Angel Cabrera: I won the Masters so I do think I belong here

Ihe 2009 champion was making his first appearance at Augusta National in six years and since being released from an Argentina prison after serving time on two criminal domestic assault convictions.

NO ANGEL: Ãngel Cabrera practices on the 11th hole prior to Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Pic: Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images.

The question to Angel Cabrera was direct and to the point – considering what you’ve done in the past, do you think you belong here?

“I won the Masters, why not?” said the 2009 champion making his first appearance at Augusta National in six years and since being released from an Argentina prison after serving time on two criminal domestic assault convictions.

This was uncharted territory in 88 years of Masters champions, and Cabrera said he understands that some people may not welcome seeing him competing in one of golf’s most cherished events.

“Everybody has their own opinion and I respect that,” he said via a translator on Tuesday at Augusta National.

“Life has given me another opportunity. 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. Before that I was okay, so I just have to keep doing what I know I can do right. …

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

In 2021, Cabrera was arrested in Brazil after Interpol issued a red notice listing him as a fugitive for leaving Argentina as he faced several domestic criminal charges including assault and intimidation of his female partners. He was extradited, convicted and sentenced to two years in an Argentine prison.

A year later he was convicted of a second assault charge and sentenced to an additional 26 months in prison. He was released early in August of 2023.

Despite being cleared to return to play in tour-sanctioned events by the end of 2023, his visa to travel to the United States was not reinstated in time to compete in last year’s Masters.

Once cleared to travel, Masters chairman Fred Ridley said Cabrera was welcome to return to the Masters as a lifetime exempt qualifier for winning the green jacket in 2009.

Some people have objected to Cabrera being allowed to compete at Augusta considering the nature of his crimes, but the Masters refused to deny him a second chance after he served his time.

“I’m very grateful and obviously the people of the golf world are very great with me and I just appreciated the way they treated me,” Cabrera said Tuesday via a translator.

Cabrera – who hadn’t attended the Masters since 2019 – said he wasn’t worried that he would never be invited back.

“No, I never thought of that, I just let things pass, and I never thought either I was going to come back or not, it’s just the way things happen,” said Cabrera, who described his emotions as “joyfulness” to be able to put on the green jacket again and have dinner Tuesday night with his fellow champions.

The 55-year-old two-time major winner said he missed seeing his peers, though he noted that Gary Player was the only Masters champion who called and kept in touch with him while he was in prison.

“Since the situation I had, he’s always been in contact with me, always been by my side. So the only guy I talked to is Gary,” he said.

“Like any colleague, he wanted to give me advice, that things were going to happen and things would get better, and that’s what’s happened.”

Cabrera isn’t just returning as a former champion, he’s returning as a newly minted winner on the PGA Tour Champions having won on Sunday the James Hardie Pro-Football Hall of Fame Invitational by two strokes over K.J. Choi. Cabrera also was the Paul Lawrie Matchplay last summer on the European Legends Tour.

Cabrera is the second former prisoner to win in professional golf this season after former gang member Ryan Peake won the New Zealand Open in January – earning a spot in the Open at Royal Portrush. The Australian Peake, 31, served five years in prison for assault when he was 21.

Having finished top-10 six times, including his victory (2009) and runner-up (2013), in a 13-year stretch at Augusta, could a 55-year-old ex-con produce some kind of magic this week?

“I’m very happy, had a great week and that obviously gives me a lot of confidence to even play better this week,” Cabrera said of his senior victory on Sunday.

“It’s (the ANGC course) obviously playing longer, I don’t have that distance that I used to have. But you never know. It’s the Masters, anything can happen.”