Majors
Masters 2024: Tiger Woods is in the field (for now), while controversial past champion is out
Ross Kinnaird
Tiger Woods is in the 2024 Masters field, at least for now. But one controversial past champion is not.
Augusta National Golf Club listed the competitors for this year's Masters on the tournament website this week, and Woods, 48, was among the names appearing 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 out, Woods has made just one start this season. The 15-time major winner played one round at the Genesis Invitational last month before pulling out of the tournament on Friday 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 PGA Tour starts before undergoing ankle surgery. The second start was last year's 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 last 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. Ther 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 of 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 agent told Golfweek that the Visa issue remains, keeping Cabrera from the tournament.
The Masters begins April 11. Jon Rahm is the defending champ.