Sabbo Now A Slow Play Advocate!

Doug Ferguson reports that Rory Sabbatini, notorious fast play advocate, suspension-facing tour star who is a new favorite son of vindictive fans hoping he wins the PGA Tour's flagship event before taking some mandated time off, came to Jonathan Byrd's defense.

Byrd took longer than the minute he was allowed — he was the first to hit on the par-5 11th — and received a bad time. He will be fined the next time he goes over the limit when his group is on the clock, so Byrd contested it. He faced a difficult shot out of the trees.

Sabbatini, one of the faster players on tour, protested the bad time.

"Rory felt it was a challenging shot," Byrd said. "Rory was my advocate."

Asked if saw the coincidence in Sabbatini coming to his aid, Byrd shook his head without so much as cracking a smile.

"Rory is a standup guy," Byrd said. "He does a lot of good things."

Meanwhile, it seems Sabbo and Sean O'Hair have resolved the spat that may still send Rory to an unplanned vacation. Dave Shedloski reports:

"He texted me to give him a call, and I called him. He apologized. I apologized. Life goes on. Life's too short to hold grudges," said O'Hair, who responded with a quick and emphatic "no," when asked if he thought he deserved to be suspended by the PGA Tour.

"I won't go into details, but I was defending myself, and it wasn't about pace of play," O'Hair said, refuting previous media reports. "Rory and I got into it on the golf course, which is true.