Exhausted Sabbatini heads for overdue break on winning note  PGATOUR.com Correspondent FORT WORTH, Texas -- Pin tucked to the left. Steep bank and water just a bad bounce away. You knew he was going for it. No question in his mind. None.  Though his body was whipped, Rory Sabbatini willed his way to his first victory of 2007. (Chris Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
The wind. The slope. Everything pretty much dictated that ball was going to turn. Perfect for an 80 percent 8-iron -- his clutch shot. "And if it didn't turn enough,'' he said, "it was probably going to spin towards it." Rory Sabbatini wanted this one in the worst way. And he got it. On the first hole of sudden death. Yes, the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial was a home game for him. A Southlake resident by way of his native South Africa and the University of Arizona, Sabo had the sleep-in-his-own-bed, play-in-front-of-friends, Texas thing working for him. He's getting there, too. Even twangs a few of his words. But more than anything, this was a validation. An exclamation point to all those almosts we've seen this year. A tie for second at the Masters. Ties for third at the EDS Byron Nelson and Wachovia Championships. Thank goodness, he said, he'd had that putt at 18 a time or two before. Fifteen feet, four inches outside the left edge. Get the pace and it'll fall dead center. Which it did on that first playoff hole. Fist raised. Jaw clenched. Sabo had to wait, of course, for Bernhard Langer to attempt an 8-foot birdie to push the playoff to another hole, but Langer obliged by reading the putt correctly, then missing it. Jim Furyk had gone first, missing a 37-footer. "At that point, I just decided it was pretty much up to me to make birdie,'' he said. "I wasn't going to count on the other guys to make pars..'' Sabbatini was exhausted coming into the week. It was his fifth tournament in a row and his body was feeling it. Then came the rain delays and he was forced to play 33 holes Friday and 28 Sunday. But when it came to the shootout on the final nine holes, he just kept pushing his body. And put his patience in the hands of his caddie Kevin Fasbender. "Even on 18 in regulation, on the second shot when we were standing there, he was saying 'OK, let's not let it get to us,''' he said. "He changed the topic and we started talking about fishing. It took my attention away from what was going on. " ... He really did a good job today and kind of helped me keep my head from doing too much thinking.'' Langer, who was playing on a sponsor's exemption and turns 50 in August, took the lead at the sixth hole and led by two over Furyk and Sabbatini going into the back nine. Those three and Scott Verplank had shared the rain-delayed third round lead, but Verplank struggled on the front nine and faded to a tie for seventh. Sabbatini tied things up when he birdied the 11th hole and Langer bogeyed the 12th, then took the lead with a birdie at No. 13. Furyk birdied No. 16 to tie it up and Langer joined the group with a birdie at the 17th. The first time around at No. 18, Sabbatini misread his putt. He thought it would go left and slide right over the hill. It never went left. So he played for the playoff. The win ends what started as a frustrating season. At one point, he told his wife, 'You know what? By the end of the year I'm going to be top 10 in the World Rankings and I am not going to let anything stop me. My goal next year is probably to get to No. 1.'' Patience hasn't been easy for Sabbatini, who plays at warp speed and often wears his frustrations on his sleeve. But, he said, he's learned that golf is a game of inches and the putt you miss Thursday might mean the difference in winning and losing. "Because there are times you step up there and you're frustrated,'' he said. "You want to go up and slap at a putt, but you've got to remain focused on each shot.'' But, he laughed, he's not ready to say anything about maturing. "I'm not going to put it up to maturity,'' he grinned. "Maybe if you hit yourself in the ankle enough times, you realize it hurts.'' After he slipped on the red plaid Colonial winners jacket and traded his skull-with-wings belt buckle for a giant western-style silver buckle, he settled back and had a little fun trying to soften his cocky, bad-boy image. • The skull buckle, he said, wasn't a punk thing. "Hey everyone has made me out as a bad boy. I'm just laughing it up.'' • On Oakmont Country Club, the 2007 U.S. Open venue, which he played after the renovation and during a pro am: "I've had many nightmares since. Even par on that course feels like you've shot 50.'' • On his verbal battle with Tiger Woods in the press: "Obviously, I've never won in consecutive years and that's a big thing. And the next step is winning three majors in a row, so I got to get all three the rest of the year. ... I'm kidding." • "Somebody might want to let Tiger know he needs to win another one this year,'' he laughed. "I'm joking again." One thing he wasn't kidding about is skipping The Memorial Tournament. Sabo is, in fact, taking the next two weeks off and heading to his house at Possum Kingdom Lake for some rest. "I can feel my body -- it wants to perform and, you know, I spent the week with my swing to get the ball in play and hit the shots that I needed to,'' he said. "My body is fatigued. It hasn't got any more energy. It's one of those things I know it needs a rest and I'm not going to push it. " ... I won't be seen. I'll be relaxing and doing nothing.'' Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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