Angel Cabrera on playing the Masters after jail time for domestic abuse: ‘Why not?’

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Past champion Angel Cabrera spoke on Tuesday about returning to the Masters after serving two years in an Argentine jail for domestic abuse.

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“I won the Masters, why not?” he told reporters at Augusta National ahead of the tournament.

Four years ago, Cabrera was found guilty of assault, theft and illegal intimidation against ex-girlfriends. On Tuesday evening, he will slip on the green jacket he won in 2009 and attend the Champions Dinner alongside Jack Nicklaus and many of golf’s most storied figures.

“I just want to have a great time,” Cabrera said of the dinner. “The family of golf, they’re great colleagues and I missed them, I just want to have a great time with them.”

Cabrera will don the green jacket for the first time since his release in 2023. He could not compete in last year’s tournament due to visa issues.

“Obviously joyfulness and to put it on it’s going to feel great again,” said of the jacket.

Cabrera, 55, is coming into the Masters in good golfing form, having won last week on the Champions Tour, beating K.J. Choi by two strokes to win a sanctioned event for the first time in 11 years.

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Cabrera said the only golfer he has spoken to throughout his ordeal is South African legend Gary Player.

“The only one I’ve always been in contact with is Gary Player,” he said. “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. 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 has expressed remorse since his release, but the question of whether Augusta National made the right decision to allow him to return and compete is open for debate.

“There was a stage in my life of five years, four, five years, that they weren’t the right things I should have done,” Cabrera said. “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.”

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Some would argue that he has served his time and now should be free to carry on with his life. But allowing him back into a private club’s tournament is a separate decision that shouldn’t be washed away by his legal status.

It wasn’t long ago that the Masters urged Phil Mickelson not to attend the tournament for the sin of taking the money to go to LIV Golf and making some outlandish and inappropriate comments.

Yes, Cabrera served his time and earned his return to society, but whether he deserves to return with his former status to civil society is a question that not everyone agrees with.

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

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