[PHOTO: Ross Kinnaird]
Tiger Woods is in the Masters field, at least for now. But one controversial past champion is not.
Augusta National Golf Club listed the competitors for the 2024 Masters on the tournament website this week, and Woods, 48, was among the names in the field. In itself this is not necessarily a surprise; past champions are allowed to play in the Masters for life, and Woods has won five green jackets. Conversely, with the Masters less than three weeks away Woods has made just one start this season. The 15-time major winner played one-and-a-half rounds at the Genesis Invitational last month before pulling out of the tournament due to illness, and passed on the chance to compete at last week’s Players Championship.
Woods is coming off an abbreviated 2023 season, where he made only two appearances before undergoing ankle surgery after the Masters, where he made the cut but withdrew on the weekend. He has played all four rounds of an official tournament just twice in the past four years. It should be noted that Woods’ name in the field does not signal he’s officially playing, but – given his limited sightings after his proclamation in December that he planned on playing once a month in 2024 – it’s a promising sign for Tiger fans.
One notable who apparently won’t be at Augusta is Angel Cabrera. The 2009 Masters winner was convicted in July 2021 in an Argentine court of assaulting, threatening and harassing Cecilia Torres Mana, who was Cabrera’s partner between 2016 and 2018. He was arrested in Rio de Janeiro in January that year on charges of assault, theft, illegal intimidation and repeated disrespect to authorities and had been on Interpol’s “red code” list, which is used to seek the location and arrest of a person wanted by a legal jurisdiction or an international tribunal with a view to his or her extradition. Cabrera had been sought by authorities in a separate Argentine case involving assault claims filed by Torres Mana, and her case was joined by Cabrera’s former wife, Silva Rivadero, and another former partner Micaela Escudero.
Cabrera, 54, was released from prison last August and in December was reinstated by the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. In January at the Latin America Amateur Championship, Augusta National and Masters chairman Fred Ridley said the tournament would welcome Cabrera back should he straighten out issues pertaining to his visa into the United States. Cabrera recently played in a PGA Tour Champions event in Morocco. However, Cabrera’s manager confirmed to Golfweek that the visa issue remains, keeping Cabrera from the tournament.
The 2024 Masters begins on April 11. Jon Rahm is the defending champion.
