Augusta, Georgia
CNN
 — 

When youngsters discover the game of golf these days, they dream of playing at the Masters. But when Bernhard Langer started playing in the tiny German village of Anhausen in the 1960s, he’d never even heard of it.

“I don’t recall the exact day when I heard about the Masters tournament,” he explained to reporters at Augusta National. “We didn’t have television until I was about 12 years old, my dad couldn’t afford one. Then it only had three channels, and I’m sure the Masters wasn’t on one of those three channels.”

Langer thinks that he probably learned about the tournament that would later change his life from a magazine at the club where he worked as a caddie. Because he’d had to teach himself how to swing a club, he certainly couldn’t have imagined that he’d ever play there one day. Many decades later, he’s about the play the Masters for the 41st and final time, and he’s choking up just thinking about it.

“It’s very emotional,” Langer said. “You can tell already that my voice is breaking a bit, just realizing it’s going to be my last competitive Masters.”

At the age of 67, Langer is now reflecting on his career as a trailblazer and one of the most remarkable journeys in the game. Not only did he make it to Augusta, but in 1985 he won the Masters in just his third attempt. With 12 senior major titles to his name, he’s one of the most successful golfers of his generation. His longevity is the envy of many and along the way, he’s inspired generations of European golfers, wearing his heart on his sleeve as he persevered through ebbs and flows of triumph and tragedy.

During four separate periods of his career, Langer famously suffered from the yips, involuntary muscle spasms which wreak havoc on a golfer’s ability to play the game.

“Those were the hardest times in my golfing life,” he lamented. “I vividly remember playing Detroit in 1989 and I hit 17 greens in regulation one day and 16 the next day, and I was, like, 11 over par and I missed the cut. I couldn’t hit the ball any better than I did, and I couldn’t putt any worse than I did.”

A man of faith, Langer says that he went back to his hotel, got on his knees and threw up a desperate prayer: “‘God, if you want me done with this game, I’m ready to give it up, just show me what to do,’” he recalled.

A friend was praying with him. “He said, ‘I don’t think he’s done with you yet. He wants you to persevere.’ And I said, ‘Persevere? I’ve been persevering for years and years and it’s getting worse and worse!’”

But Langer always seemed to find a way back from the wilderness – his second Masters title coming eight years later – and he’s learned to accept that no matter how good he might be, fate can always intervene.

“At 13 a few years ago, I hit it the way I wanted it, and it hit a tiny little twig and went 40 yards left into the bushes,” he said. “I hit a perfect shot, and I made seven! That’s golf, you can only control so much.”

Langer developed a reputation for being serious and dour, and journalists who have covered him closely say that whenever he cracked a joke, it always seemed to be scripted. But he is credited with adding some extra sizzle to the fabled Champions Dinner at Augusta.

When he first hosted the dinner as defending champion in 1986, Langer served wiener schnitzel (breaded veal) and Black Forest cake, a nod to his German heritage. Up until then, the menus were safe and predictable, but Langer inspired subsequent champions to be more adventurous, especially the international players who were able to bring something of their own culture to the table. Two years later, Scotland’s Sandy Lyle was hosting the dinner in his kilt and serving up haggis, a delicacy of sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, minced and spiced and cooked in the animal’s stomach lining.

Langer also jokes that he was ahead of the man considered to be the greatest of all time – Tiger Woods. In 1985, after shooting a 68 on Sunday to finish two strokes clear of the field, he was resplendent in a red shirt and trousers. In later years, Woods famously wore red, often in his final rounds.

“I always tease Tiger,” Langer chuckled. “I was the one wearing a red shirt first. You came later!”

This week, Langer knows that the toughest thing he’ll experience won’t be the competition. Instead, it will be managing his emotions as he plays the Augusta National course competitively for the final time, a year since a torn Achilles sustained playing pickleball prevented him from competing.

He’s come to accept that it’s time to call it a day, and while he says that he can still compete on other courses, he no longer can at Augusta, where the distance has grown to more than 7,500 yards. He’s watched the other champions, like his friend Larry Mize, playing here for the last time and seen how the magnitude of the moment totally overwhelmed them.

“He gave a little speech at the Champions Dinner, and he just broke down,” Langer said of the 1987 winner. “It was too much for him, he couldn’t say what he wanted to say. He said, ‘I totally screwed up.’ I said, ‘No you didn’t. It was just showing how much it meant to you.’”

Langer will be accompanied throughout his final rounds by his family and friends, his brother, children and grandchildren. He confesses that his lip might start wobbling around Amen Corner, on the majestic 13th hole where he made pivotal eagles to win both his titles.

“Hopefully I can control myself until the 18th,” Langer said, “but there are no guarantees.” And if and when the tears begin to flow, he says he’ll be ready to embrace the emotion of the moment.

“I know that I’ve always been emotional, just kept it inside me for most of the time,” Langer adds. “I’ve cried over and over at home when things have been worth crying for or about. I’m not ashamed of it, my dad was the same way, and he was my hero. There’s nothing wrong with it, there’s many things that are worth crying about.”

Augusta, Georgia
CNN
 — 

The Argentine golfer Angel Cabrera has been away for some time, but he returns to Augusta National this week with a spring in his step, as a winning golfer looking for a warm embrace.

Despite the lifetime invitation that accompanied his Masters triumph in 2009, Cabrera hasn’t teed it up here since 2019. Instead, he’s been serving time at the notorious Carcel de Bouwer prison in Argentina, an establishment nicknamed “The Prison from Hell.”

Two former girlfriends accused him of domestic abuse, according to the Associated Press. When he skipped a mandated court appearance in Argentina to play a PGA Tour Champions event in Ohio in 2020, it triggered a red notice from Interpol, and he was subsequently arrested in Brazil. Cabrera spent four and a half months at the infamous Placido de Sa Carvalho prison in Rio de Janeiro before he was extradited to stand trial in Argentina.

Fred Ridley, the chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club, has described Cabrera as “one of our great champions,” and Ben Crenshaw, the unofficial host of the traditional Champions Dinner which has a seat at the table for Cabrera, said he was excited to have him and would welcome him personally, according to Golfweek.

The fallout from Cabrera’s crimes lingers. Even after he’d been jailed for abusing his former girlfriend Cecilia Torres Mana in 2021, she said that she and her family were still afraid of the two-time Major champion. In a written first-person account, Mana detailed the misery she endured to Orato First-Person News, saying that during their relationship Cabrera “physically, psychologically and sexually abused me.”

Mana wrote that Cabrera would hit her if she refused his requests and that he followed her in public because he was paranoid that she was seeing someone else. She accused him of locking her in a closet when they were in Texas for a tournament, saying he controlled her movements and forbade her from seeing her dying mother, and he threatened her safety if she ever dared to leave him, according to the 2021 Orato story. Cabrera previously denied the allegations but in a 2023 interview said he “made serious mistakes.”

Having also been found guilty of threats and harassment of another ex-girlfriend in 2022, Cabrera served 30 months behind bars in Brazil and Argentina before he was paroled in 2023. He could have played at Augusta the following April, but he was unable to secure a travel visa in time. According to his longtime coach Charlie Epps, the former Masters champions Bernhard Langer and Gary Player wrote to Cabrera while he was incarcerated and now the Augusta community is welcoming him back into the fold.

For many years, Augusta National was accused of defiantly dragging its heels on progressive issues, but a change of direction within the last 15 years means that the club is now an influential leader in one of the world’s most traditional sports. In 2012, Condoleeza Rice and Darla Moore became the club’s first female members, and since 2019 it has hosted the Augusta National Women’s Amateur tournament. But the Masters now seems to be eagerly welcoming back a man found guilty of crimes against multiple women.

Speaking through a translator on his return to Augusta on Tuesday, Cabrera addressed concerns about his participation.

“I respect their opinion, and everybody has their own opinion, and I respect that,” he said, adding, “life has given me another opportunity, I’ve got to take advantage of that, and I want to do the right things in this second opportunity.”

Speaking in a press gaggle specifically about whether he should be able to play in the tournament again, he responded bluntly: “I won the Masters, why not?”

Ridley told the media that he defended Cabrera’s right to play, with a caveat.

“We certainly abhor domestic violence of any type,” he said. “As it relates to Angel, Angel has served the sentence that was prescribed by the Argentine courts, and he is the past champion, and so he was invited.”

Cabrera himself has previously expressed remorse, telling Golf Digest in 2023 that he has asked his former partners for forgiveness.

“They had the bad luck of crossing paths with me when I was at my worst,” he said. “I wasn’t the devil, but I did bad things. … I refused to listen to anyone and did what I wanted and when I wanted. … I am deeply embarrassed because I disappointed the people closest to me and everyone who loves me through golf.”

Cabrera also lamented the personal cost, telling The Daily Mail, “I regret everything that I have done wrongly in my past. I am also frustrated that I dumped very, very important years of my life.”

Nicknamed El Pato – the duck – because of his waddling gait, Cabrera has spoken of the difficulties of his incarceration, and he’s hoping to make the most of his second chance. According to Sports Illustrated, Cabrera didn’t touch a golf club during his time in prison, but at the age of 55 he’s winning again.

On the eve of his Masters return, Cabrera won The James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in Florida on Sunday, his first victory on the senior Champions Tour and his first significant win anywhere for almost 11 years. He was only able to compete in the field because another player withdrew from the tournament.

The last three times that Cabrera played the Masters, he missed the cut and was gone by the weekend. But it’s also a course upon which he has enjoyed considerable success: Six top ten finishes, including a win and a playoff defeat. If he plays well again this week then his name will likely have an outsized prominence on the leaderboard and so too will his story. Opinion would surely be divided about whether it’s a comeback worth celebrating.

CNN
 — 

Novak Djokovic called his performance “horrible” as he crashed out of the Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday, losing 6-3, 6-4 to Alejandro Tabilo in the second round.

The Serb, who is still searching for his 100th career title, was playing his first match on clay since winning gold at the Paris Olympics in July 2024 and struggled to find any rhythm.

Djokovic, who recently lost to unseeded teenager Jakub Menšík in the final of the Miami Open, committed 29 unforced errors compared to just 18 winners in the defeat, which ended a 10-game unbeaten streak on clay.

“I expected myself at least to have put in a decent performance. Not like this,” Djokovic said.

“This was horrible. I did not have high expectations, really. I knew I’m going to have a tough opponent and I knew I’m going to probably play pretty bad. But this bad, I didn’t expect.”

He added: “I was hoping it was not going to happen, but it was quite a high probability I’m going to play this way. I don’t know. Just horrible. A horrible feeling to play this way, and just sorry for all the people that have to witness this.”

When asked if he knew why he played like that, Djokovic replied: “I don’t know. I don’t have it. I have it and I don’t have it. I don’t really care.”

Tabilo is now 2-0 in his career head-to-head with Djokovic after also recording a straight sets win over the 24-time grand slam champion in their previous meeting at the Italian Open in May 2024. They are the only top-10 wins of Tabilo’s career.

Remarkably, the Chilean has struggled for form this season. Tabilo was 2-9 in 2025 arriving in Monte Carlo and on an eight-match losing streak on clay, per the ATP.

Tabilo, the world No. 32, will face No. 15 seed Grigor Dimitrov in the third round on Thursday.

“It’s been a tough year, so a little bit of the nerves were there, but I just tried to remember what I did well against him last time,” Tabilo said, per the Tennis Channel.

“I served well today, which helped me to regroup my game after that first game, and it was an unreal match, I think. Match by match I’ve been getting better, and I’m so happy.”