"I know that Sabbatini has had run ins with Tiger and has been considered a bit of a wild thing, but this incident showed him in a different light."

I know there is great humor to be found in Tiger's little driver flip. Reader dsl wins the award, in fact: "Stevie would like to announce that he noticed Tiger's grips were worn before the round. In retrospect, he could have put some stick 'um on there."

Nothing like a Caddyshack reference to lighten the mood.

But what baffled me about the Tiger incident was his lack of concern for the gallery, something he typically is quite adept at when one of his drives sails into the gallery. And baseball players routinely offer consolation prizes when a bat slips and most tour pros sign a ball or give a glove to the impacted fans. Shoot, even Rory Sabbatini knows to do that, as reader Patrick noted in this email:

As a contrast to Tiger's lack of concern as to whether his flying driver hurt anyone, I was at the Hong Kong Open on Saturday at the 13th green.  The pin was cut right side tucked in behind a bunker and spectators were fairly close to the edge of the green.  We were waiting for the approach shots of Phadungsil and  Sabbatini when there was a loud thud and a man standing a few feet away went down.  One of the pair had missed right and hit this guy on the fly.  He was shaken but not hurt.  

When the golfers approached the green, it turned out to be Sabbatini who had mishit.  When he realized what had happened, he immediately came over to make sure the man was OK, and then thanked him for helping him, Rory, out because th ball had bounced to the edge of  the green. Rory went back to his bag and got a ball and presented it to the man, thanking him again expressing his relief that the guy was OK. 

I was very impressed, I thought Rory handled it in a classy and genuinely concerned manner, a very distinct contrast to Tiger's unconcern.  I know that Sabbatini has had run ins with Tiger and has been considered a bit of a wild thing, but this incident showed him in a different light.

Comments

[Dave K]

As much as I thoroughly enjoyed the Aust Masters and the Tiger's game, I too was baffled by the club thrown into the gallery on the 13th. It was undoubtedly very poor behaviour and bordering on reckless. It should have cost him a stroke. I'm serious. Get tough rules committees !
That will stop this sort of thing. Just a simple 1 stroke penalty..
If only... eh?
Thanks to all the gods and dear lady luck that nobody was hurt and thankfully it was not a freddo frog !
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/16/2743997.htm
Thanks
Dave K Melbourne

[I'm Curious About Golf!]

What a wanker tradition ... giving a guy a ball when you just split his skull with one. They all do it. When a professional golfer gives the near-dead guy a check for one hundred thousand dollars ... that's when I'll be impressed.

[Seitz]

Maybe I'm misreading the video, but to me it looked like Tiger slammed his club down and it took an weird bounce into the crowd. This isn't to excuse his actions, but critics would do themselves a favor if they described the incident honestly instead of implying that he hurled the driver into the mass of humanity surrounding him. Judging by his reaction, it was probably fairly apparent that no one had been injured, and I'd imagine his reaction would have been different if that had been the case.

I wish Tiger would set a better example and keep his emotions in check, but I also wish I had a few million bucks and could play golf all day long. Neither are likely to happen anytime soon.

[GeorgeM]

Did Tiger's driver actually go INTO the gallery?
All I saw in the video was the driver going down and a man in the rear of the gallery handing it back to Woods.
Might the club actually gone OVER the gallery?

While such behavior is not uncommon, there still is no excuse for it.
However, if the club never went INTO the gallery, there was no reason for Woods to be concerned about their welfare.

[SteveO]

Say what you want but. . . At he Canadian Skins game a few years back. Greg Norman hit a spectator
with his tee shot. When he approached him he instructed his caddie to get the man's full address as Greg would send him a golf shirt and hat. That, in my opinion is the least that a pro should do.