Tag: Charlie Epps

Angel Cabrera granted a visa, set to return to U.S. with plan to play PGA Tour Champions

“He’s dedicated to golf and he wants to come back. He just needs to get comfortable again playing in competition.”

Argentina’s Angel Cabrera’s comeback is officially ready for takeoff as the two-time major winner secured a visa last week.

Charlie Epps, his longtime coach, confidante and friend, confirmed that Cabrera can now travel to the U.S. – and plans to move permanently to Houston – and resume competing on PGA Tour Champions.

Cabrera, 54, served 30 months in prison in Brazil and Argentina for domestic violence and other lesser charges. His visa expired in January and according to Epps, the American Embassy in Buenos Aires made him take a series of psychological tests.

“That was the delay,” Epps said. It prevented him from competing in April in the Masters, where he is eligible as the 2009 champion, but it should pave the way for his return next year.

“Angel certainly is one of our great champions,” Masters chairman Fred Ridley said at a press conference in January. “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 Angel’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.”

Cabrera has made a few starts here and there since his release from jail but can now begin a full comeback in earnest. Cabrera was reinstated on the PGA Champions Tour and the PGA Tour in December last year. He played in the Trophy Hassan II, a Champions Tour event in Morocco in February, and finished T-27. He missed the cut at the Argentine Open, a Korn Ferry Tour-sanctioned event, in March. Most recently in May, he played in Barbados in a Legends Tour event, formerly known as the European Seniors Tour, and finished T-11. His last competitive tournament in the U.S. was at the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach in September 2020.

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

As a past winner on the PGA Tour, Cabrera is a PGA Tour Champions member, but his entry into a field is dependent upon how the field is filled, according to a spokesperson for PGA Tour Champions. As a major championship winner, he is eligible for both restricted and unrestricted sponsor exemptions, and there is no limit to the number of sponsor exemptions he can receive. He also is exempt to compete in an event qualifier as a past champion on the PGA Tour. An email to his longtime manager Manuel Tagle asking for Cabrera’s future plans wasn’t returned.

Cabrera is entered into the next two senior events, American Family Insurance Championship and Dick’s Open. He’s currently on the alternate list for both. Anything past that would be too far to forecast for player commitments.

“When I talked to him down there, he had really grown up, he understood what life is all about and that he had really made an ass of himself,” Epps said in a phone interview. “He’s dedicated to golf and he wants to come back. He just needs to get comfortable again playing in competition. I want him to win the U.S. Senior Open.”

Like the Masters, that quest will have to wait until next year. The deadline for entry into the U.S. Senior Open was May 1 at 5 p.m. ET and Cabrera failed to file for entry.

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.