afternoon about any regret that he harbors.

“Obviously I regret things that happened and you learn from them,” he said. “But at the same time those are in the past and we have to look forward to what’s coming.”