How a Masters champion returned from South American prison to play at Augusta National again

Yahoo

08-04-2025

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Sixteen years after reaping the benefit of the most fortunate ricochet ever to occur in the Masters, Ángel Cabrera is back in Augusta. No player in Masters history has had a more circuitous — or more controversial — route from his green jacket ceremony back to the first tee, a route that's included violent crime, arrests, imprisonment and, now, a plea for redemption.
Born in 1969 to a blue-collar family in Argentina, Cabrera learned the game of golf on public courses, joining the European Tour in 1996. During the decade of the 2000s, he ascended to golf's summit, reaching No. 9 in the world in 2005 and defeating Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk by a shot to win the 2007 U.S. Open.
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Dubbed 'El Pato' — 'the duck' — for his distinctive walk and swing, Cabrera's defining moment on the course came at the Masters in 2009, when he and Kenny Perry dueled in a sudden-death playoff. Cabrera's second shot on the first playoff hole screamed into the trees … and ricocheted back into the middle of the fairway. He would go on to defeat Perry on the very next playoff hole, claiming his second major and first green jacket.
Cabrera fought his way into another Masters playoff four years later, but fell to Adam Scott. He struggled to follow up his Masters triumph, winning only once more — in 2014 at the Greenbrier — before his demons consumed him.
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'I struggled to compete with the younger players on the PGA Tour, and a nagging shoulder injury made it difficult for me to play the way I wanted to,' Cabrera told Golf Digest in 2023. 'When I realized I couldn't win, I started to lose interest. I was OK while I was competing, but whenever I returned to Cordoba, my life would unravel, and I'd end up hanging out in the wrong places with the wrong people.'
In 2016, his ex-wife Silva Rivadero charged that Cabrera had attacked her both physically and verbally; two other ex-girlfriends later leveled the same charge. Four years later, while facing a mandatory court appearance in Argentina, Cabrera instead left the country and traveled to Akron, Ohio, for a PGA Tour Champions tournament.
Angel Cabrera of Argentina celebrates during the green jacket presentation after defeating Kenny Perry on the second sudden death playoff hole to win the 2009 Masters Tournament. ()
(David Cannon via Getty Images)
That unwise move triggered Interpol's 'Red Notice,' making him an international fugitive, and in January 2021 Brazilian officials arrested him in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil imprisoned him in Plácido de Sá Carvalho penitentiary for nearly five months due to COVID-related processing delays.
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'Bad place,' Cabrera's former swing coach Charlie Epps told Golfweek in 2021. 'He got beat up. They didn't care that he was Ángel Cabrera. I had a lot of people approach me that they could get him out for $100,000 or this and that.'
After holding him for several month, Brazil extradited Cabrera to Argentina, where he faced charges of assault against his former girlfriend Cecilia Torres Mana, theft, illegal intimidation and repeated disrespect to authorities.
Cabrera remained a hero to many in Argentina; his supporters protested in support of his release in his hometown of Villa Allende, and noted his substantial contributions to charity were evidence of his true character.
During his trial in Argentina, Cabrera wore pandemic-era masks inscribed with his initials, as well as a jacket with a Presidents Cup logo, a not-so-subtle reminder that he wasn't just an everyday defendant.
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None of the efforts on Cabrera's behalf were enough to sway the court. He was found guilty of assault against Torres Mana, and immediately began serving a two-year sentence in Argentina's gang-ridden Carcel de Bouwer.
Throughout the trial and beyond, Cabrera professed his innocence, but prosecutors at the time contended that Torres Mana was only one of Cabrera's victims.
'His situation is much more complex than this, he has other charges for which there are arrest warrants too,' prosecutor Laura Battistelli said shortly after the verdict was rendered. 'There are other victims.'
Once Cabrera was behind bars, Torres Mana published a dramatic account of her relationship with Cabrera, which lasted from 2016 to 2018. During that time, Torres Mana wrote, Cabrera 'physically, psychologically and sexually abused' her. Their relationship transformed from one of jealousy to possession, and from there to criminal misconduct.
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'I couldn't go to the supermarket or the gym. Ángel always believed I was going to be with another man. He followed me and took my cell phone,' Torres Mana wrote. 'He made me do very kinky things and hit me if I refused. If Ángel was with his friends in a meeting, I had to be in the bedroom without an internet connection. It was very humiliating.'
Angel Cabrera is seen during a hearing as part of his trial for "gender violence and theft" in Cordoba, Argentina on July 7, 2021. ()
(DIEGO LIMA via Getty Images)
Torres Mana escaped from Cabrera while they were on a trip to Houston; as he slept, she snuck out of their room and caught a flight back to Argentina. He had threatened her with reprisals if she reported him, Torres Mana said, but her escape gave her the strength she needed to come forward.
Cabrera would spend 18 months in Carcel de Bouwer. Although Bouwer has a reputation as 'The Prison from Hell,' Cabrera later indicated that he had a better experience there than in Brazil. 'The people in prison with me, they were mostly older people and educated and so it was a relatively OK environment. It wasn't a dangerous one.' Gary Player, John Daly, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, K.J. Choi and Pat Perez all reached out to Cabrera, and he occasionally spent his days practicing his golf swing with a broomstick.
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In November 2022, he again stood trial, this time for the assault of another former girlfriend, Micaela Escudero. However, at the Escudero trial Cabrera was penitent and reflective, saying 'Many say prison is bad, but it's not the case, prison has done me good.' He was sentenced to another two-year, four-month term, to be served concurrently with his existing sentence.
Soon afterward, after months of therapy and good behavior, Cabrera was transferred to Monte Cristo, a minimum-security prison, for the final seven months of his sentence. There, he was permitted the use of a cell phone, and even received day passes to leave the prison for short stints. He was released in August 2023, and his only statement was a single line to Golf Digest through his manager: 'I just want to go home, be with my family and start a new phase of my life.'
Cabrera began preparing for a return to professional golf, even intending to play the 2024 Masters, as is the right of all past champions. He spoke infrequently, but when he did, he expressed remorse for his past actions.
'I am repentant and embarrassed,' Cabrera told Golf Digest in 2023. '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.'
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Several past major champions have been notable by their absence from Augusta National in recent years, including Phil Mickelson in 2022 and Greg Norman in 2023. But once Cabrera paid his debt to Argentine society, Augusta National indicated its doors remained open to him. In January 2024, during the Latin America Amateur Championship in Panama, Masters chairman Fred Ridley expressed support for Cabrera.
'Ángel certainly is one of our great champions,' Ridley said. 'As we all know, he has been unable to participate in the Masters the last couple of years due to legal issues. Presently, we have been in constant contact with Ángel's representatives. 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.'
For 2024, Cabrera was not able to secure the necessary approvals in time to obtain a visa to play in the Masters. However, he did manage to compete in 12 Champions events, notching two top-5 finishes and winnings of $391,823.
After an unspectacular start to 2025 — two events, total earnings of $35,068.33 — Cabrera stunned the golf world Sunday with a two-stroke victory in the inaugural James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in Boca Raton, Florida. The victory marked Cabrera's first win anywhere in the world in 11 years.
Ángel Cabrera holds the James Hardie Pro-Football Hall of Fame Invitational 2025 Trophy after winning the event in Boca Raton, Florida. ()
(Rich Storry via Getty Images)
'I regret everything that I have done wrongly in my past,' Cabrera recently told the Daily Mail. ' 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.'
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So far, no players have spoken up against Cabrera's return to the course, and there have been no public protests about his return. He told the Daily Mail that he experienced a warm welcome from his contemporaries when he returned to the Champions tour.
'I can tell you that the most important thing I feel right now is the second chance,' Cabrera said, 'the opportunity to get back on the right track.'
Cabrera will likely be present at the Champions Dinner on Tuesday night for the first time since 2019. And from there, he'll have the opportunity for at least two more tee times at the course that once embraced him.