00:00My goals for this year obviously are, first and foremost, will be to improve on the world ranking.
00:12My name is Mark Ricks, reporting for Golf in UAE, the only place you need to visit for golf news,
00:19unique insights, and anything to do with golf in the World Cup ranking. So log on to
00:24www.golfnews.com and check out Golf in UAE. It's my great pleasure today to be with Rafa Cabrera-Beo.
00:34Rafa is an established global golfing star who turned professional in 2005. He's a multiple
00:41winner around the world and on the European tour particularly, and also a Dubai resident,
00:46but a native from Gran Canaria in Spain. Rafa is a former winner of the Dubai Desert Classic in 2012
00:53and also a 2016 Ryder Cup star. That was at Hazeltine in 2016, yes, and USA unfortunately won
01:04by 17 points to 11, but Rafa was one of the stars of the show taking two and a half points
01:09from his matches. Good morning Rafa. Good morning. Thank you for joining us here at
01:14Jebel Ali Resorts and Hotels. My pleasure. My first question is, why are you here in Dubai right now?
01:20I mean, because I live here obviously, so I like it. It's a great spot. I can play golf,
01:27if not all year round because the summer is a little hot, but with me being a European and
01:32spending the hard months of the summer back in Europe and in the US where I compete mainly,
01:39this gives me really like eight months a year where I can really, really practice and
01:46prepare for my season in the best possible way. And the weather is pretty similar to your home
01:51country, right? Yes, in the good months it is. I mean, I'm from the Canary Islands. The weather is
01:55beautiful there all year round, and I mean, when the weather is good here, it does resemble a lot.
02:03One of your last events, you were actually hosting the Open at Gran Canaria, correct?
02:08Yes, the Gran Canaria-Lopezano Open, yes. How did that come about? The European tour has been
02:13speaking with players, trying to get them involved in hosting events. Other players have done it,
02:21Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Tommy Fleetwood, Danny Willett recently as well. Myself,
02:27I mean, it is a real honour. It is a pleasure, I mean, to be able to help a little your region and
02:37your region and to be, in a way, an ambassador for a European tour event,
02:44that's something really cool. Obviously, the course we played, I didn't grow up playing
02:49on that course because it wasn't built when I was a little kid. I think it looked amazing on TV and
02:58it was a different type of test of golf because it's an easier course and the conditions were
03:03so nice that normally we would have expected a little bit more breeze. But I think overall,
03:07everyone enjoyed it and we got to portray Gran Canaria and the Canary Islands as good as they
03:14deserve. How has COVID affected your schedule in the last 18 months and your ability to travel to
03:21events and prepare for events? It had a bigger impact at the beginning initially when, I think,
03:28from March last year, the world shut down for several months and that's when we were
03:38a little bit stuck in the U.S. because initially they announced it was going to be a three-week
03:43break so we didn't want to leave the country in case we had to come back for the Masters and
03:49potentially we could be stuck or there'd be no travel at all. We decided to stay in the U.S.
03:54Then, unfortunately, at the time, the layover without events got extended so we knew it was
04:03going to be for longer. At that time, we couldn't even come back here home to Dubai because Dubai
04:08had shut its borders and it did affect a little at the beginning. We just didn't know what was
04:13going to happen at all and we just had to stay put there and be patient. Then, once we resumed,
04:20things got a little better. I mean, we got a travel permit to the U.S. which is where I needed
04:31the most, primarily to be able to come back and forth from here and from Europe to the U.S. which
04:37made all the difference. So, Rafi, you had a good start to the season in Abu Dhabi. I think you
04:41finished fourth, right? Correct, yeah. What goals do you have for the rest of 2021 in terms of
04:46tournaments and rankings and so on? My goals for this year, obviously, are first and foremost
04:51will be to improve on the world ranking. I have dropped outside of the top 15 in the world,
04:58which is where I really want to be over the last 18 months. I guess to do that, I mean,
05:05you obviously have to play good. I mean, I'd like to win. I haven't won in the U.S. yet,
05:10so I really want to do that. I would also like to qualify for the Ryder Cup. It was a really,
05:16really nice experience for me in Hazeltine in 2016 and I really want to repeat it. So,
05:23yeah, those are my primary goals. So, obviously, being a resident in Dubai, you spend a lot of
05:27time here. Can I ask you, what's the favorite thing for you about Dubai, your favorite restaurant,
05:33for example? Well, there's many things I like about Dubai, but like, I mean, talking about
05:37food, for example, I think if I have to pick a favorite restaurant, I have to say Le Petit Maison,
05:43because if not, my wife is going to kill me. But I'm more of a meat eater, so I really like
05:50Seafire, for example, in Atlantis. I like that place. I like the high ceilings and I love meat.
06:00So, here we are. I sat on the Ledbetter Academy at JA Resort and Hotels Jebel Ali Golf Club.
06:09I play here once a month in a society event and I love the course. It's beautiful. But I was really
06:16interested to ask you, what's your best score on this track? I very seldomly play 18 holes when I
06:21play here. Most of the times I come here, it's just to practice completely on my own. I'm not so much
06:28counting score. And with the, to be fair, with the, since they remodeled and with COVID, I haven't
06:34really, I mean, I've played the course and I have come out to practice, but I haven't played enough
06:38to say, okay, I'm going to try to set a good score. But I probably think something, I mean,
06:44five or six under on the, over nine holes on the old course before the changes.
06:51And now I have to go out here and put a score. So, Rafa, thank you so much for your time at
06:56JA Hotels and Resorts this morning at Jebel Ali Golf Club. Great to see you. I know you're busy
07:02and I know you're traveling and we wish you all the success in the world for this year
07:07and for your next event particularly, and also for your pending new arrival in August. So,
07:11thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mark. And I'm going to jump out of the box
07:15here and ask you for an unusual request. Normally, pros, we're always signing balls, so maybe we can
07:23turn things around and I can ask you to sign this ball for me, please. Okay, then. Who's it to?
07:33Thank you so much. Thank you very much. I want to wish Golf News the very best with the launch of
07:38the website for golf here in the UAE.
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