Rafa Cabrera Bello unable to return to Dubai due to COVID-19 pandemic

Dubai resident and Worldwide Golf columnist, Rafa Cabrera Bello, flew out to last month’s PLAYERS Championship only to see it cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike the other 143 players in the field he has been unable to return to the emirate and has remained in Florida ever since.

“We’ve only been able to make decisions with the information we had at the time,” Cabrera Bello told the PGA Tour’s official website.

His wife Sofia and their 8-month-old daughter Alva Margareta are with him, as are his manager Richard Rayment plus Rayment’s wife Gabby and their daughter Nikki. The six, who live in the same apartment building in Dubai, had to asses their living options after travel became almost impossible with countries closing their borders amid the current crisis.

Cabrera Bello poses with the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open trophy alongside manager Richard Rayment and wife Sofia Lundstedt in 2017

“After THE PLAYERS, we thought, OK, what are we going to do?” said Rayment. “We decided to rent a place for two weeks, and then things changed quickly. The UAE closed its borders, so we had to find another home and got the one we’re in now for a month and possibly one more. So really we’re just here, on lockdown a long way from home. It’s crazy, what’s happening. I’ve made so many calls I could be a travel agent here.”

Since THE PLAYERS was called off, Cabrera Bello hasn’t had the chance to stick to his normal practice routine. A quick nine or hitting balls around dinner time to limit his contact with others has become the norm in the unprecedented situation.

The outbreak of the virus in Spain has been brutal with the country having the second highest death toll in Europe while the situation in America is even grimmer with the country topping the worldwide death toll. Meanwhile, the UAE currently has 25 confirmed deaths from COVID-19.

While in Florida, he’s twice driven to Orlando to see his coach, David Leadbetter, who has a golf academy at JA, The Resort. When he must go shopping for groceries or other necessities for the family, he always takes precautions. And it’s how he’d want others to behave around his 89-year-old maternal grandmother, Egda. His only surviving grandparent, she lives with his parents back home in Gran Canaria, Spain.

His mother, is a doctor in a dialysis clinic, and has been told by the authorities in Spain to stand by in case she’s needed. So far, Gran Canaria has not emerged as a hot spot.

“I speak with family and friends every other day, and send texts. My brother is in Malaga, my sister in London. My wife’s family, her mom lives in Portugal, and her dad in Sweden. They are all safe and healthy. It’s more a concern for our grandparents who are high age and higher risk.”

He also keeps in touch with compatriots Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm via WhatsApp, and has especially appreciated his extended time with new daughter Alva Margareta.

“I like to set up routines like a normal family instead of seeing her for a week and then being away for a week,” Cabrera Bello said. “I’ve seen her for like 2-1/2 months straight right now, and it’s absolutely beautiful to watch the little improvements that she goes through every day. You try something with her and she can’t do it, and a week later she’s doing it.

“We’re going to learn to enjoy every single day because in the blink of an eye things can change so dramatically,” he added. “The hardest thing is to see so much suffering and worrying about loved ones. I know the end of the tunnel is somewhere, but I just don’t know where it is.”


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