Tiger Woods officially registered for 2024 Masters; past champion Angel Cabrera visa denied
Past champions Tiger Woods is officially listed in the 2024 Masters field, and Angel Cabrera is officially out.
Woods, a five-time Masters winner most recently in 2019, is officially listed on the entry list for competitors on the tournament website and in the latest update to the Masters app, which went live Wednesday. Woods’s participation was expected as he has made clear his intention to build his schedule around the four majors ever since being involved in a car crash in February 2022 that required multiple surgeries and nearly led to the amputation of his right leg.
But Woods, 48, has played just one full competitive round in the lead up to the Masters, withdrawing after six holes from the second round of the Genesis Invitational in February citing the flu. He played in the one-day Seminole Pro-Member in early March but elected not to play either the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he has won eight times, or the Players Championship last week, the Tour’s flagship event and where he’s a two-time champion. Woods, who is making his 26th Masters appearance, survived the 36-hole cut at the Masters last year to tie a record with Gary Player and Fred Couples for most consecutive tournament cuts made with 23. Woods withdrew Saturday, stating he aggravated his plantar fasciitis.
Cabrera, the 2009 Masters champion, hasn’t competed in the Masters since 2019. The 54-year-old Argentine, who also won the 2007 U.S. Open, was sentenced in July 2021 to two years in prison for threats and harassment to his partner, but was released late last year and last month competed in his first PGA Tour Champions event in Morocco, finishing T-27. He has been listed on the tournament website as “a past champion, not playing,” though he is eligible to compete in the field as is custom to past champions.
Speaking to Golf Digest after his release from jail, he said memories of his victory at the Masters helped him pull through while serving time.
“I remember nearly every strokes of that Sunday I won the Masters and would replay it in my mind: the playoff, the famous shot I made through the trees,” he said.
“It’s my dream to return to that prestigious place and walk the course that gave me so much joy and satisfaction,” he said, calling it like a second home. “It would be a great privilege to return and to attend the Champions Dinner with so many of the golf world’s greatest players.”
Speaking during a press conference at the Latin America Amateur Championship in Panama in January, Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Fred Ridley said Cabrera would be welcomed back with one caveat.
“Angel certainly is one of our great champions,” Ridley said. “As we all know, he has been unable to participate in the Masters the last couple of years due to legal issues. Presently we have been in constant contact with Angel’s representatives. He presently is not able to enter the United States. He doesn’t have a visa, and I know that that process is being worked through. We certainly wish him the best of luck with that, and we’ll definitely welcome him back if he’s able to straighten out those legal issues.”
Golfweek has learned Cabrera’s visa has been temporarily declined.
“More information has been requested and will be provided to the embassy shortly. Final decision on the visa will take no less than 8 to 10 weeks. He will not be at The Masters,” Cabrera’s longtime agent, Manuel Tagle, wrote in an email to Golfweek.
The Masters field is currently at 85 players. The first men’s major of the year runs April 11-14.
