I hope the previous commenters never complain about athletes in other sports being whiny or pampered, and I also hope they teach their kids that the way Sabbatini dealt with this is a appropiate example of how to deal with minor inconveniences.

By the way, nice looking blog!

Jack has a public persona, and he’s a great golfer. But he’s no Arnold Palmer, and beneath the surface, he’s made a lot of enemies throughout the years.

While Sabbatini’s reaction was over the top, the biggest jerk here is Ben Crane. Their group was repeatedly warned to speed up play. Just because they are PGA pros, you can justify them violating basic golf etiquette, which is “Avoid slow play.” The fact that they play in twosomes intensifies the problem, and doesn’t excuse it.

Crane’s slow play is totally rude to all the players playing behind him, who are trying to get into a good rhythm. Sabbatini’s reaction was rude to Crane only.

Sabbatini was totally wrong but at least this will put the problem of slow play into the spotlight, and will probably force the PGA to follow the LPGA and institute a 2-stroke penalty for overly slow play.

I’m not sure, but since they were warned as a twosome, I imagine that the PGA fine would be levied against both of them. So who is the jerk for forcing a fine on an innocent party?

Crane, apologized and realized he was the problem, which was great, but there is still no way to justify his actions over the whole tournament.