Golfer Angel Cabrera Returns to Masters After Jail for Assaulting Ex-Girlfriends

Angel Cabrera, the 2009 Masters champion, will return to the distinguished golf event this week for the primary time since he was sentenced to a 30-month jail time period for home violence in opposition to two of his former girlfriends — however not with out controversy. 

The Argentine golfer, 55, pleaded responsible to the costs and served two concurrent jail sentences stemming from the gender abuse prices, which included the intimidation and harassment of his former girlfriends Cecilia Torres Mana and Micaela Escudero, in accordance with ESPN.

Former winners on the Masters event are granted lifetime qualification for future tournaments, permitting Cabrera a transparent path to return to the tour following his stint in jail.

“It appears so long as male athletes can excel at hitting a ball, we excuse those self same males hitting girls,” Jamie Klingler, co-founder of the Reclaim These Avenue advocacy group, informed the BBC forward of Cabrera’s return to the course.

Others throughout the golf group are seemingly welcoming Cabrera again with open arms. “I am unable to wait to see him,” mentioned golfer Adam Scott, who defeated Cabrera in a playoff on the Masters in 2013, denying him a second inexperienced jacket.

Masters chairman Fred Ridley referred to as Cabrera “certainly one of our nice champions” and lamented him not having the ability to play on the Masters in previous years, saying the event would “undoubtedly welcome him again if he is capable of straighten out these authorized points.”

Cabrera opened up about his previous in a sitdown interview with Golf Digest in 2023, shortly after he was launched from jail. The golf journal republished the interview on Tuesday, noting that Cabrera’s inclusion at this week’s Masters event “will flip heads” due to his “abhorrent exercise” up to now.

“I’m repentant and embarrassed,” Cabrera informed the outlet in 2023. “I made severe errors. I refused to take heed to anybody and did what I wished, how I wished and after I wished. That was incorrect. I ask Micaela for forgiveness. I ask Celia for forgiveness. They’d the dangerous luck of crossing paths with me after I was at my worst. I wasn’t the satan, however I did dangerous issues.”

Certainly one of Cabrera’s former girlfriends turned down interviews with Golf Digest, with Escudero’s lawyer telling the outlet “that stage of her life is over.” The outlet notes that Mana, who didn’t reply to their request, had penned a 2021 essay detailing Cabrera’s assaults, writing that their relationship “rapidly became bodily and psychological submission” and alleging Cabrera sexually and bodily abused her.

Cabrera’s longtime golf instructor Charlie Epps mentioned the previous Masters champion obtained help from a number of fellow skilled golfers, together with Gary Participant and Bernard Langer, who wrote letters to him whereas he was in jail. By the point Cabrera’s jail sentence resulted in 2023, Sports activities Illustrated reported he had not picked up a membership in roughly three years.

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Cabrera is now again on tour, profitable the inaugural James Hardie Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame Invitational this previous weekend — his first skilled event win in additional than a decade, in accordance with ESPN — together with his thoughts set on the Masters.

If you’re experiencing home violence, name the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is on the market 24/7 in additional than 170 languages.