Angel Cabrera, nicknamed “El Pato” or “The Duck” for the way he walks, is back quacking.
The two-time major champion, who spent 30 months in jail in Brazil and Argentina and last played PGA Tour Champions in 2020, shot an even-par 71 on Wednesday, at Abierto del Litoral, or the Coast Open, a tournament held in his native Argentina that has been a fixture on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica Developmental Series and dates to 1932.
Cabrera made three birdies and three bogeys during his opening round of what is his first 72-hole tournament since the 2020 Bridgestone Senior Players Championship. A source on the ground reported that he was “great from the tee, rusty in the short game but in great spirit.”
Cabrera was released from jail on Aug. 4, after he completed more than two years in custody over gender violence cases against two of his ex-girlfriends. Brazil’s federal police arrested him on an Interpol warrant in January 2021. Cabrera, winner of the 2007 U.S. Open and 2009 Masters, was sentenced in July 2021 to two years in prison for threats and harassment of Cecilia Torres Mana, his partner between 2016 and 2018.
In November 2022, he was also on trial for threats and harassment against Micaela Escudero, another of his ex-girlfriends. Cabrera pleaded guilty, the court made the two sentences concurrent and gave him three years and 10 months in prison.
Golfweek previously reported that his longtime coach Charlie Epps said he is seeking a visa so he can travel to the U.S. and then will need to apply for reinstatement to PGA Tour Champions, which according to Epps, suspended him, and inquire whether Augusta National will honor his lifetime invitation as a past champion to the Masters in April.
Cabrera won the Abierto del Litoral in 1995. The Argentina Open, of which Cabrera also is a past champion, is scheduled for late February and is part of the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season for the first time.