Rory Sabbatini

From left: Sabbatini doesn't camouflage his support for the intrepid fallen heroes fund; Woods remains a target; wife Amy's shirts on occasion have chided opposing players.
Photo: Getty Images

An example of Sabbatini's close-to-the-line humor was on display during a recent press conference when he went out of his way to tweak Els. "I met him when he was 18," said Sabbatini, his mouth forming a puckish grin. "I went up to him and introduced myself, and he goes, 'Now you can tell everybody else you met Ernie.' "

One can see Els shaking his head.

Of course, a raging Rory is too much for almost anyone. "I remember when I was about 9 years old, just playing a friendly round, and I lipped out a 40-footer on the first hole," he says, his voice a mixture of his native Durban, South Africa, and the Dallas metroplex, where the Sabbatinis keep a home when they aren't on the road. "Well, I got mad and walked off the golf course. Who knows why I'm like that? All I know is that I'm always going to have to fight my nature to play competitive golf, and it's the toughest challenge I have. It's always easier to be weak and get angry and let the negative self-talk take you over."

"You pass the genes on," says his mother, Sharon, by phone from South Africa. "I've got Irish blood in me, and I've got a very, very short fuse. And I also speak my mind, and it gets me into trouble as well. You get to a boiling point, and you explode, and obviously you regret it afterward. But most people appreciate me for being straightforward. I'm not one of these mundane, boring people, and neither is my son. I've always let him be himself." Early in his career, Sabbatini left a trail of ripped gloves and snapped shafts from South Africa to the University of Arizona, where he was a cocky three-time All-American and known as "The Great Sabbatini."

"Rory was just raw emotion on the golf course, and all the more because he cared so much," says his college coach, Rick LaRose. "Driving par 4s, hitting long irons over trees -- he felt like there wasn't anything he couldn't do. But being Rory, when he didn't do it, it was very hard for him to handle."

Burt Kinerk, Sabbatini's first agent, remembers the fury of the young pro. "The displays," Kinerk intones, "could be very onerous to a father with a child out there."

They were also onerous for Sabbatini's scores, giving him a reputation for losing composure and concentration for crucial three- and four-hole stretches, the main reason he missed 74 cuts in his first 202 events on the PGA Tour through last year. But Sabbatini says two experiences forced him to confront his demons. "Obviously the way I lost my cool with Ben Crane was dead wrong and wasn't pretty to watch," he says. "And having kids has been good for my faults, especially my impatience. You don't want them to see you like that and learn that behavior."

It brings up Sabbatini's huge respect for Woods, a point he says got completely lost in the way his comments were taken.

"Composure and mental strength is where he has basically separated himself from everyone else," Sabbatini says. "Even when things aren't going right for him, he has a way of mentally turning the round around and changing it just through willpower. If I could get half of what he has, I'm sure it would be a completely different ballgame for me."

Sabbatini saw discernible progress early this year at Pebble Beach, where he played in a group with Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans, who was constantly being prompted to break into impressions and routines for the television cameras.

"I'd just met Rory, knew his reputation for hating to wait, and now we're probably the most interrupted group on the course," says Sabbatini's amateur partner, actor Peter Gallagher. "But you know, Rory was amazing. A couple of times he mumbled something about 'The Human Rain Delay,' but he was never short or rude in any way.

"He has this very real way about him," Gallagher says. "The first words he said to me would have made a sailor blush, which put me on my heels for a second, but then I answered, 'You kiss your children with that mouth?' and we were off.

"What I learned is that when it comes to golf, Rory doesn't know anything but full-out passion," Gallagher adds. "He cares so much about playing well, sometimes it takes all he's got not to bury his wedge up to the grip. He manages it only because he's all heart, all talent, all balls."

That trio of attributes is why Sabbatini has kept improving. He might be misunderstood, and he might be, in the words of ex-player and current commentator Frank Nobilo, "a bit whacked," but there is no doubt that he has become a force.

In 2007, Sabbatini, 31, has played the best golf of his life. With a full swing that allows him, in the words of Jeff Sluman, "to never get cheated," Sabbatini has always played a talent-laden, high-risk game that features power and short-game artistry. But this year has been marked by the element that had been missing: consistency. Along with winning at Colonial and tying for second at the Masters -- by far his best finish in a major -- Sabbatini has had six top-three finishes, missed only five cuts in 22 events, and through the BMW Championship, risen to a career-best 10th in the world. "My goal is to get into the top five by next year," he says.