Rafa Cabrera Bello to compete at €3 million DS Automobiles Italian Open

He performed impressively at last week’s BMW PGA Championship, where he finished tied 9th to earn 155.6 points to move up seven spots to 25th in the 2021 – 2022 DP World Tour Rankings.

Rafa has hopefully found some form at a key time in the season with some big events coming up over the next few weeks.

Gulf News spoke to Rafa earlier today. “Last week was very satisfying, I was pleased with both my golf and my finish. To have rounds of 68, 65 and 70 in a challenging week with so much happening around us, was just what I needed,” he said.

“Just eight players beat me over the 54 holes, which I am happy with considering the strength of field. Doing well in these Rolex Series events really moves the needle on both the DP World Tour Rankings and the OWGR. I also played well in the first Rolex Series event of the year, the $8 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links Abu Dhabi, an hour’s drive from my home in Dubai, finishing tied second alongside Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), just one shot back of the champion Thomas Pieters (Bel),” he added.

This week is tournament number 34 out of a DP World Tour season’s total of 43, so the Tour is coming to the business end of the season.

Rafa travelled from Wentworth to Stockholm to drop off his family and then flew onto Rome where he arrived this morning (Tuesday).

This is the second time the DP World Tour has played over the Marco Simone course, with Rafa making his debut at the venue this week.

Last year’s Italian Open played over the same golf course was won by Nicolai Hojgaard (Den) on 13 under par, winning by a shot from Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) and Dubai based Adrian Meronk (Pol).

A strong field has been assembled this week with Rory McIlroy (NI), Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng), home favourite Francesco Molinari (It), Victor Hovland (Nor), Adrian Meronk (Pol) and Robert MacIntyre (Scot) all teeing off.

This week’s DS Automobiles Italian Open has a provisional OWGR points allocation of 24.34.

Gulf News wishes Rafa all the best for another big week on the DP World Tour.