Sabbatini's kids, sick friends put win in perspective
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
IRVING, Texas -- Rory Sabbatini had just been talking about battling with his kids when he got home Saturday.
He laughed that they always win, you know; that they made him put golf out of his mind. Except, of course, for son Harley's game. He's an avid golfer -- at age 5.
"He wears me out,'' Sabbatini smiled. "When I leave my job . . . it's all about him and his golf. Really, every day I come home, like yesterday I come home, and he goes, 'Good job, dad. You made lots of birdies.' He knows what's going on.
"The beauty about it is just seeing the innocent joy in their eyes. It really helps things settle in.''
A few moments later, the 2009 HP Byron Nelson Championship winner was in tears.
His wife Amy had just asked him to talk about their friend Bill Huseby, a 44-year-old who is battling Hodgkins lymphoma. Sabbatini hadn't seen the strapping 6-foot-2, 205-pound Atlanta resident in nearly a year when Huseby came to the Masters.
"He looks about 85 years old and pretty much skin and bones,'' Sabbatini said, wiping away the tears and trying to compose himself.
"It really puts everything else that we do out here into perspective,'' he finally said. "It's tough. You know it's tough to see someone going through that. You know, that's why when you think about Phil and Amy Mickelson going through, what they're going through...''
Sabbatini wore a pink shirt Sunday in honor of Amy Mickelson's battle with breast cancer and he and his Amy stayed up last night making ribbons for players and spectators to wear. And they've been in touch with Huseby -- he helped introduce the couple -- via text messages over the last few weeks and have convinced him to move to Houston to undergo treatment at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
"I just really hope and pray my buddy pulls through,'' Sabbatini said.
No doubt Sabbatini put a smile on Huseby's face Sunday afternoon when the Southlake resident closed with a 64 to win the Nelson by two over Brian Davis and complete the Texas Two-Putt/Metroplex Slam. Sabbatini's last win was at the 2007 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
"Obviously this tournament is very special,'' Sabbatini said. "I've had reasonably good success here in the past, and it's one that I wish I had have been able to win it and look up and see Byron sitting there at the 18th green. It would have meant a lot. But Peggy (Nelson, Byron's widow) being here today was special, and obviously his name and his legend lives on with this tournament and with the Salesmanship Club and just in north Texas here.
"You know, what a wonderful name to be associated with now. Obviously absolutely amazing man, one of the greatest names in the history of the sport, and just really, there's no words to express how much honor there is to be associated with him.''
The normally fiery Sabbatini has seemed a bit subdued all week off the course. But on it? He opened with 68, then threw out rounds of 64-68 to head into the final round tied with John Mallinger at 13-under -- two shots clear of the rest of the field.
Then, as Mallinger played par golf, Sabbatini threw everything he had at the course. And he actually came to the 18th hole with a three-shot lead after sticking his tee shot at the par-3 17th hole.
"When we got up to that hole today, you know, the numbers just set up perfectly for me to hit a cut 8 iron,'' he said. "You know, it's too easy to try and get a little cautious, then play safe and make a mistake. I decided to pick the shot I wanted just left of the hole and cut it back to the hole and just be aggressive.
"I knew that I had the perfect club so just go ahead and hit it, and it worked out perfectly for me. And then obviously making the putt was an added bonus because it gave me that extra little cushion coming up the last hole.''
At No. 18, he flew the green on his approach shot, chipped on and missed his 5 footer for par. He stared it down like a misbehaving child -- it hit the edge and stayed out -- then made the 3-footer coming back for bogey.
His fans -- Rory's Rowdies -- were dressed in black and hollering all day.
"You know, it was just a lot of fun to have that much support out there,'' he said. "It means a lot, and obviously I've taken my fair share of beating from the public in the past, but it's nice to be out there and hear positive comments, it really is.''
You could say the win has been coming, although it did take a bit of a detour.
After finishing tied for eighth at the Verizon Heritage then second at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on successive weeks, he got sick the week of the Quail Hollow Championship and missed that cut and then opened THE PLAYERS Championship with an 81 and missed the cut there.
"(I) tried to play when I was really weak, and I think I just let a few bad habits creep in my swing trying to develop some power to carry it over to the next week,'' he said. "It was a little bit of a bad choice, but you know what, I managed to recover and bounce back from it.
"That's one of the things I've always been struggling with in my career is to try and maintain a consistency. It's nice to see that that consistency is starting to develop. Obviously I had two bad weeks but I was able to flush those out and come back and play well.''
Now, if M.D. Anderson can only find something to turn back Huseby's cancer.
Sabbatini was staying at Huseby's house when he had his first date with Amy.
"I wasn't interested in him at first,'' she said. "I was interested in a friend of a friend of his."
But she wound up going out with him and falling in love.
Two children later, they're watching Huseby wage the battle for his life. It's tough. It's sad. It calls for prayers and it calls up waves of emotion and tears like it did Sunday afternoon.
It puts, as Sabbatini said, everything in perspective.
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