Golf US Open 2021: All eyes on Dubai ace Rafa Cabrera Bello

After a ninety-minute weather-delayed start Thursday at Torrey Pines Golf Club, San Diego, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Dubai resident and the 2012 Dubai Desert Classic winner, launched his campaign to become the 2021 US Open Champion.

This is Rafa’s seventh bid for one of golf’s most illustrious prizes and I for one, would be delighted to see him lift the trophy on Sunday afternoon.

Currently 139th in the World Golf rankings, a strong result in this event will see Rafa move closer to the lucrative World’s top 50 rankings and also underline his proven pedigree. Already a six-time professional winner around the world and European team Ryder Cup player in 2016 at Hazeltine, USA.

Starting from the 10th tee, Rafa fired a superb three under par 68 in his opening round yesterday. His solid start was ignited with an eagle at the par 5 ninth hole and he sits 3rd on the leaderboard after round one. His playing partners for the first two rounds, Adrian Meronk from Poland and Sung-Hoon Kang of South Korea are lying +1 and +4 respectively.

The first goal for ‘Team Rafa’ would have been to make the cut today and he is superbly poised to tick that box. Whilst there are still a number of players with holes to finish today from yesterday’s round after the delayed start, Rafa will no doubt be pleased with a later tee time today, however a stronger chance of windy conditions as the day goes on may pose further challenges on an already exacting course. Let’s hope Rafa can get further up that leaderboard by the end of play today and lead the field going into the weekend.