The Masters let Ángel Cabrera return. What does that say?
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Fred Ridley's shortest answer in an hour-long news conference Wednesday checked in at 37 words. The Augusta National chairman was asked about the club's decision to allow 2009 winner Ángel Cabrera back to compete as a past champion.
Ridley knew the question was coming, and knew his answer before he said it.
Advertisement
'Well, we certainly abhor domestic violence of any type,' he replied. 'As it relates to Ángel, Ángel has served the sentence that was prescribed by the Argentine courts, and he is the past champion, and so he was invited.'
Unfettered by awkward air or outside criticism, Augusta National is welcoming Cabrera back for the 2025 Masters. He attended Tuesday night's past champion's dinner on the second floor of the Augusta National clubhouse, wearing a yellow tie with his green jacket and standing between Mike Weir and Hideki Matsuyama for a group portrait. He participated in Wednesday's family-oriented Par-3 Contest, shooting a 4-over 31 on nine holes. He will tee off in Thursday's first round at 10:59 a.m. ET with Adam Schenk and Laurie Canter.
The return is a long time coming for Cabrera. It's also open to interpretation and attack.
Sixteen years ago, Cabrera was the paunchy Argentinian plodding around Augusta, smiling, throwing carefree fist pumps through the air, erasing a two-shot deficit with four holes to go. In a playoff with Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell, the 39-year-old Cabrera watched wide-eyed as a punch shot from the woods found a heaven-sent ricochet off a tree and into the fairway. He won the playoff and slipped on a 46 regular green jacket.
Today, Cabrera is 55 years old and 20 months removed from a 30-month prison stint. The two-time major champion spent time in three different jails for domestic violence.
Among the original charges, his ex-wife detailed physical assault and verbal threats occurring between 2016 and 2018. In subsequent charges, two ex-girlfriends made similar claims, including one saying Cabrera locked her in a closet and struck her with a cell phone. At trial in 2021, Cabrera adamantly denied allegations against him.
Cabrera's messaging changed after being released from an Argentine prison in August 2023. In a lengthy, revealing Q&A with Golf Digest, Cabrera detailed lifelong issues with alcoholism, admitted to abusing ex-partners and apologized.
Advertisement
'I am repentant and embarrassed,' Cabrera told Golf Digest. 'I made serious mistakes. I refused to listen to anyone and did what I wanted, how I wanted and when I wanted. That was wrong. I ask Micaela for forgiveness. I ask Celia for forgiveness. 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.'
Cabrera was cleared to play in PGA Tour-sanctioned events in December 2023. Ever since, he's continued his professional playing career inconspicuously on the senior tours in the U.S. and Europe, earning nearly $400,000 on the PGA Tour Champions. Last week, three events into his 2025 season, Cabrera won the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational, edging out K.J. Choi and Retief Goosen.
Coming to Augusta, however, is anything but inconspicuous.
The Masters is an invitational tournament. While all past champions are exempt from qualifying, it's always at Augusta National's discretion who competes. Some past champions have been lightly nudged to discontinue playing when they can no longer reasonably make it around the course with an appropriate score. In March, Fred Couples said he was blissfully relieved to hear Steve Ethun, the Masters Chief Tournament Officer, tell him the club wants him to continue playing.
In no way is Augusta morally or contractually obligated to allow Cabrera to play. It is a choice. In January 2024, Ridley called Cabrera 'one of our great champions.' He didn't play in the 2024 Masters because of visa issues.
Some will say Cabrera served his time. Others will argue Cabrera surrendered his right to be honored — which is the entire point of allowing past champions to play — once he committed acts of domestic violence.
Cabrera? He half-shrugged.
It was after a Tuesday practice round. Cabrera, wearing a graying beard, addressed reporters behind the Augusta clubhouse. When asked, what would you say to the people that maybe think you shouldn't be here? Cabrera pushed his shoulders up and responded, 'I respect their opinion and everybody has their own opinion and I respect that.'
Advertisement
Cabrera fielded 16 questions in English, answering via a Spanish interpreter. Short, simple answers.
'Life has given me another opportunity,' he said. 'I got to take advantage of that and I want to do the right things in this second opportunity.'
'There was a stage in my life of five years, four, five years, that they weren't the right things I should have done,' he said. 'Before that I was okay, so I just have to keep doing what I know I can do right.'
On Wednesday, The Athletic asked Augusta National if any policy or behavioral standard exists that could exclude a past champion from competing. The club had no comment, referring only to Ridley's quote earlier in the day.
On the outside, criticism will persist. It remains to be seen how Augusta National's broadcast partners handle the storyline, whether ESPN and CBS delve into the circumstances surrounding Cabrera's return. CBS color commentator Trevor Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion, was the man who slipped the green jacket upon Cabrera's shoulders after the 2009 tournament. Neither network responded to requests for comment on the matter.
All that's known for sure is Thursday will assuredly come with a pleasant round of applause when Cabrera is introduced on the opening tee. Just like all of the 19 past champions in the field.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
U.S. Open Thursday live updates, leaderboard: Can anyone catch Scottie Scheffler at Oakmont?
The third major championship of the season is here, and all eyes are on Scottie Scheffler. The U.S. Open kicks off on Thursday from Oakmont Country Club outside of Pittsburgh, where a $21.5 million purse is up for grabs. Scheffler, the top-ranked golfer in the world, is starting off the week as the biggest favorite the event has seen in 16 years. Advertisement Scheffler has won three of his last four starts and has absolutely dominated the golf world in recent weeks. He won the PGA Championship by five shots last month, too, to claim his third major championship title. A win for him this week would bring him just a British Open away from completing the career grand slam. There are plenty of others to keep an eye on this week, too. Rory McIlroy, who won the Masters earlier this season, appears to be still enjoying his win — and that's taking a toll on his game. Bryson DeChambeau, who seems to be the only LIV Golf guy that is constantly in the mix this year, is apparently on the clock when it comes to his contract with the Saudi Arabian-backed league. And, of course, the rough. Everybody is talking about the rough at Oakmont, which is expected to provide plenty of carnage. That's a good thing, right? Stick with Yahoo Sports for all of the updates throughout the opening round of the U.S. Open. Advertisement How to watch the 2025 U.S. Open All times ET Thursday, June 12 USA: 6 a.m. - 5 p.m. Peacock: 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. Friday, June 13 NBC: 1 p.m. - 7 p.m. Peacock: 6:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. Saturday, June 14 USA: 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. NBC: 12 p.m. - 8 p.m. Sunday, June 15 USA: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. NBC: 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
The Bunker Specifically Designed to Torment the World's Best Golfers
When renowned golf architect Gil Hanse was asked to renovate the course at Oakmont Country Club ahead of this week's U.S. Open, he knew it presented two fundamental challenges. First, he had to make sure it was fiendishly difficult. After all, Oakmont has been regarded as one of the toughest courses around ever since it was established more than a century ago. But he also had to make sure it was fair—a course that strategically tests players is far more interesting than one that's just plain cruel. As Hanse sat down to consider those twin objectives, he began to realize that he was staring at one of the conundrums that has come to define modern golf. Today's top players can smash a small white ball farther than ever before. But the distance between the biggest hitters and everyone else is just as much of a problem. While Masters champion Rory McIlroy and reigning U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau can routinely drive the ball in excess of 330 yards, others in the field might be happy to land within 50 yards of that. Which creates a peculiar question for course designers like Hanse. How do you create an equitable challenge for the best golfers on the planet when there's such an enormous disparity between how far they hit the ball? The answer lies just left of the fairway on the seventh hole at Oakmont, where a small patch of sand could decide who wins the next major championship. 'Some of the field is really going to have to think about it,' said Hanse, before adding that two players in particular might not be so concerned. 'Rory and Bryson aren't really going to have to think that much.' For decades now, the sport has wrestled about what to do about the increase in power of today's biggest hitters. Augusta National, host of the Masters, has warned against the day when the course would have to stretch to 8,000 yards in length. Governing bodies have already unveiled plans to roll back cutting-edge golf ball technology. Over the years, organizers haven't been afraid to target individual players. When Tiger Woods took over the game in the late 1990s, it was simply called 'Tiger-Proofing.' Meanwhile, tournaments are left with decisions about holes like No. 7 at Oakmont, which was already plenty difficult before the renovation. Back in 2016, when Dustin Johnson won here, only 44% of players reached the green in regulation, the lowest rate of any par-4 at the course. But when Hanse added another trap to a space that had previously been fairway, he wasn't simply concocting ways to make it meaner. Rather, as he and his team studied old layouts from the original Oakmont design, they noticed that bunkers like this one had once existed yet had disappeared over time. 'They asked you to make a really significant gamble, to go down the left side, make that carry over the cross bunker,' Hanse says. 'But the reward was dramatic.' That just left Hanse and his team figuring out how far away to place it, and every inch would have an enormous effect. A yard or two closer to the tee and most players wouldn't have much trouble clearing it. Any farther back and almost no one would consider trying to clear it—the seventh hole is also uphill and into the wind. And even farther away than that would feel like the bunker was specifically targeted at two players in particular. McIlroy and DeChambeau, who produced a U.S. Open for the ages last year, can bludgeon the ball unlike other elite pros. When McIlroy won the Masters in April, they ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in driving distance—and nobody else was within 13 yards of them. The compromise, Hanse found, is that while it's almost impossible to force every player into the same risk-reward decision on every hole, there are ways to ensure that each competitor is tested over the course of a single day. For instance, while DeChambeau and McIlroy can bomb it on No. 7, their power gives them a problem off the 15th tee when they could reach a bunker down the left side or a ditch down the right. 'You try to make sure throughout the round that you're not constantly favoring or penalizing one particular class of golfer,' Hanse says. The irony on the 7th is that any player who steers clear of the cross bunker is left with an entirely different headache. Hitting to the right gives competitors a blind shot with a worse angle to the green. Which means that playing it safe might actually be the bigger risk. Write to Andrew Beaton at
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
US Open tee time awaits Docherty less than a month after horrific car accident
OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — What Alistair Docherty thought was smoke was really the powder bursting out of the freshly deployed airbag. There was no mistaking the blood and glass covering everything in the wrecked white minivan. Docherty was driving May 20 when he got T-boned in an intersection, two days before the Korn Ferry's Visit Knoxville Open. On June 2, the 31-year-old, who missed his PGA Tour card by two spots at the end of last season, qualified for the U.S. Open. At 6:45 a.m. Thursday, Docherty will tee off at Oakmont. It's no stretch to say he's happy to be here, but Docherty wants more than just a good memory to close out this wild three weeks. 'It's not a miracle,' Docherty said after wrapping up a practice round that hardly looked possible less than a month ago, as he was tangled in the blood and glass. 'I'm very thankful. But it's definitely where I believe I'm supposed to be. Everything works out for a reason. I'm just trying to take advantage.' The pictures tell the story best. One is of the passenger's side of the minivan, sitting in the grass near the intersection, crumpled almost beyond recognition after getting slammed by an SUV that ran a red light. Another is Docherty lying in a hospital bed, lips pierced, eyes barely open, wearing a hospital gown draped over part of his neck collar. 'My car spun around a few times. I felt glass and everything come at me,' Docherty said. 'I opened my eyes and thought I saw smoke. I jumped out of the car as quickly as possible. It ended up being the stuff coming out of the airbag. I walked around a little dazed, and I was covered in blood and glass.' At the hospital, doctors and nurses were able to clean the glass off his body — no major damage there. The scans came back clean — nothing broken, either. Docherty said his shoulder and legs took the brunt of the crash. Constant work with the physical therapist allowed him to set his sites on June 2 at Duke University Golf Club. He shot 72-64 in the 36-hole qualifier to earn one of seven spots available there. The third part of that photo essay is him holding his invitation to play in the U.S. Open this week. 'This is a great test to see where my game is at right now,' he said. 'If you show up thinking 'I don't have a chance here,' then you're done. so, I believe I have a chance to play my best here and see where it puts me.' ___
