A month later, Cabrera Bello still in Florida, unable to return home

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Like the 143 other players in the field, Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello came to THE PLAYERS Championship last month only to see it canceled after one round due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike those other players, Cabrera Bello has yet to return home. For now, he and his family remain in the area. Accidental Floridians, if you will. “We’ve only been able to make decisions with the information we had at the time,� Cabrera Bello, who shot a first-round 68, said in a phone interview from his rental home in the Ponte Vedra Beach area. 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 normally live in the same apartment building in Dubai, have been scrambling like many others to shelter in place after many travel options became unavailable to them amid the COVID-19 crisis. “After THE PLAYERS,� Rayment said, “we thought, OK, what are we going to do?� The idea of getting on an airplane for the long trip back to Dubai was unappealing, and travel restrictions were going up fast. Where to go? What to do? Bernd Wiesberger of Austria, one of Cabrera Bello’s fellow competitors, caught one of the last flights back to Europe. “We decided to rent a place for two weeks,� Rayment said, “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,� he added with a rueful laugh. Not that he’s complaining; he knows they’re among the lucky ones. Like all touring pros, Cabrera Bello, who stayed at the Sawgrass Marriott for tournament week, is used to being on the move. He had planned on going from THE PLAYERS to the Valspar Championship in Tampa, the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, then the Masters in Augusta, Georgia. Rayment’s daughter, a lawyer, was going to be at Augusta National for the first time. Then everyone’s plans fell apart. Since THE PLAYERS was canceled, Cabrera Bello hasn’t played much golf. He may go out for a quick nine or hit balls around dinner time to limit contact with others in this social distancing environment. The news from Spain and in America is grim, but Cabrera Bello checks it regularly. Sometimes he puts a piece or two into a puzzle. He’s twice driven to Orlando to see his coach, David Leadbetter. When he must go shopping for groceries or other necessities for the family, he always takes precautions. It’s the new normal, 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, and all are doing well, he said. So are his siblings, and his friends. “I speak with them every other day, and send texts,� he said. “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.� His mother, he added, 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. Back in Ponte Vedra Beach, Team Rafa plan to stay for the rest of April and into May, at which point they might have enough information to decide what to do next. Maybe Cabrera Bello, who made the first-ever albatross at the 16th hole at THE PLAYERS in 2017, will even know enough to begin to formulate a schedule for what’s left of 2020. Meanwhile, he’s taking it slow and reconnecting with family and friends. He checks in with other Spanish golfers such as Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm via What’s App, 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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