Avonimink GC, PA …
Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello admits it has been hard to swallow not being picked for the European Ryder Cup team.
European Team captain, Thomas Bjorn said he ‘felt sick’ after having phoned Cabrera-Bello on Tuesday morning US time to advise the 34-year old he was being overlooked for a ‘wildcard’ pick in favour of his compatriot, Sergio Garcia.
Cabrera-Bello had finished 10th on the European Team points table and two places from automatically qualifying for Bjorn’s team.
Photo @tourmiss
However, Bjorn over-looked Cabrera-Bello, who had been undefeated on his Ryder Cup debut in 2016, in favour of an out-of-form Garcia who missed the halfway cut in the four Majors of 2018.
Cabrera-Bello was in Philadelphia for this week’s BMW Championship when Bjorn phoned.
“It was clearly a tough phone call for Thomas to make and all I can say I am very disappointed as I would have loved to be part of the team but it just didn’t happen this year,” said Cabrera-Bello before teeing-up on day one of the BMW Championship at the Aronimink course.
“I had played well last week in Boston and I felt I played good the week before and overall I felt I had been playing well since the Bridgestone in Akron.
“That’s why not being picked makes it all the more disappointing.
“It was a tough night for me trying to get to sleep on the Monday night after we finished in Boston wondering whether I had done enough.
“Then in coming here to the course on Wednesday for the Pro-Am made it very hard to be on a golf course and not having been picked that’s what I have to swallow.”
Cabrera-Bello revealed at the Northern Trust he had been in regular text message contact with Bjorn with regards to the Spaniard’s playing schedule and whether or not he should have travelled to Denmark for the final automatic qualifying event.
Despite some criticism he should have played in Denmark, Cabrera-Bello chose to remain in the States and contest the Dell Technologies Championship and where he had moved into a share of the lead late on the final day before ending in a share of seventh place.
The effort saw the Dubai-based golfer move to No. 29 on the World Rankings and to 37th on the FedEx Cup standings.
And Cabrera-Bello has received plenty of support from his fellow Europeans including England’s Justin Rose who will be contesting a sixth straight Ryder Cup.
“I feel a bit sorry for Rafa as he fought hard the last few weeks, Ryder Cups is a big deal to him,” said Rose.
“He’s a great competitor. He’s a good friend of Sergio’s, too. Bittersweet for him. Thomas has obviously picked Sergio which I guess for me the fourth spot that was up in the air. He’s gone with, you can say performance is temporary, class is permanent.”
