Angel Cabrera makes tour return this week

It is still unclear whether Angel Cabrera will make a controversial appearance at the Masters in April, but the Argentine is ready to make his return to tour golf this week.

Two-time major champion Cabrera has recently completed a 30-month prison sentence for gender violence charges against two of his former girlfriends.

And the 54-year-old has since been plotting his pathway back to the elite professional game, finishing in the top ten during his first competitive start back on the PGA Tour’s Latinoamerica Development Tour in his native Argentina.

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“I’ve made serious mistakes, but I’ve also paid my debts,” Cabrera said in an interview with Golf Digest. “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.

“Golf is everything to me. It’s my life. I have to continue.”

Cabrera has since been reinstated by the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions, and is now listed in the field for his first start back on America’s premier senior circuit.

He is set to tee it up this week at the Trophy Hassan II at Royal Golf Dar es Salam in Morocco as he returns to the circuit for the first time in four years.

In a strong field, Cabrera will compete against a host of European greats including Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Thomas Bjorn.

And as Cabrera ramps up his comeback, attention will turn to whether he will achieve his “dream” of returning to Augusta National for the first major of the 2024 season.

Fred Ridley, the Augusta National chairman, has insisted that the 2009 champion would be welcomed back, but Cabrera’s hopes now rest on whether he can secure an in-date visa that currently prohibits him from entering the United States.

“Angel certainly is one of our great champions,” Ridley said 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 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.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.