by Jeff Skinner
Rory Sabbatini took on another role yesterday as he takes one for the team or at least his group. With daylight fading fast, Sabbatini was the ultimate team player as he raced ahead of his threesome in an effort to insure that they could get their entire 18 holes in.
Play was about to be stopped but Sabbatini and his partners, Geoff Ogilvy and Zach Johnson all agreed that they really wanted to finish so they could avoid coming out early today to play one hole and then have to wait around for hours before they started their second round. Coming up on the green on the eighth hole Sabbatini took over as the rabbit of the group. “We just decided that whoever hit it closest [to the flag] on the eighth hole could run up there and putt it and get to the ninth tee,” said Sabbatini. So Rory ran up to the green, literally, pulled the flag and then two putted for his birdie. He then was off to the ninth tee, running again, to beat the horn.
He asked the rules official if he could hit his tee shot on the par three ninth (their last hole) and the official told him to get a move on, “He told me I need to hurry up as soon as I hit it – the ball’s in the air and he blew the horn [to stop play].”
Sabbatini did a little dance as the horn sounded and then he and his group finished out and were able to sleep in this morning. Talk about irony, Rory is the biggest proponent of faster play on the PGA Tour, as Ben Crane and all the pros know, so it was only fitting that he be the one that turns his round into a track meet.
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