His cousin was the first Chilean to win on the LPGA and he almost considered a tennis career.
No matter the tour, sub-60 rounds are usually few and far between in professional golf. Last week Joaquin Niemann fired a 59 at LIV Golf Mayakoba. A day later Wyndham Clark shot a 60 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“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.”
Beginning in February 2024, the two third-level tours will merge under one umbrella.
Goodbye PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour Canada, hello PGA Tour Americas.
Beginning in February 2024, the two third-level tours will merge under one umbrella as the PGA Tour continues to grow and develop its product. The restructure will aim to create a more efficient and competitive pathway for players looking to take the next step in their professional golf careers.
PGA Tour Americas will hold 16 events across Latin America, Canada and the United States from February-September, with up to 15 Korn Ferry Tour cards available, as well as numerous exemptions to various stages of PGA Tour Q-School.
“As we build on the rich golf history across Latin America and Canada, we are thrilled about PGA Tour Americas and the role this tour will play in preparing players for the next step in their professional golf journey,” said Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin.
So how will it all work?
Schedule
The full 2024 PGA Tour Americas schedule will be announced in September. Finalized details regarding eligibility, priority ranking, purses and points distribution will be announced closer to the inaugural event in February 2024. Here’s an outline:
The season begins in February with the Latin America Swing, which wraps in May.
Following that the PGA Tour Americas will host a mid-season Qualifying School and introduce a handful of PGA Tour University graduates.
The season will then continue with the North America Swing, where players will compete across Canada and the U.S. from June-September.
Eligibility for the Latin America Swing
Fields for the Latin America Swing (February-May 2024) will consist of 144 players. Those eligible to compete will include the top 60 players from the PGA Tour Latinoamerica points list from 2022-23 as well as the top 60 players on the PGA Tour Canada points list from 2023. Players can also qualify via the following routes (priority ranking to be announced):
2023 PGA Tour Q-School
Latinoamerica Dev Series
Highest finisher on the 2023 APGA season-long points list who is a member of the APGA Player Development program
Eligibility for the North America Swing
The top 60 players from the Latin America Swing will continue on to compete in the North America Swing (June-September 2024), where the field will increase to 156 players. The top 50 from the PGA Tour Americas Q-School as well as Nos. 6-20 from PGA Tour University will also be eligible. Players can also qualify via the following routes (priority ranking to be announced):
Open qualifying and sponsor exemptions
Korn Ferry Tour
Additional finishers Latin America Swing / PGA Tour Americas Q-School
Performance benefits
The top 10 finishers on the season-long PGA Tour Americas points list will earn Korn Ferry Tour membership. Five conditional Korn Ferry Tour cards are available to the top two finishers in the Latin America Swing and the top three finishers from the North America Swing.
The top 10 finishers on the PGA Tour Americas points list, the top two from the Latin America Swing and the top three from in the North America Swing will all earn exemptions to the Final Stage of PGA Tour Q-School.
The following players will all earn exemptions to the Second Stage of PGA Tour Q-School:
Nos. 11–25 on the PGA Tour Americas points list
Nos. 3–10 from the Latin America Swing
Nos. 4–10 from the North America Swing.
All remaining PGA Tour Americas members will earn exemptions to the First Stage of Q-School.
Why it makes sense
The Latinoamerica and Canada tours were essentially doing the same thing on a different schedule from two tours it was supposed to be feeding, the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour.
Aside from streamlining a confusing pathway to the Tour, the merge will also put all three levels – PGA Tour Americas, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour – on the same operating schedule in a January–September/October window. From October–December, most PGA Tour players will compete in the fall series. Everyone else will enter Q-School to play for status and exemptions.
More benefits for solid play and an easier to understand system are improvements for both fans and the players. Time will only tell if this was the right move for the Tour, but in theory, it checks out.
Tragedy struck on the golf course during a PGA Tour Latinoamerica event earlier this week when a caddie collapsed on course and could not be revived.
Tragedy struck on the golf course during a PGA Tour Latinoamerica event earlier this week when a caddie collapsed on course and could not be revived.
During Thursday’s opening round of the Dev Series Final in Nueva Vallarta, Mexico, sanctioned by the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, caddie Alberto Olguin collapsed on the ninth tee at approximately 3:00 p.m., according to a release issued by the tour. It was the final hole of the day for Olguin, of Mexico City, who was caddying for Venezuelan Manuel Torres.
Emergency personnel performed CPR on Olguin and transported him to a nearby hospital, but he was pronounced dead by 3:57 p.m. The tour noted in a statement that it planned to honor Olguin later in the week.
Torres, who was a member of the Lynn University team that won the NCAA Division II national title in 2018, remains in the tournament.
Former Texas Longhorn national champ Toni Hakula was born in Finland, and his golf career has taken him all over the world.
Toni Hakula considers himself “fully Texan.” After all, he’s lived in Austin, Texas, for a decade. Hakula attended the University of Texas, graduating in 2014 with a degree in economics. Curiously, his sports allegiances lie with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Denver Broncos and incumbent NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.
Unlike most of his fellow Austinites, however, Hakula (pronounced HOCK-you-luh) grew up in Espoo, the second-largest city in Finland. The 29-year old speaks four languages: English, Finnish, Swedish and German. In another life, he might have wanted to turn pro in hockey or tennis.
In this world, however, golf is — and always has been — his true love.
“I believe I started (playing golf) when I was about four years old,” Hakula said. “I played a couple other sports growing up too, but I think when I was around 13 is when I had dropped everything else. I definitely had a lot of success growing up as a kid. I’ve always been very competitive in that sense.”
After high school, Hakula became a member of the Texas Longhorns men’s golf program. He admits that his first few months in the United States were “absolutely a little tricky” as he got used to living in a culture worlds apart from the one in which he was raised.
So what made acclimatization easier for the team’s lone freshman in 2010? It was the people around him, from teammates to coaches to academic staff. Hakula credits them all with helping him settle in and get his new life rolling.
And he rolled indeed.
In 2011, Hakula was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. A season later, he was part of the Texas national championship team alongside a trifecta of current PGA Tour players: Jordan Spieth, Dylan Frittelli and Kramer Hickok. Hakula went 2-1 in the 2012 championship run as Frittelli clinched the Longhorns’ third NCAA title with a 30-foot putt on the 18th hole against top-seeded Alabama.
“Oh, that year was absolutely amazing,” Hakula said. “Really all four years that I was at school, we had solid teams, we had a lot of good guys. The guys who played on that team are PGA Tour winners.”
Spieth is obviously the most decorated of Hakula’s former teammates. His recent struggles have been well-documented, but the 2015 FedEx Cup champion still has 11 PGA Tour victories under his belt. Frittelli owns one PGA Tour win (the 2019 John Deere Classic) and four international triumphs. Hickok is still seeking his first breakthrough on the big circuit, but has one Korn Ferry Tour win and two Mackenzie Tour titles.
“Seeing their success gives you more belief in your own doings,” Hakula said of his former teammates. “You know, it’s possible to (have success as a pro), and I can do that too.”
The Family Connection
Not every athlete gets to live out his dream with family by his side, but Hakula has been fortunate. In 2013, his younger sister Anne (pronounced AW-knee) flew across the pond to join him at the University of Texas. Father Tommi and mother Helena moved stateside that year as well, and the whole family has since put down roots in Austin.
Anne herself became a Longhorn and joined the women’s golf team, where she played all four years until graduation. In 2015, she made the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
Siblings Toni and Anne Hakula are both former members of the Texas Longhorns golf program. Provided by the PGA Tour
“You know, when we were little kids, we were always very close,” said Hakula, who also attended the same high school as Anne. “She’s really followed me through the school system from elementary onwards to everywhere I’ve gone. It’s been really nice to have her around the whole time.
“Hopefully I was able to help her out a little bit when she got in (to Texas). Kind of got her through especially the first few months of school, knowing that it was a pretty tough transition.”
Along the way, Anne fell in love with Hickok, her big brother’s former teammate. In a few weeks, she will move from Austin to Dallas to join her fiance ahead of their planned December wedding.
Hakula and Hickok became friends during their three years together on the Longhorns roster. Since then, Hickok (a two-time All-Big 12 honoree) needed only three years to go from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour. The teammates have stayed in touch and play golf together when they are able.
Hakula looks forward to Hickok and Anne’s wedding. “When they get married, we’ll have actual extended family who are all golfers as well so it kind of brings us all together.”
Travelin’ Man
Finland is not a big golf country, and that meant Hakula’s junior golf career took him abroad on a regular basis. As an amateur, he pulled off two runner-up finishes against professional opponents in Denmark and finished T-18 at the 2008 Junior Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Florida.
The bulk of Hakula’s pro experience has since come on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, where he won the 2018 Bupa Match Play and has a pair of top-10s to go with it. He feels that being accustomed with international travel has helped him make the most of his opportunity.
“Most golfers, or all of us, our goal is to be on the PGA Tour, and the PGA Tour plays all around the world,” said Hakula, who has already competed in Peru, Mexico, Jamaica, Chile and Brazil. “So having the chance to play PGA Tour Latinoamerica and traveling a lot I think will bode well when hopefully I get on the big tour.”
Toni Hakula during the final match of the Bupa Match Play on June 10, 2018 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Enrique Berardi/PGA TOUR
Hakula rode out the COVID-19 shutdown at home in Austin. He practiced his skills at the familiar University of Texas Golf Club, which was able to operate during the shutdown with health protocols in place.
COVID-19 did force several PGA Tour affiliates, including the Mackenzie Tour and PGA Tour Latinoamerica, to cancel or postpone their seasons. When news arose of a novel U.S.-based tour that would operate in lieu of them, Hakula was “fully in, 100 percent”.
Enter the LOCALiQ Tour, which materialized due to a collaboration between the PGA Tour and it’s management partners to bring back golf for players at all levels of the pro game. It kicked off in early August with the Alpharetta Classic in Georgia and was originally scheduled to conclude in late October with a season finale in the Bahamas. Due to logistical and health-related issues, the series championship was moved back three weeks to TPC Sugarloaf in Atlanta.
Hakula finds himself third in the LOCALiQ points standings with 675.667 (less than a single point ahead of fourth-place Hayden Shieh). Despite missing two consecutive cuts from late August to early September, he proved that he could hang with the best.
The Finn’s finest moment came during The Challenge at Harbor Hills in late September. There, Hakula carded a final-round 7-under 63, made only one bogey on his last 46 holes and broke a four-way tie to emerge victorious.
“I was very happy to obviously get the win,” said the former Longhorn, who also owns a T-5 finish on the LOCALiQ Tour. “I felt like my game was in great shape all summer, and just hadn’t quite closed out a tournament yet, so having done that at Harbor Hills, especially the way the last day went. We were all going after it, birdieing, and having to really clutch up to win the event was very cool.”
Hakula would have welcomed going to the Bahamas, but he doesn’t mind playing the series championship in Atlanta either. “It’ll be fun,” he said. “I still have the goal to be top two and hopefully get a PGA Tour exemption for next year. The whole series has been so great so far, I’m sure the last event’s gonna be icing on the cake.”
New events that will allow those who planned to play on the Mackenzie Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour China will begin in August.
A series of events that will allow those who planned to play on the Mackenzie Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour China will begin in August and run through October, it was officially announced on Tuesday.
The new series, which will be named the LOCALiQ Series, begins Aug. 4-7 with an event at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, Georgia.
The champion of the final tournament and the top two players on the Series long points list will receive sponsor exemptions into a 2021 PGA Tour tournament. The Tour plans to announce other performance benefits for players in the future, according to a release.
“We couldn’t be more pleased to make this announcement. We have so many gifted, hardworking players who were anxious to play this season on their respective Tours before the effects of COVID-19 caused us to change our plans. To be able to provide this Series and these quality playing opportunities is very gratifying,” said Rob Ohno, PGA TOUR Senior Vice
President, International Tours. “And we’re thrilled to be working with a TOUR partner in LOCALiQ on a series of events that we know is going make a difference for these players.”
LOCALiQ, the sales and marketing arm of Gannett Co., Inc., works with the communities in their network and helping them build relationships with their local businesses. Gannett is the owner of Golfweek and the USA Today Network.
“We could not think of a better way to leverage our relationship with the PGA Tour than to bring professional golf to local communities,” said Michael Flanagan, President and General Manager of LOCALiQ’s Sports and Entertainment division. “As a comprehensive provider of digital marketing services, LOCALiQ enables local businesses and their communities to thrive.”
The series begins the first week of August, with three events in Georgia—with two in Alpharetta and the third in Callaway Gardens. The fourth is in Auburn, Alabama. The fifth and sixth events are in the Florida cities of Jacksonville and Lady Lake.
The seventh tournament is at The Club at Weston Hills in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, previous host to PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Qualifying Tournaments. The series concludes on October 26-30. The closing tournament will be a limited-field tournament with the top-78 eligible players from the points list invited.
LocaliQ Series Tournament Schedule
August 4-7: The GC of Georgia, Alpharetta, Georgia August 10-13: Echelon GC, Alpharetta, Georgia August 25-28:Callaway Resort and Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia August 31-September 3: Auburn University Club, Auburn, Alabama September 22-25: Hidden Hills GC, Jacksonville, Florida September 29-October 2: Harbor Hills CC, Lady Lake, Florida October 6-9: The Club at Weston Hills, Fort Lauderdale, Florida October 26-30: TBD
The PGA Tour is working to resurrect some playing opportunities for members of the Mackenzie Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamerica, PGA Tour China.
The PGA Tour is working to resurrect some playing opportunities for members of the Mackenzie Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour China. Players on these international tours felt a hit when the COVID-19 pandemic altered or outright canceled the 2020 season.
Golf Channel reportedly obtained a memo from the PGA Tour that confirmed it would conduct a series of eight tournaments for members of those tours. The series begins Aug. 4-7 with an event at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, Georgia. The next six events move around Georgia, Alabama and Florida, with a few venues still to be determined.
A sponsorship announcement for the tour is forthcoming.
The tournaments will consist of 54 holes with 144-player fields and a 36-hole cut to the top 55 and ties, per Golf Channel reporting. A minimum of $100,000 purses will be awarded with a winner’s share of $16,000. The entry fee per event is $675.
The fields for the events will mostly consist of members of those international developmental tours, but could also include Korn Ferry Tour players, sponsor exemptions and top performers from the previous event.
The tournament series reportedly came together after the Tour sent a June email and accompanying questionnaire to players to determine interest and location for the events. According to the Golf Channel, the tournaments will be played with COVID-19 safety protocols in place, which includes everything from daily temperature checks to the absence of caddies to mandating that players avoid public places like gyms and restaurants.
Without tournaments for income, some professional golfers are worried about money. One player isn’t, he just wants to compete.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Conner Godsey was counting down the days until he would leave for Argentina for a stretch of events on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica beginning with next week’s Buenos Aires Championship.
But now that he’s been grounded as all six of the PGA Tour’s circuits were put on hold due to the coronavirus global pandemic, he will deal with this detour on his aspiring journey to the PGA Tour with frequent visits to TPC Sawgrass to work on his game and play in matches against numerous fellow pros who lives in the area.
“We all try and beat everybody,” Godsey said as he played the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass earlier this week. “We’ll play as many games as we can and you stay competitive as much as you can.”
Godsey is in a different financial boat, however, from those who were in the field at last week’s Players Championship, which was canceled after the first round along with all tournament play until at least mid-May.
Each player in the field received $52,000 as half of the $15 million purse was paid out. Since turning pro in 2014, Godsey has made about $55,000 as he’s traveled the back roads on the PGA Tour’s developmental circuits – the Mackenzie, Latinoamerica and Korn Ferry tours. He’s also played five mini-tour events this year and made another $7,000.
“Right now it’s not a huge deal,” Godsey said of his financial standing. “There’s definitely some uncertainty there, but I have some money saved up and some backers helping me, as well. I completely understand the decision to cancel events. It sucks not being able to play but it’s a good opportunity to work on things and try and get better. It’s hard to make a whole lot of money on Latinoamerica but I’d like to have the opportunity. It would be nice to make a little extra cash.”
The 27-year-old left-hander, who is 2089th in the Official World Ranking, missed the cut in his lone start this year on PGA Tour Latinoamerica at the Estrella del Mar Open in Mazatlan, Mexico. Victor Lange was also in the field; he left Mexico March 9 to return to South Africa and tested positive for the coronavirus March 17. According to a PGA Tour statement, Lange has no symptoms and is expected to make a full recovery.
Godsey doesn’t know Lange, doesn’t even know what he looks like, so he doesn’t know if he came in contact with him.
“I’m not worried about myself getting sick but I would hate to have it and spread it. If I show any symptoms I will get tested,” Godsey said. He also will hold off on going to see his niece; his sister gave birth on Monday.
Instead, he’ll keep his mind on his game. He hasn’t dealt with an extended absence from competitive golf since he left college seven years ago, so he put together a blueprint to follow that he hopes will improve his game.
He has new putting drills to work on after consultation with his putting coach, John Graham. His swing coach, Tim Cook, came up with drills Godsey will work on concerning arm structure in his swing. And he’ll hit the gym with new exercises after talking with his fitness instructor from Diesel Fitness in Tampa.
“You can’t go into this blind,” Godsey said. “You know you’re going to have at least 10 weeks off and you have to figure out how you can get better. I would rather be playing tournaments, but I’ll enjoin the practice and the process of trying to get better. We just have to play it day by day.”
After learning the story behind a fan’s yell in a critical moment of the Argentine Open playoff, Brandon Matthews sought to make it right.
Brandon Matthews once went on an 11-tournament top-10 streak – which encompassed a three-tournament winning streak – while playing college golf for Temple University. Since turning professional in 2016, Matthews has won just once, at the 2017 Molino Canuelas Championship, and hasn’t authored any streak quite that eye-catching.
After a near miss at this week’s Argentine Open on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, he may be better known in the short term for his compassion than his consistency.
On the brink of his second career win, and a corresponding spot in the 2020 British Open, Matthews, 25, entered a sudden death playoff with Ricardo Celia on Sunday after both reached 11 under for 72 holes.
The two men tied the first two holes, and as Matthews stood over an eight-footer for birdie to extend the playoff to a fourth hole, a yell rang out from the crowd. Matthews missed the putt, despite having felt his putter was dialed in all week.
The missed putt was perhaps season-altering. It handed Celia the title. Matthews was frustrated in the moment, but that was before the pieces came together.
As it turns out, the voice belonged to a middle-aged man with Down Syndrome, a detail Matthews only came to know because a tour official sought him out to offer an explanation in the locker room after the playoff ended, according to Golf Digest reporting.
Matthews immediately returned to the course to meet with the man, sign a glove and assure him that he was not upset.
On the third playoff hole Sunday in Argentina, a fan yelled as @B_Matthews12 attempted an 8-footer to extend. The putt missed.
Afterward, Matthews learned the fan has Down syndrome.
“I wanted to make sure he didn’t feel badly about the situation,” Matthews told Golf Digest. “I grew up around people with special needs because of what my mom did when I was kid and have a soft spot in my heart [for people with special needs].”
The gesture fits Matthews’ humble nature. The 25-year-old grew up in DuPont, Pennsylvania, learning the game from his dad Ted, a former baseball player.
Ted, the general manager of McCarthy Tire in a nearby town, always bonded with his son over golf. Brandon’s mom Donna worked for Goodwill Industries while Brandon was growing up, and he frequently went to group homes to visit with people who had Down Syndrome or cerebral palsy.
The runner-up in Argentina – his second top-5 finish on the Latinoamerica Tour in the past two weeks – still represents one of the high points of Matthews’ short professional career. It comes at a good time, considering that it has been a rough year. In 21 Korn Ferry Tour starts during the 2019 season, he made only four cuts.
Matthews is still finding his way in professional golf, but the important stuff? That seems to come naturally.
