Is Everything To Be Forgiven?

    As I write this, The 89th Masters Golf Tournament will begin tomorrow (Thursday) morning. I love The Masters. It tells me that Spring is here, which means it is finally golf season for those of us who live in states with seasons! The Masters is the only golf major that plays its tournament at the same course every year; Augusta National in Augusta, Georgia. The combined beauty of the golf course itself and the surrounding flora and fauna is truly a sight to behold. Tiger won his first major at Augusta, and Jack won his last. It is truly an iconic place. However, while all of that and more will take place over the next 4 days, there will be an uncomfortable truth lingering around Augusta National this week amidst all of the other storylines that most of us hope will define the 89th Masters. 

    In cast you are not a hard-core golf fan, you may have missed that a golfer by the name of Angel Cabrera is playing in this year’s tournament because he is a former champion. All former champions get invited back to play every year. It's very cool...very The Masters. But this year, with Mr. Cabrera, the coolness has been more than a little tarnished. In case you missed it, Cabrera just finished serving 30 months and change in prison for committing heinous assault crimes, both physical and psychological, against two ex-girlfriends and an ex-wife. If you happen to be repulsed by Mr. Cabrera's actions and the fact that he has been allowed to play in The Masters this year, you would not only be excused for those thoughts...you'd be celebrated. How, after all, can a man found guilty of such horrific crimes be welcomed back with open arms to play in the world's most famous golf tournament - even if he did win a green jacket in 2009?

    Now, Augusta National is a very prim, proper and buttoned-up club. To put a twist on Phil Collins; jackets are required. There is no running on the golf grounds. If you're phone goes off, Guantanamo prison in Cuba is not far off! Surely, and understandably, there will be some among the green jacketed members and patrons of the tournament who may not welcome the 55-year-old Argentine on the hallowed grounds given his sordid past. Having said that, I am also quite sure there will be those who look the other way, saying Cabrera has served his punishment, paid his debt to society, and that he deserves a second chance. In a vacuum, I understand both sides of this issue. 

    For people like me, who follow the game of golf like my friend Dardes follows all things Delaware Blue Hen, Cabrera has always seemed like a wonderful, joyful, heart on his sleeve, kind of guy. His sportsmanship has always been beyond reproach; he is a gracious winner, and loser; and by all accounts has a good heart. In short, he seems to be someone you would proudly call friend. But, and there is always a But. This is further proof to my axiom that when it comes to athletes or celebrities, we don't really know these people at all, do we?

    Now, there will be those who read his comments from recent interviews declaring and displaying contrition for the terrible things he did and believe he came out on the other side of incarceration a changed man. Some will make the argument that because all Masters champions receive a life-time exemption to play in the tournament and Cabrera, as a past champion, deserves the invite. The Masters celebrates it past champions like no other tournament - blemishes and all. I mean, this is America, right? Everyone deserves a second chance, right? Hell, some people get third and fourth chances! And Cabrera is living his at the moment.

    However, the question, given how despicable the crimes he committed were, is whether he DESERVES a second chance. When you read the documented accounts of exactly what Cabrera did to those women, it makes you wonder how the powers at Augusta National can possibly welcome him back. To think, in 2002 those same decision-makers "strongly suggested" that Phil Mickelson not attend the tournament he'd won three times. Mickelson's crime? He led the brigade of fellow PGA Tour players to leave the PGA and sign with the financial backers of terrorists, better known as Saudi Arabia, to create the LIV tour. 

    The tournament powers at that time, behind the scenes, discouraged Mickelson from playing that year for fear that his presence would be a distraction from the festivities. They didn't ban him, they just...discouraged him. Kind of like how the Mafia used to discourage people to use the word...well, Mafia. Again, button-downed, Augusta. Southern charm; Southern sensibilities; Proper manners…to a fault. And Mickelson stayed away. It was the first Masters he'd missed in 28 years.

    Look back at that and consider what Cabrera did and make your own comparisons about what Augusta National considers a distraction worthy of suggesting a past champion stay away. Cabrera's abuse of ex-girlfriend Cecilia Torres Mana led to his first prison sentence in 2021. According to the court records, Torres detailed how Cabrera "physically, psychologically, and sexually abused" her, and how "he locked me in, took my documents, and made me sleep in the closet." The following year, Cabrera was sentenced to another two-plus years for assaulting Micaela Escudero, another ex-girlfriend. In 2016, the ex-wife, Silva Rivadero, accused him of physical assault. Really? Three-time loser?

    If you're sensing a frightening pattern here, you are not alone. Having been released from prison in 2023, Cabrera was actually invited to play in last year's Masters Tournament. But because of complications acquiring a visa he was unable to attend. Right then and there, everyone should have believed in something called "fate"! However, despite the conviction, Masters chairman Fred Ridley, speaking before the 2024 tournament, called Cabrera "one of our great champions," adding that the club would "definitely welcome him back if he's able to straighten out those legal issues." I hope Mr. Ridley regrets that last line for the rest of his life. Fred, did you really minimize his crimes that much by saying, "...those legal issues." You don't get to be chairman of Augusta National without having any brains. And to utter the words in that context, "those legal issues," may be one of the dumbest things anyone has ever said.

    Not only has Cabrera straightened out those "legal issues," he's also resurrected a playing career that he surely felt was dead as he sat in those prison cells in Brazil and Argentina. This past Sunday, he won a Champions Tour event (golfs’ Senior Tour), the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in Florida. It was his first win of any kind in nearly 11 years. Cabrera, after the victory, told reporters how "very emotional" the win was "after everything that I've gone through the last couple years." That particular awards ceremony might not have been the most appropriate place for an apology, but it sure might have given Cabrera a start at real self-rehabilitation. It's a delicately thin line determining whether Cabrera truly deserves this second chance. Surely, Cecilia Torres Mana, Micaela Escudero, and Silva Rivadero do not believe he deserves it. 

    Cabrera attended the annual Champions Dinner last evening (Tuesday), at the Augusta National clubhouse, and he will surely be welcomed with open arms by his fellow past champions. Two-time Masters champion and annual host of the dinner, Ben Crenshaw, recently told reporters: "The focus of the dinner will be on Scottie [Sheffler, the defending champion], but it'll be great to have Angel back." I mean, I get that this is probably the only thing Crenshaw and others can say publicly, but...really?

    Not as great as it will be though, for Cabrera to have back what he once threw away and thought to be lost forever. To quote my grandfather, "We are all fallen." And you don't have to be a believer, or even much of a spiritual person to understand that. And we all get second chances. Intelligent people can argue whether or not those chances are deserved. The question that will linger among the tall Georgia pines this weekend, is not just whether he deserves to be here this week, but whether he deserves to back ever again. 

    Let me finish with this. Augusta National, in a purely secular way, is a hallowed place. But they've got baggage. For years, the only way a black person or a white woman could get on the grounds was if they were a caddie, or a kitchen worker. Back in the 1960s, Jack Nicklaus and his wife, while driving from New England to Florida for a tournament, stopped at Augusta so Jack could play a practice round. When they got there, the Augusta people were falling all over themselves for Jack. However, they told him that Mrs. Nicklaus would have to wait in the car. No women allowed. She had to sit in the car, IN THE PARKING LOT while Jack played his 18 holes. Wife of the century!

    Fortunately, times have changed. And so has Augusta National. They now host the Ladies Amateur Championship and have members of all races and creeds. Like every other high-end private country club, it has its issues but they are not the issues of the past. However, if Cabrera does decide to play tomorrow, does it mean that this, too, is so easily forgiven?  

Write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com