Print this page  |  Close Window

By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

AKRON, Ohio -- They've been there, done this before. Twice, to be exact.

Rory Sabbatini reacts to a missed putt on Saturday. The South African retained the lead despite a 72. (WireImage)

The time most of us remember came earlier this year when Tiger Woods and Rory Sabbatini squared off in the final pairing on Sunday at the Wachovia Championship. Woods won the tournament, beating Sabbatini by five strokes.

Sabbatini, though, prefers to think back to the final round of the 1996 NCAAs at the Honors Course in Chattanooga. Woods closed out his college career with the NCAA crown, but Sabbatini won their match, shooting 75 to Woods' 80 that day.

"That's the best memory," Sabbatini said with a big smile.

The confident South African has a chance to make Sunday even more memorable at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. The two will play in the final group for the third time with Sabbatini owning a one-stroke lead in the $8 million event.

Of course, Woods is the two-time defending champion at Firestone Country Club's South Course, which is yielding birdies grudgingly like major venues can. Not to mention, he's won the Bridgestone Invitational five times in its eight-year history.

Sabbatini is well aware of Woods' domination in this event that annually brings together the top players in the world. Eventually, though, he thinks the law of averages will catch up to the game's No. 1 player.

"Somebody has to knock him down, you know?" Sabbatini said. "There's always going to be that point you get to where somebody beats you. So maybe (Sunday) is my day. That's the way I'm going to look at it."

Sabbatini will start the final round at 4 under par. Besides him and Woods, who posted a third-round 69, only one other player, Kenny Perry, is in red numbers for the tournament at 1-under 211.

Beat Tiger, or even tie him, and Sabbatini thinks he'll win. But he knows he can't afford to get caught in a match play mentality Sunday -- not with the South Course playing to more than two strokes over par and thunderstorms in the forecast.

"If you start playing your opponent, you start making mistakes," he explained. "You always have to stick to your game plan. Obviously, if you go and you blow out on a hole tomorrow, it's not the same as match play. You're not just losing one hole.

"You know, tomorrow it's going to be a grind. ... It's just getting harder and harder to access these pins now with the firmness of the greens, so you're having longer birdie putts, and the situation is you're going to have to be patient out there and let things happen."

Off the course, Sabbatini tends to make things happen -- like he did with his comments at THE PLAYERS Championship in May when he said he thought Woods was "more beatable than ever" after playing with him in Charlotte.

Sabbatini even went so far as to say he liked the "new Tiger" better than the old. Woods, who will point out that "I feel like I've had a pretty good record in my past," steadfastly refuses to get caught up in a war of words.

"Obviously Rory is full of confidence," Woods said. "He believes in what he can do, and there's a lot to be said for that. You've got to believe in what you can do out there. I've got to go out there and do my business, and I'm sure he'll probably do the same."

To his credit, though, the flashy four-time PGA TOUR champion doesn't make excuses. When Woods beat him at the Wachovia Championship, Sabbatini admitted he didn't get the job done, but said he "wanted" the game's No. 1 player "every week now."

Tiger Woods has won 13 of 24 official World Golf Championships events. (Getty Images)

Woods, for his part, sees Sabbatini's sometimes brash and brusque demeanor as simply a motivational tool for the 31-year-old from Durban.

"A lot of guys don't really externalize it, they internalize it," Woods said. "We all say things like that inside, and he's just trying to gain any kind of edge mentally when you're out there playing. He just verbalizes them. A lot of guys I know, we play that way, but we don't say it to (the media)."

To hear Sabbatini talk, Woods just might be right.

"I think the situation is if you go into a tough situation and mentally you're always looking at yourself as second, you're going to be second," Sabbatini said. "If you go into a tough situation with the belief that you're there to compete and you can do it, then you will.

"I think obviously Tiger has done a lot to deserve all the respect he has. But the situation is you can only let it go so far before you're just standing there watching him play instead of being out there competing.

"I'm not a person that's going to sit there and watch; I want to be there competing."

Through three rounds at Firestone, Sabbatini has done that and more. He opened with a pair of 67s and gutted out a 72 on Saturday that began with a double bogey at the first hole and ended with nine gutsy pars.

Sabbatini was tied for the lead after the first round and held it outright, by two strokes, after 36 holes. He has a 3-2 record when taking the lead into the final round, most recently winning at the Crown Plaza Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth earlier this year.

The Wachovia Championship was a different story, though. He had struggled with his ball-striking all week, Sabbatini remembered, but he found a way to grind it out. Until Sunday, that is.

"It's just inevitable that you can only go so long before it catches up to you, and it just happened to catch up to me on the final day," he said. At the Bridgestone Invitational this week, though, things are different.

"Versus this week where I really feel confident with my ball striking," he said, comparing the two situations. "Even though I didn't putt particularly well today, I hit a lot of good putts. So I'm feeling pretty good."

And Sunday, he might feel even better.