Obvious Reaction to Woods v. Rory, Round 2

Let's not mince words here. (Not that I ever have.) Rory Sabbatini just got pwn3d this weekend - especially on Sunday - at the WGC- Bridgestone Invitational. Tiger Woods carded a 65 in the final round to club the outspoken South African by nine shots. Woods, in his sixth victory at this event, lapped the field to finish ahead by eight.

Entering the final round, Sabbatini basically put Woods on notice and appeared extremely confident that he would prevail on Sunday. Then Woods proceded to kick his ass around the golf course by making birdies on four of the first six holes. Woods beat Sabbatini by seven shots on the front side alone and capped it off with a massive chip in for par on the ninth.

Sabbatini then tried to have a fan thrown out of the event (and did so successfully) when a fan politely asked Rory is Tiger was, in fact, beatable. Sabbatini appearently was not prepared to deliver a response yet.

Though Rory was destroyed en route to Tiger's 58th career PGA Tour victory and third straight at this event, I want to encourage Rory to keep talking smack. The concept of the golfer fight is a new one and it draws a lot of laughs from general sports types. I mean, really, two guys wearing polo shirts, nice slacks, and walking a golf course do not appear the types to have a verbal or physical throwdown after the round. That can all change, though, if Rory keeps things up with Woods. Eventually, Sabbatini is going to beat Tiger. And then we'll have something to talk about that is really novel for this game.

Golf needs more guys like Rory Sabbatini. Rory is willing to stand up - even if only verbally right now - to Tiger. He actually believes he can beat him on a consistent basis and is not afraid to say so. Sure, he's an idiot for believing that, but at least he keeps things interesting.

The best part of someone talking trash about Tiger's game is how Tiger generally reacts to it. Usually, Tiger is a regular killer that will simply do his business to take home the trophy. If you piss him off, though, then you unleash Ultra Tiger. As soon as Rory ended up as the 54 hole leader and was to be paired with Woods, Tiger morphed into this A+ game player. He embarrassed Rory out there and looked like he was having fun doing it. And you KNOW he was having fun doing it. How? He actually talked to Peter Kostis after the victory just to prove the point that nothing was going to ruin a perfect day like that.