News Briefs: Angel Cabrera returns to the Masters

By Dan Vukelich, Alabama Golf News Online Editor

Argentine wins in Florida senior event

Fifty-five-year-old Angel Cabrera won for the first time in more than 10 years last week, besting K.J. Choi by two strokes in the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational, a PGA Tour Champions event in Boca Raton, Florida.

It was his first win in 26 starts on the PGA Tour Champions and it snapped a winless streak of 10 years, nine months (or 3,927 days), dating back to the 2014 Greenbrier Classic, according to the PGA Tour.

Cabrera, who served 30 months in prison in his native Argentina for domestic violence, will be in the field of the Masters this week as a past champion. He won the Masters in 2009 and the U.S. Open in 2007.

Cabrera was sentenced by an Argentine court for assaulting, stalking and attempting to run over his ex-girlfriend Cecilia Torres Mana, and assault and intimidation of another former partner Micaela Escudero. His ex-wife, Silvia Rivadero, also made serious accusations against him, according to Fox Sports.

Cabrera missed the cut in his last run at the Masters in 2019. Although out of prison, because of his conviction he was denied a visa to enter the U.S. to play in the Masters in 2024.

“It’s very emotional after everything that I’ve gone through the last couple years, so being here to have these chances again and win again for me is very much,” Cabrera said after the Florida win, according to Alex Miceli of the Morning Read.

Verne Lundquist will be watching the Masters – from home

Verne Lundquist tells the Forecaddie newsletter that he intends to spend Masters week the same way he has occupied himself during the previous 40 years as a member of the CBS broadcast team. “I will watch every minute of it,” he told the Forecaddie. “I just won’t be in Augusta.”

Lundquist lives in Austin. By his own choice, called his final Masters Tournament last year, giving way in the 16^th-hole tower to Frank Nobilo, who moves from Amen Corner. Lundquist heartily approves of the selection and has spoken with Nobilo about the New Zealander’s new role, he told the Forecaddie.

Mike Tirico is changing sports

Golf won’t have Mike Tirico much longer.

The veteran play-by-play sports anchor for NBC Sports is moving from golf to the NBA, the likely result of the network’s failure to sign a new multi-year deal with the USGA for coverage of top USGA events, including the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Amateur.

With NBC going big into NBA coverage with a new multi-year deal with the league, it made sense for the network to move its top name over to that sport.

“Viewers might have noticed that Tirico was absent from the four-man booth at the recent Players Championship as long-time Golf Channel host Terry Gannon sat next to Brad Faxon instead during weekend coverage,” the Forecaddie newsletter reported.

Tirico, 58, joined NBC Sports in mid-2016 after 25 years at ESPN. His first assignment for NBC was the 2016 Open Championship. It is not clear whether he will be in the booth for this year’s 153rd Open at Royal Portrush in July, but it would not be a surprise if he doesn’t make the trip to Northern Ireland. the forecaddie reported.

Augusta National to Jason Day: ‘Tone it down’

A year after causing a stir at Augusta by wearing a bold sweater at the Masters, Australian star Jason Day has been advised by Augusta National officials to tone down his wardrobe this year.

That has forced a design reshuffle for Day, a fashion icon of the links, who says he had hoped to wear an even “crazier” outfit in 2025, Fox Sports reported.

The 37-year-old, who was asked to remove a jumper emblazoned with the phrase “No.313 Malbon Golf Championship” last year, has agreed to the demands of Augusta National this time around.

LIV Golf/PGA Tour dispute still simmering

The Masters tees off Thursday at Georgia’s Augusta National and — judging by the pre-tourney hype — it’s going to be a strange one, reported Len Ziehm for the Daily Herald, a newspaper in Chicago’s northwest suburbs..

Over the last four years issues involving the PGA Tour and LIV Golf were prominent going into Masters week. Not so this year. Merger talks seem nonexistent. LIV has remained a viable threat to the established circuit, even without making a notable signing for this season. The Saudi-backed circuit has also improved its television offering thanks to a new deal with Fox, Ziehm wrote.

Still, “The PGA Tour continues to miss the star power of the players defecting to LIV — Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson in particular,” Ziehm reported. “LIV has only 12 players among the 96 in this year’s Masters field but six are past champions,” he wrote.

New GolfPass instruction show launches

Golf’s newest instructional road show is making its next stop on GolfPass today with the premiere episode two of “GolfPass Academy Tour,” a four-stop streaming series capturing highlights from golf clinics conducted across the U.S. and featuring some of the biggest names in video golf instruction. The series is streaming exclusively on the GolfPass website and mobile app, NBC Sports said.