AUGUSTA — Angel Cabrera, who was controversially in the Masters field despite having been released from 30 months in jail for assaulting two former girlfriends, missed the cut on Friday after shooting an 8-over-par 80.
The 55-year-old Cabrera, who won the 2009 Masters and thus is exempt into the field for life, finished 11-over par and in second-to-last place for the week.
He said before the tournament how “very grateful” he was to be invited back to the Masters and “just appreciated the way they treated me.”
When he was asked what he thought of people who didn’t believe he should have been invited back to the Masters based on how heinous his crimes against women were, Cabrera said, “Everybody has their own opinion and I respect that.”
When he was asked why he thinks he deserved to be invited back, Cabrera said, “I won the Masters. Why not?
“Life has given me another opportunity. I got to take advantage of that and I want to do the right things in this second opportunity.”
Two Masters legends failed to make the cut, taking it to the 18th hole of Friday’s second round before failing to get inside the line.
Bernhard Langer, the two-time green jacket winner playing in his 41st and final Masters at 67, finished 3-over par and missed a 15-foot putt on 18 that would have gotten him a tee time for the weekend.
And Fred Couples, 65 and playing in his 40th Masters, followed his 1-under-par 71 on Thursday with 5-over 77 to finish 4-over.
“It was a very special last two days for me,’’ Langer said. “Even starting off walking to the first tee yesterday, I got a standing ovation and I almost teared up and almost started crying right there. There were times last couple days when I thought, ‘Did you make the right decision here, or should you have waited another year or two with your last Masters?’ Because I was playing quite well and very smart. … But looking back, it is still the right decision.’’
Couples said he plans to play next year’s Masters, saying tournament officials “made that clear they wanted me to come back, so I’m coming back next year.”
“The goal is to make the cut at my age [and] I didn’t. Unfortunately, I’m going to come out and watch a little bit tomorrow.’’
Of the 12 LIV Golf players in the field, seven made the 2-over-par cut.
Among those who didn’t were Dustin Johnson, who doubled the 18th hole to fall to 3-over and miss by one, and Brooks Koepka, who went 5-over-par on the final two holes (bogey on 17 and quadruple on 18) to finish 5-over. Phil Mickelson (5-over) and Sergio Garcia (4-over) also failed to make the weekend.
Among those who made it were Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann.
Quietly, one of the cool stories of the first two days was Nick Dunlap, a two-time PGA Tour winner at age 21 who shot 90 in the opening round and kept grinding, improving his score in the second round by 19 shots.
At one point in the second round Friday, he had it to 3-under, before finishing with a 1-under 71.
“There’s a lot of anger,’’ Dunlap said of the first round. “More so just impressed that I showed up today, to be honest. I think a lot of people would have maybe backed out. Certainly, I wanted to at times. But I’m never going to quit.’’
Dunlap said he “hit a couple buckets of balls at my Airbnb into the woods’’ to flush the bad memories from his mind Thursday night.
Justin Rose called Dunlap’s struggle “an anomaly,’’ adding, “Hopefully he’ll shrug that off. You don’t want to be dwelling on days like that for sure. Hopefully, that’s one he puts behind him.’’
Jose Luis Ballester, the 21-year-old U.S. Amateur champion from Spain who peed in Rae’s Creek in Thursday’s first round, missed the cut at 10-over par.
Masters officials, according to sources, were embarrassed by his actions and are believed to have let him know of their feelings.
None of the five amateurs in the field made the cut. Justin Hastings was the closest at 4-over, missing by two shots.
