Rafael Cabrera-Bello (born 25 May 1984) is a Spanish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, where he has won four times. He has also played on the PGA Tour.

Early life and family

Cabrera-Bello was born in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. He first played golf aged six and went on to enjoy a successful amateur career, winning the Spanish National Championship at every age group level from under-7 through under-18. In 2002, as a 17-year-old amateur, he finished in a tie for fourth at the Open de Espana, a European Tour event. He was a student at the American School of Las Palmas. His sister

Emma Cabrera-Bello Emma Cabrera-Bello (born 22 November 1985) is a Spanish professional golfer. She played on the Ladies European Tour and was runner-up at the Open de España Femenino. Early life and family Cabrera-Bello was born in Las Palmas, Gran Canari ...

is also a professional golfer playing on the

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. It is based at Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal stru ...

(LET) and sitting on the LET Board of Directors.

Professional career

Cabrera-Bello turned professional at the age of 20 in 2005, having narrowly missed out obtaining a European Tour card at final qualifying school. His performance did ensure a place for the second-tier Challenge Tour. In a successful first season, Cabrera-Bello recorded his maiden professional victory, at the

MAN NÖ Open A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

in Austria. He finished the season 13th on the Challenge Tour rankings, earning him a place on the following year's European Tour. He struggled during his rookie season in 2007, failing to finish better than tied for 18th in any tournament as he finished outside the top 200 on the Order of Merit. He failed to regain his playing status at the end of season qualifying school and returned to the Challenge Tour for 2008. His second professional victory came in the 2008

Credit Suisse Challenge The Swiss Challenge is a golf tournament on the Challenge Tour, held in Switzerland, except in 2021, when it was held in France. History It was first played as the Credit Suisse Private Banking Open in 2000 and 2001 at the Golf Club Patriziale A ...

, and he ended the year by once again earning graduation to the main tour, finishing 14th in the rankings. Cabrera-Bello's second season of European Tour golf proved far more successful. In his first eleven events, he missed only one cut, finishing in the top-10 on four occasions and the top-20 a further five times. After such a promising start to the season he suffered a slump in form, making only 2 of his next 10 cuts. However, he bounced back in dramatic style at the

Austrian Golf Open The Austrian Open is a men's professional golf tournament on the European Tour. It was founded in 1990, and was a European Tour event for seven straight years up to 1996, being held under a variety of names due to regular changes of title sponsor. ...

in September. Lying nine shots off the lead after the first two rounds, he recorded a third-round 66 to move up the leaderboard, before firing a record-equalling 11-under-par final round of 60 to claim victory by one shot ahead of Benn Barham, who had led for the entire tournament. His performance equalled the record for any round on the European Tour, and was only the third time a player had carded a final round 60 to win a tour event. His 2010 and 2011 seasons on the European Tour did not result in any victories, but a second place in the 2011 Portugal Masters and three more top-10 placements in the same year helped him to reach the 30th place in the final Order of Merit. In 2012, he claimed the biggest win of his career at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic against a field containing three of the world's top four. The win also earned him the 60th place in the

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

, his first time in the top 100. Despite some notable results, like the second places at the 2014 BMW International Open and the 2015

Lyoness Open The Austrian Open is a men's professional golf tournament on the European Tour. It was founded in 1990, and was a European Tour event for seven straight years up to 1996, being held under a variety of names due to regular changes of title sponsor. ...

, Cabrera-Bello position in the World Rankings did not improve between 2013 and 2015. He eventually found an excellent period of form between January and February 2016, when he registered consecutive second places at the 2016 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and 2016 Omega Dubai Desert Classic. A month later, he went on to finish third at the

2016 WGC-Dell Match Play The 2016 WGC-Dell Match Play was the 18th WGC-Dell Match Play Championship, played March 23–27 at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas. It was the second of four World Golf Championships in 2016. The Championship was won by Jason Day, it was ...

, rising to 36th in the

and as a result, qualifying for the first time for the

2016 Masters Tournament The 2016 Masters Tournament was the 80th edition of the Masters Tournament, held April 7–10 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Danny Willett won his first major championship, three strokes ahead of runners-up Lee Westwood an ...

. He followed with a top-5 finish in the

Shell Houston Open The Cadence Bank Houston Open is a professional golf tournament in Texas on the PGA Tour, played in November. As a part of a restructuring of the schedule, the event moved to the fall in 2019. Because the tour year starts the previous fall, the ...

and earned Special Temporary Member status on the PGA Tour for the remainder of the 2015–16 season, which he managed to convert to full membership at the end of the year by earning more than the 125th player on the Official Money List. In August 2016, Cabrera-Bello represented Spain in the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

, finishing tied for 5th place. His performances in 2015 and 2016 also earned him an automatic selection for the

2016 Ryder Cup The 41st Ryder Cup Matches were held in the United States from September 30 to October 2, 2016, at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis. Europe entered the competition as the cup holders, havin ...

. Cabrera-Bello recorded an

albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacifi ...

in the fourth round of the

2017 Players Championship The 2017 Players Championship was the 44th Players Championship, held May 11–14 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and the 36th edition held at the Stadium Course. Kim Si-woo, age 21, shot a final round 69 to win at 278 (−10), ...

. In July 2017, Cabrero-Bello had his first European Tour win since 2012, winning the

Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open The Genesis Scottish Open is a professional golf tournament in Scotland, and is one of five tournaments that are part of the Rolex Series, which identifies it as one of the European Tour's premier events. It has been played on various courses, b ...

after defeating

Callum Shinkwin Callum Ronald Shinkwin (born 22 May 1993) is an English professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. Amateur career Shinkwin was a successful amateur golfer. In 2010 he won the Carris Trophy, the English Boys' under-18 open amateur stro ...

in a play-off on the 18th hole at Dundonald Links,

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier *Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia *Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada *Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...

, after both players had finished on 13 under par. In 2021, Cabrera-Bello recorded his first victory in four years in his home country at the Acciona Open de España. He beat

Adri Arnaus Adrià Arnaus Antúnez (born 17 October 1994) is a Spanish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He won the 2022 Catalunya Championship on the European Tour. Amateur career Arnaus attended Texas A&M University from 2012 to 2016. ...

in a playoff.

Professional wins (7)

European Tour wins (4)

European Tour playoff record (2–1)

Challenge Tour wins (2)

Challenge Tour playoff record (0–1)

Other wins (1)

*2005 Canarias Professional Championship (as an amateur)

Results in major championships

''Results not in chronological order in 2020.'' CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 7 (2018 Masters – 2019 U.S. Open) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (twice)

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

''Results not in chronological order before 2015.'' ¹Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
NT = no tournament
"T" = tied

Team appearances

Amateur *

Junior Ryder Cup The Junior Ryder Cup is a team golf competition between Europe and the United States for junior golfers aged 18 and under. It is based on the men's Ryder Cup and is run by the same organisations, the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe. The 2018 ...

(representing Europe): 1999 (winners) * Jacques Léglise Trophy (representing Continental Europe): 2000, 2001 (winners), 2002 * Eisenhower Trophy (representing Spain):

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

* European Amateur Team Championship (representing Spain):

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

* European Youths' Team Championship (representing Spain): 2004 Professional * World Cup (representing Spain):

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

(representing Europe):

EurAsia Cup The EurAsia Cup was a biennial men's professional team golf tournament between teams representing Europe and Asia. It started in 2014, superseding the Royal Trophy which had been played from 2006 to 2013. It was previously held at the Glenmarie ...