Bridgestone Invitational round four: Sabbatini is nothing but a bully

Whoosh! Is it a bird, is it a plane? No it’s Tiger Woods saying ‘That’s enough births, deaths and marriages, let’s get on with the golf’. Such a masterful performance was well worth losing money to witness.

So why am I mad as hell?

Because of Rory Sabbatini of course. Not so much that he slunk from the challenge like a dog with its tail between its legs, although that was painful. Matchplay? Call it mismatchplay on a grand scale. But such headlines as ‘Woods rubs Sabbatini’s nose in the mud’ will be punishment enough for someone with his ego.

What really got me steaming was that while a fan can yell at Woods “Come be our quarterback” and nothing happens, when someone asks Sabbatini “Still think Tiger’s beatable?” the golfer calls a cop and has him ejected, justifying himself later by saying: “We’re out here to do our job - let us do our job.”

As a renowned journalist once of this parish would have said: “Pass the sick bag Alice".

Fair dos if the heckler was interrupting a shot, but not if Sabbatini was just walking between greens as reported. The South African clearly misunderstands that his “job” is first and foremost entertainment, and entertainers are up there to be popped at. If he was singing opera at La Scala he’d have been booed off the stage with no cops to help him at all - they’d probably have been booing the loudest.

The only conclusion I can draw is that Sabbatini is a classic bully, one who can dish it out but can’t take it and runs to teacher instead. So I take back all the nice things I’ve said about him. He now goes in a tray marked in big black capital letters with a word derived from throwing.

Back at the golf, I could speculate on how different it might have been had the course stayed bone dry instead of a soggy mess. That made the greens easier to play, if not the rough. But even the big bully admits he lost it in his head as Tiger came out fighting from the get-go and ended it as a competition by the turn.

Nothing seemed a problem for Tiger, not even the rough that dogged everyone else. And those chip shots into the hole were something else.

What odds Tiger now for the PGA Championship? Indeed, could his imperious performance Sunday, only the second bogey-free round of the tournament, be the start of another run of triumphs similar to last year? It has that feel about it. The FedEx Cup playoffs could be over before they’ve hardly started.

Meanwhile over at Reno: Mark Steve Flesch down as a man to have around when the wind’s blowing. He could only par Sunday, but that was plenty enough to become the season’s fourth wire-to-wire winner and work his way in to the PGA Championship. It was never even close: Flesch topped the field for accuracy off the tee, was second for hitting greens and third for his drives. Only putting let him down - he could only manage 15th!.

PS: People are getting a bit animated about the 2nd place performance of Justin Rose. Great result, certainly, but then who doubted he was a very good player? It’s whether he’s a winner or not that is the big imponderable and the jury seems to have taken the summer off on that one. Let’s face it, he wasn’t exactly under any pressure Sunday. Another strong showing from Chris DiMarco is interesting though.

PPS: Best comment on the forum - “Sabbatini will have a sore neck in the morning. He has been shaking it all afternoon.”

PPPS: A visitor called Jeffrey has left a message on my previous blog saying he is writing to the PGA Tour to demand they apologise to and recompense the ejected man. I wholeheartedly agree, and urge anyone who feels strongly about it to do the same. I guess the best way is through the Tour’s feedback form on their website.