AUGUSTA, Ga. — His photo is still on the wall of champions in the press building at Augusta National, between Trevor Immelman and Phil Mickelson. His chair at the champions dinner on Tuesday night was empty, however, and if there was an invitation to play at the Masters this year, no one saw it.
While Tuesday is played this week, Angel Cabrera He is in a prison in Argentina, where he is serving two years for gender violence. And there is a possibility that he faces an even longer sentence.
The glory of 2009 never seemed so far away.
“A lot of kids grow up without a role model and they make bad decisions, the rage they carry inside gets the better of them,” he said. Charlie Epps, a professional golfer from Houston who has a father-son relationship with Cabrera. “But that doesn’t justify doing bad things.”
Cabrera was an unlikely champion, a street kid who grew up without parents and had no formal education. A huge crowd greeted him when he returned to Argentina after winning the US Open in 2007 and there was a parade in his honor.
Then he won his second major — the first South American to don the green jacket — by winning a three-hole playoff at the 2009 Masters. His future in golf had no limits.
But what once seemed like a happy story has now turned sour, and no one can predict when Cabrera will be free, much less play golf again.
Meanwhile, Epps looks at Cabrera’s empty house in Houston and wonders what happened.
“I saw a lot of that in his golf. He was a perfectionist from the start and had a bad temper,” Epps said. “He never had a sports psychologist or anything like that and he grew up with something to prove. Once he got it under control, he became the champion that he is.”
Although the details of Cabrera’s case remain somewhat unclear, he was accused of gender-based violence against a former partner and could face more time behind bars for allegedly threatening the woman over the phone after being charged. Prosecutors are also examining charges from two other women, including the mother of his children, and his attorney says there is a possibility he could be charged with more crimes.
What is clear is that Cabrera — who was arrested in Brazil in January 2021 — after prosecutors issued an international warrant for his failure to appear at his first trial. He was convicted in July 2021 of assaulting, threatening and harassing Cecilia Torres Mana, his partner between 2016 and 2018. He will not be released until at least January, despite his claims of innocence.
“There was no crime,” his attorney, Carlos Hairabedian, told The Associated Press on Wednesday, adding that the accusations were made “out of spite and resentment.” Hairabedian said that in the reported cases “the common denominator is that there was no physical violence but rather the exchange of high-sounding words.”
Cabrera’s rise in the golf world wasn’t exactly meteoric, though it seemed so. Abandoned by his parents, he started working as a caddy at the age of 8, to earn enough money to eat. It wasn’t long before he decided to pursue the sport.
Epps was living in Argentina at the time and Cabrera caddyed for some of his friends. That led to the beginning of a relationship between the two, in which Epps served as an instructor and father figure for the young golfer. The two reconnected when Cabrera turned pro and his work led to the Argentine’s victory at the US Open in 2007.
“He really wanted to improve his game and he saw that everyone had a coach and he asked me to help him,” Epps said. “He’s a good golfer, he hits the ball well. He’s very athletic and could have been a footballer or even a linebacker if he grew up watching football.”
Epps says he hasn’t spoken to Cabrera since he was jailed, though he watches over the golfer’s home in Houston. He remains hopeful of working with the Argentine, now 52, when he is released from prison and tries to resume his career. “I wish him the best and I think he has a lot of golf left,” Epps said. “I think he will come out a better man. At least I hope so.”
