Watching the Booz Allen Made Me Want to "Booz"
This past Sunday was supposed to be an enjoyable afternoon. I woke up early (5:30am) to play a quick round of golf with some buddies before my law school graduation ceremony. After my graduation ceremony, I went back to my apartment to shower before going to dinner with some friends and family. However, my shower was delayed when I turned on the Booz Allen Classic on ABC. What I saw was by far the most bizarre event that I’ve ever seen in golf.
I turned on the TV after Rory Sabbatini hit his second shot on the 17th hole into the water over the green. Apparently Sabbatini, who is one of the fastest and most tempered (meaning hotheaded) players on Tour, was upset that he and his playing partner Ben Crane, potentially the Tour’s slowest player, had been put on the clock on the 14th hole because Crane took forever to make his bogey. Sabbatini after his second shot, walked to the back of the green, took a drop, chipped onto the green, and finished the hole out almost before Crane arrived at the green. After finishing out, Sabbatini walked over to the 18th tee and waited for Crane to finish the hole. All of the ABC commentators were upset and dumbfounded, as they had never seen anything of the sort, including usually level headed Paul Azinger.
After hitting their shots onto the green on the 18th, Sabbatini was booed while Crane was cheered. It was the first time I had ever heard anyone “booed” in a golf tournament (other than the 16th at the TPC of Scottsdale, when the drunkards bet on whether the players hit or miss the green). Crane took his jolly time lining up his putt on 18, taking nearly 3 minutes to line up his 40 footer, and made it. Sabbatini waiting impatiently quickly two putted and walked off the course, appearing to say a few choice words to Crane or the fans.
In an interview with The Golf Channel, Crane said, “As most everyone knows, Rory is a fast player and I am a slow player. The only reason we were on the clock was because of me. Is Rory out of line? No, not really because I’m the one that got us on the clock. It’s really an unfortunate situation and I understand how he feels. I do feel bad we got put on the clock.” Honestly, I think that Rory was completely out of line and should be reprimanded for his actions. I just wonder what Nike thinks about one of their “stars”, who performs like that.
As the tournament ended up, Sergio did hold off one of the best fields on the PGA Tour (leaderboard here), fighting the daemons from a few weeks ago when he blew a fairly substantial lead in the final round. Notables in the top 10 included: DLIII, Adam Scott, Els, and Appleby, while DiMarco and Donald finished T-13. It looks like this week’s US Open at Pinehurst No. 2 will be a great event!
Related posts:
1. Monday recap: Sergio wins Booz-Allen
UPDATE: ESPN.com has a nice article about how Sabbatini’s actions taking a different viewpoint. Stuart Appleby made an interesting comment stating, “Rory made an interesting decision to speed up play and didn’t invite Ben along.” At least someone has been able to make a bit of humor out of the situtation.
Tweet