Ben Crane.
Competitive golf affords the opportunity to interact with other golfers during a round, which 99 times out of 100 is a non-factor to the round. Unless you get paired with a prick, as Ben Crane was on Sunday at the BAH.
Rory Sabbatini's behavior was reprehensible and is deserving of a PGA Tour fine and/or suspension. In the largest sense, a golf professional is earning his/her living, and should be afforded every right to compete to the best of their ability, and is allowed whatever warm-up, preshot routine they desire. If it proves to be an indirect distraction to their playing partner, there is nothing that can be done but to block it out, which is the status quo.
By finishing out of turn, bikering to Crane, and having a wife chirping at Judy Rankin, Sabbatini acheived lifetime prick status, deservedly so.
Lost in the shuffle was the completely magnanimous manner in which Crane acted during and after the incident. Not only did he make no effort to show-up Sabbatini (who directly showed-up Crane), but Crane was fully accessible to the media and took responsibility for actions that were not worthy of apology. Additionally, Crane was sincere in his sentiments (there was no implicit veneer to the press, to be followed by fuming in the locker room) and his assertion to make a consciencious effort to improve his pace of play in the future. Mr. Crane does not need to change anything, he is a professional.
The closest thing I have ever experienced was a tournament where an opponent would walk off every yardage from 150 yds. from stick to ball. Since he wasn't interferring with my preshot routine, I had no problem firing at the pin if he was on the green or not.
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