FILE - Angel Cabrera, of Argentina, reacts during the final round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., on April 12, 2009. As the Masters unfolds this week, 2009 winner Angel Cabrera sits in an Argentinian prison.
Cabrera was an unlikely champion to begin with, a street urchin who grew up without parents and never had a formal education. A huge crowd greeted him when he flew home after winning the 2007 U.S. Open and there was a parade in his honor. While the details of Cabrera’s case remain somewhat murky, he was charged with gender violence with a former partner and could face additional time for allegedly threatening the woman by phone after being charged. Prosecutors are also looking at allegations from two other women, including the mother of his children, and his lawyer says there’s a chance he could be charged with more crimes.
Cabrera’s rise in the golf world wasn’t exactly meteoric, though it seemed like it at the time. Abandoned by his parents, he became a caddie at the age of 8 to earn enough money to eat and it wasn’t long before he took up the game himself.