Sabbatini alters mind-set toward majors
Change in South African's philosophy is getting results
Web posted
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Winning majors requires patience, which probably explains Rory Sabbatini's career record.
The South African golfer best known for his hare trigger against the game's tortoises has an utterly forgettable majors history. In 17 previous starts, he's missed 10 cuts and finished no higher than 53rd.
So when Sabbatini arrives at Augusta National Golf Club, he plans to throw away all his previous strategies and carry his regular tour success into the event in which he's never made a cut.
"In the past I've gone into it, and it's almost like the tournament's intimidated me in a sense," Sabbatini said of his three Masters starts. "I've put too much emphasis on certain things out there instead of playing my own game.
"This year I'm going to stick with what I'm doing and play my own game, because apparently the other system didn't work."
Sabbatini was one of four golfers who received late invitations to the Masters. He, Stephen Ames and Arron Oberholser are all in the top 10 of the PGA Tour money list and the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking after The Players Championship.
Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand received a special foreign invitation.
Sabbatini turned 30 years old today, and he's trying harder than ever to act grown-up. Petulance has been a characteristic often associated with him, and his reputation was sealed in the eyes of many when he stormed ahead of slow-playing Ben Crane last season at the Booz Allen Classic. The incident brought an avalanche of peer criticism and inspired strangers to write him sometimes-threatening hate mail.
Sabbatini apologized, though some have questioned his sincerity. Despite his use of a yardage book to get his mind off the slow pace of play on tour, he still wrestles with impatience. His equally outspoken wife, Amy, used her T-shirt two weeks ago at The Players Championship to send a message to his infamously deliberate playing partners, Nick Faldo and Camilo Villegas.
"Keep up!" it read.
Still, Sabbatini has used his reputation as motivation. Coming off his second runner-up finish of the season at Pebble Beach, Sabbatini recovered from blowing a comfortable lead to win at Riviera.
"I didn't want to give them anything more to fire at me," he said afterward. "I feel like there are a few people out there that have taken a lot of pot shots at me and ... I didn't want to give them any more ammunition."
Sabbatini heard "snide" remarks around the course but kept a level head to win his third career PGA Tour event. He's working on keeping others' opinions from getting to him.
"You can't ever internalize it," he said. "If you internalize it, it's going to eat at you. You've got to go on and do what you do and ignore it. It's a simple fact of life everybody is going to have a difference in opinion."
He left The Players Championship as the leading money winner, and that status casts a whole new light on his talent and potential.
Coming off his worst competitive season since 1999 changes Sabbatini's perspective as well.
"It was a rough last year," he said. "I think just everything combined, this year coming into it I didn't have many expectations. You know, I just went out there and I was going to do the best I could do."
Sabbatini thinks he can improve his play in majors as well. He'll keep things low-key Masters Week with his wife in their RV and hope for the best on a course he's not broken par on.
"I definitely feel like this is a situation I'm more than capable of," he said of being a major and money title contender. "It's just been a learning process over the last seven years on tour, and maybe finally some of the stuff that's occurred is starting to sink in."
Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.
