Masters champ Angel Cabrera will return to golf in Africa

Former major champion Angel Cabrera’s comeback tour is beginning to take shape.

Golfweek has learned that Cabrera, who served 30 months in prison in Brazil and Argentina and last played PGA Tour Champions in 2020, is set to make his return to that circuit at the Trophy Hassan II, Feb. 22-24 at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in Rabat, Morocco. Cabrera doesn’t need a visa to travel to Northern Africa to play there.

“He’s been gone for three years and served time in jail and had time for personal reflection,” PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady told Golfweek. “It’s a bit like Jim Thorpe, who spent time in jail (for tax evasion) and was welcomed back. It’s a little different. I don’t know if he can travel in the United States because he needs a visa. I think guys forgive. I’m not sure if spouses will forgive, that’s the bigger question. But he has the right to play.”

The week after Morocco, Cabrera is expected to play in the Visa Argentina Open in Buenos Aires at Olivos Golf Club, which is being conducted for the first time as a tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Golfweek also has confirmed that Cabrera has received an exemption to play in the Insperity Invitational in Houston in early May. Cabrera first will need to obtain a visa, which could also be a hang-up for him to play in the Masters, which he won in 2009, in April as a past champion.

Cabrera’s manager Manuel Tagle confirmed that Cabrera, who also won the U.S. Open in 2007, is seeking to regain a visa to travel to the U.S. and elsewhere.

“While competing in the Masters again is a dream, securing a visa is Angel’s priority at the moment so he can resume his professional career,” Tagle wrote in an email to Golfweek. “We are working on getting an appointment with the U.S. Embassy in Argentina. Probably early March as his visa has expired January 2024.”

Cabrera played his first professional event in December since being 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. Cabrera finished T-10 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.