Tag: Angel Cabrera

Angel Cabrera reinstated on all PGA Tours after serving two-year prison sentence for gender violence

“I can confirm that Cabrera is eligible to compete on all Tours,” PGA Tour Champions spokesman Chris King wrote in an email.

Angel Cabrera’s dream of returning to competitive golf received a boost on Tuesday when he was reinstated by the PGA Tour after serving a two-year prison sentence.

“I can confirm that Cabrera is eligible to compete on all Tours,” PGA Tour Champions spokesman Chris King wrote in an email.

Cabrera, 54, last played on PGA Tour Champions at the Pure Insurance Open in September 2020. The two-time major winner was released from jail on Aug. 4, after he completed more than two years in custody over gender violence cases against two of his ex-girlfriends.

“I thought about making a comeback the entire time I was in prison,” he told Golf Digest in an exclusive interview that ran in the December issue. “My goal is to prepare and play on the Champions Tour. When I’m out there competing, that’s when I’ll truly know if I can handle it physically at that level. Mentally, I’m already there. Golf is everything to me. It’s my life. I have to continue.”

Charlie Epps, Cabrera’s longtime instructor and close friend, confirmed that Cabrera had been suspended by the Tour in a previous Golfweek story. Just last month a Tour spokesman said, “The Tour is aware that Angel Cabrera has been released on parole. While we do not have any update on his status as a PGA Tour member at this time, the Tour may consider new and relevant information to determine if any change to his status is appropriate in the future.”

The Tour did not respond to a request asking what new and relevant information contributed to his change of status and whether Champions Tour chief Miller Brady made the decision or whether commissioner Jay Monahan, who oversees all tour’s in his role, weighed in on the status change.

Golf Digest cited a letter from Andy Levinson, a senior vice president at the PGA Tour, dated Dec. 18, which stated his suspension has been lifted effective immediately.

“Failure to comply with the terms of your release from prisoner any additional information regarding your legal situation in Argentina may result in the immediate reinstatement of your suspension,” Levinson wrote in a letter obtained by Golf Digest.

Cabrera is seeking a visa so he can travel to the U.S. It’s still unclear whether Augusta National will honor his lifetime invitation as a past champion to the Masters in April.

“It’s my dream to return to that prestigious place and walk the course that gave me so much joy and satisfaction,” Cabrera said, calling it like a second home. “It would be a great privilege to return and to attend the Champions Dinner with so many of the golf world’s greatest players.”

Cabrera’s reinstatement should pave the way for him to play in the Argentina Open in late February, which is a Korn Ferry Tour event for the first time. Cabrera made his return to competitive golf last week, finishing T-10 with three rounds in the 60s at Rosario Golf Club in Abierto del Litoral, or the Coast Open, a tournament that has been a fixture on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica Developmental Series.

Angel Cabrera records top-10 finish in first tournament since being paroled, speaks about jail time and his future

“I thought about making a comeback the entire time I was in prison. Golf is everything to me.”

Angel Cabrera finished T-10 at Abierto del Litoral, or the Coast Open, a tournament that has been a fixture on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica Developmental Series, his first 72-hole tournament since spending 30 months in jail in Brazil and Argentina.

Cabrera, 54, who won this tournament in 1995, posted rounds of 71-66-67-69, his first competitive golf since playing on PGA Tour Champions in 2020. Amateur Joaquin Luduena beat PGA Tour rookie Alejandro Tosti on the first hole of a playoff to claim the title.

Cabrera was released from jail on Aug. 4 after he completed more than two years in custody over gender violence cases against two of his ex-girlfriends. Brazil’s federal police arrested him on an Interpol warrant in January 2021. Cabrera, winner of the 2007 U.S. Open and 2009 Masters, was sentenced in July 2021 to two years in prison for threats and harassment of Cecilia Torres Mana, his partner between 2016 and 2018.

In an extensive interview with Golf Digest, Cabrera spoke for the first time since his release. The story notes among other details that Cabrera is a new father and husband. At Bower, one of the jails where he served time, well-behaved inmates were permitted two-hour visits with partners every 15 days. In November 2022, Yamila Alvarez, Cabrera’s partner of four years, gave birth to their son, Felipe. They were married two months after his release.

“Felipe’s arrival helped a lot,” Cabrera said, adding that being a father again “makes me stronger, makes me want to get better, so I can be there for him and help him grow and become a good person.”

The entire interview, which is in the December 2023-January 2024 issue, is worth reading. Here are some excerpts:

“I don’t look for people to blame anymore. While I was detained, I realized that if I had still been out — and been behaving the way I had been — I would probably not be alive now. There were nights I lay in my cell thanking God for my imprisonment. What I had been doing was so crazy,” he said. “I did all this to myself. But it’s done. I can’t erase how I acted. All I can do is move forward and do something different.”

Cabrera noted that during his last six months in prison he was alone after his cellmate was released and he read old golf magazines with articles about himself. “I’d get nostalgic but it helped me pass the time,” he recalled. “I remember nearly every strokes of that Sunday I won the Masters and would replay it in my mind: the playoff, the famous shot I made through the trees.”

Cabrera called Augusta National, where he competed 20 consecutive times through 2019, like a second home. “It’s my dream to return to that prestigious place and walk the course that gave me so much joy and satisfaction,” he said. “It would be a great privilege to return and to attend the Champions Dinner with so many of the golf world’s greatest players.” [Augusta National declined to comment to Golf Digest on the status of Cabrera’s invitation.]

Occasionally, Cabrera said he was allowed to go out to a soccer field at his prison and he would take a stick or a broom handle and take some swings. “There was nothing there that I could hit,” he said.

He hit his first golf shots 25 days after his release at El Terron Golf Club in Mendiolaza.

“I’d been racked with self-doubt — wondering how well I would hit it, or even if I would be able to hit the ball at all.  So much time had passed. I was scared I’d get frustrated,” he said. “For the entire drive to the club, I obsessed about how my first drive would turn out.”

But it turned out to be like riding a bike. He said he hit it beautifully. “To be on a golf course again after three years, to walk 18 holes again, it felt like a rebirth,” he said.

Cabrera expressed remorse for “his serious mistakes.”

“But I’ve also paid my debts,” he said. “I’m going to work as hard as I can to clean up my image. I want to recover the stature I had as an athlete.”

In his last eight years on the PGA Tour, Cabrera had four top-10 finishes, missing 54 cuts in 128 appearances. During that stretch he lost a playoff to Adam Scott at the 2013 Masters and had a victory at the 2014 Greenbrier Classic. He had surgery on his left wrist in October 2020 and is still doing physiotherapy for it twice a week. He said he hopes to mount a comeback.

“I thought about making a comeback the entire time I was in prison,” he said. “My goal is to prepare and play on the Champions tour. When I’m out there competing, that’s when I’ll truly know if I can handle it physically at that level. Mentally, I’m already there. Golf is everything to me. It’s my life. I have to continue.”

Out of jail, former Masters and U.S. Open champ Angel Cabrera plays first competitive round in Argentina

The two-time major champion played at Abierto del Litoral, or the Coast Open on Wednesday.

Angel Cabrera, nicknamed “El Pato” or “The Duck” for the way he walks, is back quacking.

The two-time major champion, who spent 30 months in jail in Brazil and Argentina and last played PGA Tour Champions in 2020, shot an even-par 71 on Wednesday, at Abierto del Litoral, or the Coast Open, a tournament held in his native Argentina that has been a fixture on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica Developmental Series and dates to 1932.

Cabrera made three birdies and three bogeys during his opening round of what is his first 72-hole tournament since the 2020 Bridgestone Senior Players Championship. A source on the ground reported that he was “great from the tee, rusty in the short game but in great spirit.”

Cabrera was released from jail on Aug. 4, after he completed more than two years in custody over gender violence cases against two of his ex-girlfriends. Brazil’s federal police arrested him on an Interpol warrant in January 2021. Cabrera, winner of the 2007 U.S. Open and 2009 Masters, was sentenced in July 2021 to two years in prison for threats and harassment of Cecilia Torres Mana, his partner between 2016 and 2018.

In November 2022, he was also on trial for threats and harassment against Micaela Escudero, another of his ex-girlfriends. Cabrera pleaded guilty, the court made the two sentences concurrent and gave him three years and 10 months in prison.

Golfweek previously reported that his longtime coach Charlie Epps said he is seeking a visa so he can travel to the U.S. and then will need to apply for reinstatement to PGA Tour Champions, which according to Epps, suspended him, and inquire whether Augusta National will honor his lifetime invitation as a past champion to the Masters in April.

Cabrera won the Abierto del Litoral in 1995. The Argentina Open, of which Cabrera also is a past champion, is scheduled for late February and is part of the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season for the first time.

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After parole from jail, Angel Cabrera dreams of a comeback on PGA Tour Champions — but will he be given a chance?

“(Cabrera) wants to play, he’s learned his lesson, he wants to get on with his life.”

Former major champion Angel Cabrera, who spent 30 months in jail in Brazil and Argentina and last played PGA Tour Champions in 2020, shot under par last week in his last five rounds at home in Córdoba, Argentina, and is preparing to mount a comeback, said his longtime coach and friend Charlie Epps.

“He wants to play, he’s learned his lesson, he wants to get on with his life. I think he’s in a great frame of mind for what he’s been through,” Epps told Golfweek via phone. “He’s got to go through the mechanics of getting his Visa back and then approach the PGA Tour and I think it’s going to end up being good.”

Cabrera, 54 and the 2007 U.S. Open champion and 2009 Masters winner, was released from jail on Aug. 4, after he completed more than two years in custody over gender violence cases against two of his ex-girlfriends. (Editor’s Note: Read previous Q&A with Charlie Epps when Cabrera was in jail here.) Brazil’s federal police arrested him on an Interpol warrant in January 2021. Cabrera was sentenced in July 2021 to two years in prison for threats and harassment of Cecilia Torres Mana, his partner between 2016 and 2018.

In November 2022, he was also on trial for similar charges against Micaela Escudero, another ex-girlfriend. Cabrera pleaded guilty and the court made the two sentences concurrent, extending his sentence to three years and 10 months in prison.

“Many say prison is bad, but it’s not the case, prison has done me good,” Cabrera said at the trial.

Prior to his release, he spent his final seven months at Monte Cristo, a minimum-security prison 10 miles east of Córdoba.

Epps said that Cabrera, who last competed on the Champions Tour at the Pure Insurance Open in September 2020, still dreams of playing golf professionally. He is seeking a visa so he can travel to the U.S. and then will need to apply for reinstatement to PGA Tour Champions, which according to Epps, suspended him, and inquire whether Augusta National will honor his lifetime invitation as a past champion to the Masters in April.

A spokesperson for the PGA Tour released the following statement on Cabrera: “The Tour is aware that Angel Cabrera has been released on parole. While we do not have any update on his status as a PGA Tour member at this time, the Tour may consider new and relevant information to determine if any change to his status is appropriate in the future.”

When asked for a clarification on his status – and the length of his suspension, if any – a spokesman wrote in an email, “The Tour does not disclose disciplinary actions it takes against its members.” (The 2024 Visa Argentina Open, of which Cabrera is a past champion, is part of the Korn Ferry Tour for the first time in January, and thus runs under the auspices of the Tour. It’s unclear if he would be allowed to participate in his national championship.)

Friends in Córdoba who have seen Cabrera say he lost weight, is in good spirits and also practicing at El Terron Golf Club. Epps visited Cabrera for the first time since he was granted parole last week, flying to Argentina with a set of the latest Ping golf clubs, Cabrera’s longtime clubmaker, made to his specifications and six dozen Titleist balls and a bunch of gloves from the Acushnet Co.

“He demonstrated his talent and drive is still there,” Epps said. “We played five rounds of golf at Córdoba Golf Club, where we both grew up playing, and he was always under par. Right now, he’s just trying to get his life in shape and practice and stuff like that and get here to the United States. He’s been humbled and says, ‘It’s all up to him.’ He knows what he needs to do and he said he’s ready for a second chance. He prays to God he doesn’t take another drink. And he’s so headstrong. When he puts his mind to doing something, he’ll do it just like that. The day he won the Masters he was walking from the 10th green after making a bogey and going three behind. I asked him, ‘What were you thinking about?’ He said, ‘I told myself I just have to make three birdies because 12 under is going to be a good score.’ ”

Cabrera did just that and won in a playoff over Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell. Instead of being hailed for a borderline Hall of Fame career, Cabrera has missed what usually are the best years for a senior golfer. Epps noted that veteran pro Jim Thorpe was allowed to return to the senior circuit in 2009 after completing a one-year prison term for tax evasion. Shortly before his arrest, Cabrera had undergone surgery to repair an injury to his wrist and elbow, which hindered his performance on the senior tour, and Epps says he’s fully recovered. The Houston-based pro said he’s ready to begin training Cabrera for a Rocky Balboa-like resurgence.

“The way Angel plays on hard courses, I think he can still win the U.S. Senior Open,” Epps said. “I want him to be the comeback player of the year.”

Angel Cabrera to be released from prison Friday, per report

Angel Cabrera’s time behind bars is up.

Angel Cabrera’s time behind bars is up.

The former U.S. Open and Masters champion will be released on Friday, according to a report from Golf Digest.

Cabrera told Golf Digest, through manager Manuel Tagle, “I just want to go home, be with my family, and start a new phase of my life.”

The 53-year-old was serving time in a prison in his native Argentina.

Last November, Cabrera was convicted of assault for a second time and was sentenced to an additional two years and four months of prison time for assaulting Micaela Escudero, a former girlfriend.

“Many say prison is bad, but it’s not the case, prison has done me good,” Cabrera said at the trial, according to local press.

He already was serving time for assaulting, threatening and harassing Cecilia Torres Mana, who was Cabrera’s partner between 2016 and 2018.

Longtime friend Charlie Epps said Cabrera, who last competed on the Champions Tour at the Pure Insurance Open in September 2020, still dreams of playing golf when he is released from jail. Cabrera won the 2007 U.S. Open and the 2009 Masters and 53 professional tournaments worldwide.

Angel Cabrera sentenced to more jail time, says ‘prison has done me good’

“He says prison has done him well. And that he needed it and boy do I know that.” — Charlie Epps on Cabrera

It could potentially be a few more years before former two-time major champion Angel Cabrera tees it up again.

Cabrera was convicted of assault for a second time on Monday, according to Agence France Presse. The 53-year-old, who is serving time in a prison in his native Argentina, was sentenced to an additional two years and four months of prison time for assaulting Micaela Escudero, a former girlfriend.

He already was serving time for assaulting, threatening and harassing Cecilia Torres Mana, who was Cabrera’s partner between 2016 and 2018.

“Many say prison is bad, but it’s not the case, prison has done me good,” Cabrera said at the trial, according to local press.

Angel Cabrera watches a bunker shot as his coach Charlie Epps looks on during a practice round at the 2011 British Open at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. ( Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Charlie Epps, Cabrera’s longtime instructor and friend, however, said that he and Cabrera’s supporters are encouraged that his sentence could be reduced to just one more year for good behavior.

Read: Charlie Epps dishes on why his former student is serving time in prison

“He says prison has done him well. And that he needed it and boy do I know that,” said Epps, speaking via phone from this week’s PGA Tour event in his hometown of Houston. “First year he was embarrassed and didn’t want any company but now this past year he’s accepted a few visits from his friends and, and they see he’s well, they see him, a guy that has learned from this…He did a couple of dumb things that he should know (not to do) and he repents – that alcoholism was such a wicked disease.”

Epps said that Cabrera, who last competed on the Champions Tour at the Pure Insurance Open in September 2020, still dreams of playing golf when he is released from jail.

“Hopefully, when he ever gets his stuff together and gets out, he’ll be welcomed back by the senior tour. There’s been cases before people get in trouble and they live for another day. So, I’m praying for that,” he said.

Cabrera, 53, is losing what are considered to be some of the peak years for players on PGA Tour Champions. He won the 2007 U.S. Open and the 2009 Masters and 53 professional tournaments worldwide.

“He’s a strong dude,” Epps said. “It took him seven years to get on Tour and, you know, (age) 37, when he won his first major, so he’s got a lot of stuff that a lot of people don’t have. He’s got that internal fortitude and I think it’d be a helluva story once he gets out. I’m gonna back him as much as I can.”

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Charlie Epps dishes on former student Angel Cabrera and why the two-time major winner is serving time in an Argentine prison

Angel Cabrera, the 2007 U.S. Open champ and 2009 Masters champ, has been in jail since January.

Officially, Charlie Epps retired from traveling the PGA Tour with Angel Cabrera in 2016 after the U.S. Open at Oakmont. But as Epps, 76, put it, he’s never stopped loving his friend known to many as “El Pato,” the duck, for his gait and walk, or as Epps would call him “Gordita,” the chubby one!

Cabrera, the 2007 U.S. Open champ and 2009 Masters champ, is 52 and should be cleaning up on PGA Tour Champions, a second act of one of the most remarkable rags to riches stories in all of sports.

“This kid was poorer than poor,” Epps said. “He came from nothing.”

But the story has taken a turn for the worse. Instead of being hailed for a borderline Hall of Fame career, Cabrera is serving time in prison in his native Argentina after being convicted on charges he “assaulted, threatened and harassed Cecilia Torres Mana between 2016 and 2018.” He faces a total of six other domestic violence-related charges and at least one other former partner of his is alleging he committed similar behavior, according to Reuters.

He has been in jail since January when Brazil’s federal police arrested him on an Interpol warrant. He had been on the “red list,” which is used to seek the arrest of a person wanted by a legal jurisdiction or an international tribunal with a view to extradition.

Cabrera last competed on the Champions Tour at the Pure Insurance Open in September 2020.

Epps spoke exclusively to Golfweek at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas, where he serves as president of the Spirit Golf Association, and conducted the Spirit International last week.

Two-time major champion Angel Cabrera sentenced to two years in prison

Cabrera was arrested by Interpol agents in Brazil in January and was recently extradited to Argentina for trial.

A court in Argentina sentenced two-time major champion Angel Cabrera to two years in prison on Wednesday for assaulting, threatening and harassing a former partner between 2016 and 2018, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutor Laura Battistelli said this story is far from over.

“His situation is much more complex than this, he has other charges for which there are arrest warrants, too. There are other victims,” Battistelli told TV channel Todo Noticias.

Cabrera, who won the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2007 and the Masters in 2009, has denied the charges and will begin his sentence immediately.

Cabrera was arrested by Interpol agents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in January and was recently extradited to Argentina for trial.

The 51-year-old last competed on the PGA Tour Champions at the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach last September.

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Report: Angel Cabrera arrested in Brazil, to be extradited to Argentina

A report Thursday night said 2009 Masters champ Angel Cabrera was arrested in Brazil and faces extradition to his native Argentina.

Angel Cabrera, who won the 2009 Masters and the 2007 U.S. Open, was arrested on Thursday in Brazil and faces extradition to his native Argentina.

Cabrera, according to a reported by the Associated Press, was taken in by Brazil’s federal police for extradition to his homeland to face charges for multiple crimes dating back to 2016. He has been on Interpol’s red code list.

The AP report says that “officials in Argentina have charged the suspect with assault, theft, illegal intimidation and repeated disrespect to authorities.”

Media outlets in Argentina had reported earlier this month that Cabrera’s ex-wife, Silva Rivadero, had filed two charges against him and that his former girlfriend, Cecilia Torres, claimed Cabrera had punched her, threatened her and attempted to run her over with his car in 2016.

A report by Argentine media outlet Clarín states that he had made threats to kill his former partners.

Cabrera did not play the 2020 Masters last November after having surgery on his left wrist in October.

He last competed on the PGA Tour Champions at the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach last September, playing two rounds before withdrawing. In addition to his two majors, he also won the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic in 2014. Cabrera has 41 international victories and he was a member of four Presidents Cups teams.

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