Career Aid

A very public spat over slow play gives emotional Rory Sabbatini needed pause -- and a new outlook

Ready for sunnier days: Sabbatini wants to put the cloud of controversy behind him in 2006.

J.D. Cuban

By John Hawkins

Photos By J.D. Cuban

February 10, 2006

Rory Sabbatini might be the only PGA Tour player who talks to his ball when he's putting on the practice green. Other pros generally find a hole and toil silently for a few minutes, devoting far more energy to refining their stroke than worrying about the actual result. Sabbatini bounces all over the place, barking at 30-footers, operating in the same emotional gear on a Wednesday afternoon as you might expect on Masters Sunday.

The guy speaks nine different body languages, all of them loud and clear. This has led to a multitude of translations over the years: cocky, ostentatious, self-consumed and half-nuts are not at the bottom of the list. Yet there is something unmistakably endearing about Sabbatini that makes his swagger more appealing than appalling. Charm, like low-fat ice cream, can come in a variety of flavors, if not with an excess of sugar.

In a pint of Rocky Rory, there are no artificial ingredients, regardless of what the label tells you. "He's a little misunderstood sometimes," says Rick LaRose, Sabbatini's coach at the University of Arizona. "He's a very sensitive guy who comes off like a bull in a china shop, a nice guy with a big heart." Others seem more inclined to note the size of the opening above Sabbatini's chin. "If you have a question, he'll answer it," quips one tour veteran. "And if you don't have a question, he'll answer it, too."

Sabbatini's abrasive nature might be unduly magnified in a game where reputations are formed under a microscope, where modesty is the best policy, where hot tempers and self-abusive streaks are viewed as distracting or inconsiderate. Of course, some skin is thicker than others. The same can be said of some heads.

"I'm definitely very demanding on my golf game," Sabbatini says. "I've always been too much of a perfectionist, and it has always been my biggest downfall." As an 8-year-old developing at a furious pace in South Africa, Sabbatini recalls an episode that served as a bent shape of things to come: "First hole, I knocked it on the green in three and had a 50-foot putt. I lipped it out, broke my putter and walked off the course."

You can do a lot of shouting at a golf ball when it rolls 50 feet. "You're not supposed to have emotions out there," he adds, "but if you learn to use them the right way, it can be a huge positive. I don't think I'd be the player I am today if I didn't have the personality I have."

Sabbatini's scattershot personality was too often reflected in missed fairways.

A man isn't being totally honest until he talks himself into at least one contradiction. An exceptional talent who earned his tour card straight out of college in 1998 and hasn't lost it since, Sabbatini admits to being unimpressed with a pro career that features just two victories and an average finish of 59th on the money list. He has qualified for one Tour Championship in seven full seasons. In 17 starts at the majors, he has missed 10 cuts, never finished better than a tie for 53rd and averaged a whopping 76.3 strokes per round on the weekends. At tournaments where patience is a player's best friend, Sabbatini has been his own worst enemy.

So the player he is today is an underachiever, his vast physical skills compromised by a common array of mental flaws. Sabbatini misses too many fairways for a guy who likes to hunt pins from any angle. He ranked 190th in left-rough frequency and 167th in right-rough frequency last year--numbers reflective of a lot of risky lines off the tee and too much emphasis on shaping the ball with the driver.

In this league, you can't miss on both sides. "He has a swashbuckler's mentality," says Dean Reinmuth, Sabbatini's former swing coach. "He plays with a lot of aggression and emotion, and while some guys have a distinct air of confidence about them, they deliver it with more subtlety. [Jack] Nicklaus certainly had a lot of confidence, but he [projected] it in a different manner. When Rory's emotions are up, he's very good. When he's down, he's not as sharp."