Angel Cabrera's longtime friend and coach has revealed the 2009 Masters champion plans to resume his golf career when he is released from prison.
The two-time Major winner was jailed for two years in 2021 for assaulting, threatening and harassing a former partner, before a further 28 months was added to his sentence when he was found guilty of assaulting another ex-partner.
During his second trial, Cabrera told local press: "Many say prison is bad, but it's not the case, prison has done me good."
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Charlie Epps, a friend and coach to Cabrera reiterated that message, before adding that the 53-year-old still harbours ambitions of a return to professional golf.
"It’s been a rough go,” Epps said. “He was in prison in Brazil and then Argentina. He’s weathered the storm and it’s taught him a couple of very important lessons. He’s admitted that.
"He’ll probably get out some time in the summer and he’s already at a halfway house. He wants to continue his golf career, the good Lord willing. I always welcome him. We’re just waiting for him to come home."
Cabrera won the first of his two Majors at a brutal US Open in 2007. He outlasted Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk at Oakmont to become the first South American to lift America’s national championship.
Despite his lack of regular titles on the PGA Tour and European Tour, Cabrera once again showed his Major pedigree at the 2009 Masters, overcoming Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell in a playoff to win South America's first Green Jacket.
Four years later, he was back in the hunt, hitting an iconic shot into the 72nd hole at Augusta National that set up a birdie and got him into a playoff with Adam Scott. However, this time he was beaten, as Scott clinched Australia's maiden Masters title on the second hole of the sudden death playoff.
"To follow up one victory at Augusta with two [would have been memorable], but he was totally happy with Adam’s victory," Epps added. "He’s got a lot of respect for his fellow golfers. That’s Angel."
Despite his troubled history, Scott admitted he'll always have respect for Cabrera for the magnanimity he displayed in defeat at the 2013 Masters, and for the belief he had in the Australian following a difficult period in his career.
"I told him, 'I haven’t forgotten what you said to me'," Scott said. "To kind of have a guy like that who’s won a couple of Majors wanting me to believe and do it myself, it was a nice thing to share and I have huge respect forever for him for doing that."
