AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — It has been six long years since Angel Cabrera walked the verdant green fairways of the Masters.

Two were spent in a gray Argentine prison cell.

Once feted with a parade through the streets of Cordoba for his U.S. Open triumph in 2007, and celebrated again for his victory at Augusta National two years later, Cabrera found himself staring down prosecutors in July 2021. The man known as “El Pato,” or “The Duck,” for his waddling gait had been accused of making threats against one of his former partners.

Cabrera ultimately was sentenced to prison, and a year later, pleaded guilty when another ex-girlfriend came forward with similar claims. The court made the two sentences concurrent, but the result was still three years and 10 months behind bars.

He was released on parole in August 2023 and cleared to return to the PGA Tour Champions later that year.

Now, after winning the Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational on Sunday, the 55-year-old Cabrera is back at the Masters, where chairman Fred Ridley affirmed that his lifetime status as a former champion remained intact.

“We certainly abhor domestic violence of any type,” Ridley said on the eve of the tournament Wednesday. “As it relates to Angel, Angel has served the sentence that was proscribed by the Argentine courts and he was a past champion, so he was invited.”

Cabrera spent 15 minutes speaking with a small group of reporters Tuesday, beneath the stately oak that serves as a popular meeting point near the Augusta National clubhouse. He was honest but succinct. He was contrite. He acknowledged the mistakes that he had made, and said that he was was back with feelings of both hope and gratitude.

“Life has given me another opportunity. I got to take advantage of that,” Cabrera said, speaking in Spanish. “There was a stage in my life of five years — four, five years — that they weren’t the right things I should have done. Before that, I was OK.

“So I just have to keep doing what I know I can do right.”

That includes striking a golf ball.

After he was paroled, and before Cabrera could secure his visa to travel outside of Argentina, his longtime coach, Charlie Epps, brought him a set of clubs to begin practicing again. There was a bit of rust, but the swing didn’t feel a whole lot different than it had a couple of years earlier, when Cabrera made the cut in the Senior Players Championship.

“I started to practice a lot, getting in form,” Cabrera said. “I don’t know if exactly my game’s back technically.”

It was good enough to win Sunday. Cabrera was tied with K.J. Choi in a PGA Tour Champions event that he only got into at the last minute when Mark Hensby withdrew, until a birdie on the 17th hole. Cabrera safely found the 18th green, two-putted from 18 feet for par, and he was able to celebrate a victory that seemed a decade in the making.

Or perhaps longer during those long nights in prison.

“Obviously I regret things that happened and you learn from them,” Cabrera said, “but at the same time, those are in the past and we have to look forward to what’s coming.”

That included the Champions Dinner on Tuesday night, when Cabrera was able to once again join a collection of past winners to celebrate and reminisce. Scottie Scheffler, as the reigning champion, chose the menu, and Cabrera was looking forward to having a chance to catch up with old friends like Gary Player, who has become one of his biggest supporters.

“I can’t wait to see him,” said Adam Scott, who beat Cabrera in a playoff to win the 2013 Masters. “It’s a happy thing for me. We’ve got a fairly long history. I first met him on the European Tour before we both were on the PGA Tour. We have played in Presidents Cups, we’ve been partners. I’m thrilled he’s going to be back joining us this year.”

Cabrera understands if there are some who feel differently. Not everybody is predisposed to forgive and forget.

“Everybody has their own opinion,” he said, “and I respect that.”

But Cabrera is also steadfast in his belief that he belongs at Augusta National again.

“I won the Masters,” he said. “Why not?”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The prerogative of choosing the menu for the Champions Dinner at the Masters falls upon the defending champion, and Scottie Scheffler made an addition in his second go-around at those selections that underscored his wry sense of humor.

His dad used to make wonderful meatballs. It was young Scottie’s favorite dish growing up. And you can’t very well have meatballs without some sort of pasta. So, the two-time Masters champion quite naturally thought: “ravioli.”

The same thing he was making in December, when the world’s No. 1 player shredded his hand on a shard of glass.

Come to think of it, maybe instead of just serving the ravioli Tuesday night, when the former Masters champions all gathered to celebrate Scheffler and reminisce with one another, he ought to have had some ravioli-making stations.

“If I was trying to take out the competition,” Scheffler said with a grin, “I would definitely do a demonstration, something along those lines. But yeah, hopefully avoid the injuries. Maybe they’ll cut up my steak for me so I won’t have to use a knife.”

Jokes aside, the funniest thing might be this: The idea that Scheffler has to sabotage anyone.

Sure, he’s yet to win this season, which seems downright unfathomable after a year in which he not only triumphed seven times on the PGA Tour and won Olympic gold, but it seemed as if the only thing that could slow him down was a trip to jail. But he still has three top-10 finishes in six starts despite a late jump on the year as his hand healed from the broken wine glass, and Scheffler is coming off a tie for second at the Houston Open, where he finished one back of Min Woo Lee.

He’s still the world’s top player by a wide margin. His game is in a good place. And his life seems to be, too.

Another perk of winning the Masters is the opportunity to play with a guest the Sunday before the tournament. Scheffler’s younger sister, Molly, got the call last year. It was his mom, Diane, who spent this past weekend walking among the Georgia pines.

“I think I definitely learned a lot of my work ethic from watching her,” said Scheffler, recalling the long hours Diane spent as an executive at a law firm. “She always put her best into her job and her best at being a mom, as well. She worked full-time while we were growing up. My dad stayed home and took care of all four of us.

“It wasn’t I would say an ideal situation for her. I think she would have rather have stayed home all day, stayed home and took care of us, and she definitely missed a little bit of that. So now on the other side with her being retired, she gets to spend a lot of time with us and with her grandchildren. So it’s really fun for her to be on this side of it now where the work is done.”

One of those grandkids is Bennett, who was born to Scottie and his wife, Meredith, about a month after his dad slipped on his second green jacket. Scheffler said becoming a parent himself has allowed him to better appreciate what his own parents went through, and it put what he does between the ropes in the proper perspective.

Bad shots still stink, of course, and great shots still feel great. But at the end of the day, he can forget about both.

“Looking at this year,” Scheffler said, “I haven’t had the starts that I would have hoped to start the year. I’ve had some good starts but I haven’t had any really great ones yet. But when you get home at the end of the day, Bennett is still going to do pretty much the exact same thing he always does when I get home. My work is definitely not going to affect him.”

His work — Scheffler’s brilliant ball-striking, his sublime scrambling — certainly affects everyone in the field. They just about all point to him as the favorite, and the oddsmakers back them up, with BetMGM Sportsbook installing him as the 9-2 top choice.

Does he ever feel that target on his back? That giant bullseye for the rest of the world’s best players?

“I mean, at the end of the day, when I tee it up on Thursday, I start the tournament even-par, just like everybody else,” Scheffler said. “It’s a totally new golf tournament. Last year means nothing.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

NEW YORK (AP) — When Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano fought three years ago at Madison Square Garden, it did more than open a thrilling rivalry between two of boxing’s best.

It opened doors for women’s boxers that neither could have imagined were ever available.

A professional boxing career wasn’t even a consideration for girls when Taylor was growing up in Ireland, let alone one that would lead to one of the most famous venues in sports as the main event — a spot women’s boxers had never occupied.

When Taylor (24-1, 6 KOs) and Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KOs) return to Madison Square Garden on July 11 for their third fight, they will again serve as the main event. And this time, women’s matches will make up the entire card.

“Like I said the first time around, it was never a dream for me to fight at the Garden because it was never there. Like, I never knew that women could headline the Garden,” Serrano said. “So the first time, it was like a dream I never knew I had.

“But now, for these girls, I’m an inspiration. Me and Katie are an inspiration for fighting and headlining a card at the Garden. Now to be able to headline and have an all-girl card is truly, truly amazing.”

Taylor won the first fight by split decision before a sold-out crowd of 19,187 that was split between her Irish and Serrano’s Puerto Rican fans. She won a unanimous decision in the rematch last year, getting the nod by one point on all three judges’ cards, as the co-main event to Jake Paul’s victory over Mike Tyson at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium.

The trilogy bout, for Taylor’s undisputed 140-pound titles, seems certain to be another slugfest. Yet both insist the action on the card that will stream on Netflix starts well before the final fight.

“From start to finish it’s going to be quality after quality after quality,” Taylor said. “This isn’t just a gimmick. This is going to be simply a great night for boxing and I’m so proud of that.”

They will be preceded in the ring by Alycia Baumgardner defending her super featherweight titles against Spain’s Jennifer Miranda. The card also includes title bouts at super bantamweight between England’s Ellie Scotney and Mexico’s Yamileth “Yeimi” Mercado, and at bantamweight between Dina Thorslund of Denmark and Shurretta Metcalf.

In all, Most Valuable Promotions said the card will feature six of the top 15 women on the women’s pound-for-pound list on Boxrec.com.

“Honestly, we don’t know who is going to get the fight of the night,” Serrano said.

It’s hard to imagine it won’t be Serrano and Taylor, based on their two all-action bouts already.

Both are boxing trail blazers nearing the end of their careers. The 38-year-old Taylor, who would wear head gear into the gym so she could appear to be a boy because girls weren’t allowed to box, helped lead the push to make women’s boxing an Olympic sport and won the gold medal the first time it was in London in 2012.

When she goes to the gym now, it’s filled with female fighters.

“That’s the proudest legacy I could leave behind,” Taylor said. “Just to inspire the next generation.”

Serrano, 36, a champion in a women’s-record seven weight classes who remains the featherweight champion, has already begun what will be her transition to a post-fighting career. MVP’s first signee later inked a lifetime contract with the promotional company founded by Paul and Nakisa Bidarian to become its chairwoman of boxing initiatives and will be responsible for identifying, signing and marketing the roster of women’s athletes.

But she can’t stop fighting yet. Not when all the massive paydays that eluded her for most of her career have started rolling in lately.

And not when there’s still a chance to finally notch a victory over Taylor.

“It means a lot more this time being an all-woman card,” Serrano said. “Having the opportunity to fight Katie Taylor once again is amazing. The payday is truly amazing, but to share this card with all these incredible women is the highlight of the night, I think.

“Listen, the opportunity presented itself and I think here is just a great ending to the story — especially my story, when I finally win.”

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AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing