Stephen Ames — you know, Tiger Woods’ buddy — won the Players Championship in a walkabout on Sunday, so the final round wasn’t particularly interesting. Nevertheless, the golf tournament generated some highly entertaining moments, anyway.
During the first two rounds of the tournament, the PGA Tour paired Rory Sabbatini — who is one of the hottest players on Tour this season — and NBC golf color commentator and part-time Tour player, Nick Faldo.
As you may recall, Faldo and Sabbatini had a dust-up with each other last year. During the 2005 Booz Allen, Sabbatini was harshly criticized by television commentators Paul Azinger and Faldo on the air for leaving playing partner Ben Crane behind to finish the 17th hole. Sabbatini, who is one of the fastest players on Tour, was fed up with Craneís pace of play, which is one of the slowest on Tour. Sabbatini reportedly was not pleased with Faldo and Azinger slamming him on the air, although he reportedly talked with Azinger about the incident later and made up with him. But not Faldo.
To make matters, Faldo is also a slow player himself. So, during the first round of the Players Championship, tournament officials put the Sabbatini-Faldo-Camilo Villegas group on the clock (i.e., gave them a warning before assessing a penalty to each of the players) for — you guessed it — slow play. The group sped up and no penalties were assessed.
Nonetheless, that incident prompted Sabbatiniís wife — no shrinking violet herself — to show up the next day for the second round sporting a tee shirt emblazoned with the words ìKeep Upî as she followed the group around the course. Asked about Mrs. Sabbatini’s t-shirt after the round, Faldo observed the following:

“I think itís very embarrassing for them to bring their sexual problems to the golf course. Poor fellow. I thought he had enough problems as it is without her announcing them to the world.”

Your serve, Mr. Sabbatini.