AUGUSTA, Georgia — Ángel Cabrera‘s controversial return to the Masters this week for the primary time since serving a 30-month jail sentence for home abuse got here to an in depth Friday as the previous champion missed the reduce at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership.
The 55-year-old Argentine, who was imprisoned for threats and harassment in opposition to two of his ex-girlfriends, opened the event with a 3-over-par 75 and returned an 8-over 80 in Friday’s second spherical to take a seat at 11 over on the week.
That left Cabrera, who was launched from jail in August 2023, close to the underside of the 95-player beginning discipline in his twenty first Masters begin.
Augusta Nationwide offers a lifetime Masters exemption to previous champions, an honor Cabrera earned in 2009 when his playoff win over Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell made him South America’s first winner of the event.
Cabrera missed the reduce in his final Masters look in 2019, skipped the following two through the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and was unable to play final yr resulting from visa points.
However the two-time main champion got here into the 2025 Masters with pep in his step having earned his first triumph on the PGA Champions Tour final week, which put him again within the winner’s circle for the primary time since being launched from jail.
Cabrera’s presence at this week’s Masters has drawn some criticism, together with from ladies’s rights teams. Augusta Nationwide chairman Fred Ridley defended the membership’s determination in his pre-tournament information convention.
“Effectively, we definitely abhor home violence of any sort,” Ridley informed reporters. “Because it pertains to Angel, Angel has served the sentence that was prescribed by the Argentine courts, and he’s the previous champion, and so he was invited.”
