Date: December 09, 2007
Author: Luke Buttigieg at Coolum

Sabbatini rues late meltdown

World No.11 Rory Sabbatini has attributed his back-nine meltdown on Sunday at the Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship to pushing hard to try and catch runaway winner Peter Lonard. The South African led by a stroke from Lonard and four other players after 54 holes but had already been overtaken by a shot by the eventual champion when he teed off and only briefly shared the lead with Lonard when the Australian bogeyed the third. But Lonard&aposs response was immediate with three more birdies to the turn and another six overall on the way to a seven-under 65 and minus 20, and Sabbatini was one of a host of players left in the wake. Having followed a bogey of his own at the third with a quintet of birdies to the turn to remain within a shot, Sabbatini crashed over the final nine holes with bogeys at the 11th, 13th, 15th, 16th and 18th holes. “Obviously I didn&apost quite get off to the start I wanted, especially with the par, par, bogey start, definitely not getting the ball rolling there,” Sabbatini said. “I turned things around nicely going onto the back nine and just seemed like I never really put myself in any good positions on the back nine and was always just kind of struggling.” “Then with four holes to go I knew that Peter had gone to 19-under, so I knew I had to try and push, to make some birdies coming down the stretch. I had to try and force the aggression coming down the last four holes and obviously the course bit back pretty well.” “I had my opportunities on the first couple of holes on the back nine and I didn&apost quite seem to manage to get things going. I wasn&apost playing for second place, I wanted to try and catch him, so I had to try and push hard.” Keen to &aposcome down and play again&apos in the future after having &aposa great time&apos in Australia, Sabbatini was also full of praise for Lonard&aposs efforts, as he took out the Joe Kirkwood Cup for a third time. “Golf&aposs a strange game, it happens like that sometimes, every dog has its day (and) today wasn&apost mine,” Sabbatini added. “I knew chances were I was probably going to have to shoot four, five, six-under to put myself thereabouts at the end.” “Peter came out today and played some wonderful golf, he definitely won the golf tournament, he didn&apost have it given to him, so you have to take your hat off to him and say &aposwell played&apos.”