The paths back when the GPS has led us astray are never easy. You have to go slowly, the old-fashioned way, asking here and there, piecing the path back together crumb by crumb. In golf, something similar happens. Rarely does a golfer who has been struggling to find their best form suddenly recover it overnight. Very rarely. You might have a lucky day, even a week, but consistency, and above all confidence, is regained shot by shot. Rafa Cabrera Bello (-5) removed a weight from his shoulders last week by making the cut in a tense second round in Ras al Khaimah and playing under par on Saturday and Sunday. Today, he has removed another. He has signed his best tournament start in two years.
The Canary Island golfer delivered a card of 67 strokes, with six birdies and a solitary bogey, placing himself at the top of the leaderboard. It’s his first round under 70 strokes since the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. It sounds quick. Nearly four months and six tournaments have passed, Open de España, Estrella Damm Andalucía Masters, Korea, the two in Australia and Ras al Khaimah. At the same time, we can agree that overall it’s his best Thursday since Thailand in 2023. Yes, in 2024 he scored 67 strokes in Japan, at the ISPS Handa Championship, but that was a par 70 and he didn’t even come close to the top 10, and in the Danish Open he placed third after the first round, but with a round of 69 strokes, three under par. Thus, if we combine result and position, it’s his best first day in a long time.
Rafa continues to gather crumbs one after another, with patience and conviction that there is no other way to return to his best level than with work and step by step. His golf is getting better and better, he feels convinced about how he is hitting the ball, but he still needs to convince his mind, undoubtedly the most stubborn club in the bag. He is working on it. Today’s performance in Bahrain is one less stone. One more crumb.
The man of the morning is called Brandon Robinson Thompson (-11). The Englishman has gone off the map. He has taken advantage better than anyone of the trick that Mother Nature played on the tournament. The weather forecasters of the DP World Tour announced, because that’s what they saw on the maps, a lot of wind throughout the day, but Aeolus woke up somewhat lazy at the Royal Golf Club in Bahrain. It was practically three hours without a breath of wind, almost calm, and a couple of showers just before the day started, nothing serious, but just enough to dampen and soften the course, did the rest. Obviously, with the forecast in hand, the DP World Tour prepared the course with precautions. They moved some tees forward and slowed down the greens. This made the playing conditions in those first three hours very good. Afterwards, of course, you have to take advantage of them as well as Robinson Thompson did, which is not easy.
The Briton at times glimpsed the 59. In fact, he played the last hole of the day with that possibility, but finally, as golf is, he finished with a bogey and dropped from -12 to -11. In any case, he is the man to follow. In second position is another Englishman, Callum Tarren (-8), a veteran golfer who has barely played on the DP World Tour, having spent his entire career in the United States and last year competed on the PGA Tour. He did not manage to maintain playing rights among the top 125. In third position with six under par are Richie Ramsay, Martin Couvra, and Tapio Pulkkanen.
As for the Spaniards, in addition to Rafa’s great performance, Manu Elvira (-3) and Jorge Campillo (-2) have managed to beat the course and occupy good positions, while Alfredo García Heredia (+1) has left work for tomorrow to make the cut. The afternoon is expected to be more challenging. The wind is already blowing as expected, and it is not ruled out that Cabrera Bello finishes in the top 10.
