Other than the broadcasters theorizing about what must have gone on (Crane being a slow player, Sabbatini a quick one) did they end up with any inside info on what went on? They said they were sending Judy Rankin (or whoever) down to find out. Did they?
The pair were put "on the clock" earlier in the round and in a post round interview Crane admitted that it was due entirely to him and apologized for his slow play. Rankin reported that they were NOT on the clock when Sabbatini pulled his classless stunt on #17 and #18.
There is no excuse for slow play but it will continue until the PGA Tour has the guts to do something about it. That being said, Sabbatini was out of line with the way he conducted himself. He's supposed to be a professional and his behavior was anything but professional. I hope this incident stays in the forefront and doesn't get shoved aside like most other issues facing the PGA Tour today.
the same AP story was used by cnnsi.com, espn.com AND pgatour.com. The thing that ticked me off was that pgatour.com deleted any mention of the incident while cnnsi and espn left it in.
I like Ben Crane a lot but the way he fidgets before each shot would drive me up the wall as well. It's just painful to watch. PGA needs to have better rules and better enforcement of time management. I didn't find what Sabbatini did surprising given his reputation but if I was playing on a Sunday I'd rather be paired with him.
Tempest, Sabbatini hit his second shot into the water at the 17th. Then, he walked all the way to the green, leaving Crane in the fairway to hit his second. Then, he had the nerve to stand behind the green (on a slope by the water) right behind the flag, which was obviously Crane's line and would be very distracting to be aming at the flag and see your playing partner standing there. So, once Crane hit his second shot onto the green 15 feet right of the pin, Sabbatini went ahead and chipped up to 4 feet while Crane was walking down the fairway. Then, Sabbatini putted out despite the fact that he wasn't in tap-in range, his playing partner was away, and his playing partner was still walking in the fairway to the green. So, after making his putt, Sabbatini stormed off the green leaving Crane to finish playing the hole BY HIMSELF. Excuse me, but isn't it Sabbatini's responsibility to watch Crane since he's keeping Crane's score?! There's bound to be a fine for something like that. I'm glad though, because the crowd at the 17th green booed Sabbatini and cheered for Crane.
Then, at the 18th, Sabbatini had already teed off 5-10 minutes before Crane even arrived at the tee box. So, Crane hit his tee shot, and as they walked to the green (remember that Congressional's 18th is a par 3), the crowd booed like crazy when the announcer said Sabbatini's name and cheered like crazy when Crane's name was announced. The ironic and awesome thing about this? Crane made a 50 foot birdie putt, which basically was an "In your face!" for Sabbatini. But Crane was gracious --- he did not glare at Sabbatini, he only celebrated with his caddie and smiled. Then, they shook hands (very briefly, and Sabbatini was rather rude). Both players walked off the green and Sabbatini was cursing at Crane as they walked to the scorer's tent to sign their scorecards.
I'm impressed with Crane's honesty,if nothing else.
"Rory's a fast player, and I'm a slow player, so the only reason we're on the clock is because of me," Crane said. "Is Rory out of line? No, not really. I'm the one who got us on the clock. I understand how he feels. Can that change it? No. I need to work on picking it up, but I obviously don't want to hit the shot before I'm ready."
I can understand Sabbatini's frustration, but he should act more like a grown up.
The core issue is slow play, why are the officials not doing anything about it? Crane should have been pulled up way before this .If Sabbatini was frustated ,what about the poor guys following them. Look at the scores of the pair immediately behind them, Mickleson and Ceyka.
What I don't understand is if the PGA knows that it is a certain player that is slow in the group, why put the whole group "on the clock"?
Interesting question, Keith. The latest edition of GolfWorld has an article titled "Slow Play, Slow Response" about the European Tour's fining Englishman Simon Khan the biggest fine ever for slow play--8,000 pounds. However, European Tour players laugh about the policy, saying that it is highly unusual for slow players to actually be fined because they know how to "work" the timing-warning game.
Reports one unnamed European Tour player, "Take Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer. They both have it down to an absolute art. Whenever a referee appears and begins to time their group, both of then speed up notieceably. Langer has two pre-shot routines, one for when no referee is watching, the other for when one is." Padraig Harrington, a slowpoke himself, said that it's more normal for faster players to actually be fined because slower players are more used to working the system.
Still, the European Tour policy states that fines double with each offense. That could add up to some huge money very fast if a player persisted in his slow ways.
The reason for timing the group is that the group's falling behind and leaving a gap in front of them is what identifies them as a problem. The official is there doing the timing to identify the source of the delay, and he can only determine that by timing everyone in the group. Imagine that you've been playing briskly all day, and then all of a sudden, now being timed, you hit a poor shot, have trouble finding your ball, getting the correct yardage, selecting a club for the wind conditions, deciding on the kind of shot to play from a lousy lie, etc. You could be suspected as the problem, while the snail you're playing with looks like a speed demon.
Until the timing is done without an official revealing himself and warning the players, the slow play will continue, and the creeping players will continue to play the system.
While watching this go on with Sabatini and Crane, all I could think of is how big of a jerk Sab was acting like. After thinking about it, I can imagine how frustrated Sab was getting, and while I don't endorse what he did, I can understand why he did it. Crane was very respectful with his comments after the fact, but if you know you are that slow, don't you think there are some things you would be able to do to speed up your pace of play? What is a little sad is that this is what a majority of people who were watching the tourney on TV will remember instead of a very impressive round by Sergio to take the win. I was really pulling for Tom Kite to make a run on Sunday, must be the OG in me
Considering the obsession golf has with stats,it is suprising that theTour does not time the players each week.If you took the times for each player over their last 100 rounds, and compared it tto the average times for each round, you would have a league table of who's fast and who is not. Each round has reasons why somone may be slow ,such as playing partners ,wind, length of rough. Clearly playing with a partner shooting 67 will be quicker than a partner shooting 77. If a rules debate adds 10 minutes to a round , should all palyers be penalised,especially if the rules official is the causes of the delay.
But if you take averages over the whole day and benchmark against that, players who consistently take longer will be more vulnerable to analysis. So if the average time taken for a round this year is 4 hours 30 minutes (I know I'm dreaming) and Ben Crane's average time is 4 hours 55 mins ,Sabbatini's time is 4 hours 5 mins , it's pretty obvious where the fault lies if they are more than a hole behind the group in front.
One interesting ppoint is that Sabbatinin was able to tee off to a long par three before Crane had finished the previous hole...shows how far they were out of position as the previous pair should not have cleared the green by then.
June 12th, 2005, 09:10 PM
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