QBE Shootout

QBE Shootout

QBE Shootout
Naples, Florida
Winners: Rory Sabbatini and Kevin Tway

The way Rory Sabbatini saw it, Greg Norman’s QBE Shootout is the Old Man and the Kid story, and it worked out beautifully this time — with him as the old man to the kid, Kevin Tway, Bob Tway’s son. “I’m the old guy,” said Sabbatini, 43, and 12 years older than Tway. “I remember when I was the young guy, playing with John Daly, as the old guy as my partner. Now I’m the old guy, playing with the young guy as my partner. All I can say about Kevin — what a fantastic golfer, really.”

Tway spoke as highly of Sabbatini after they sprinted through the third and final round to a two-stroke victory in the 12-team field at Tiburon Golf Club. “Today it was mostly Rory,” Tway said. “I was just kind of hanging out. He played unbelievable … he was hot today.”

Harold Varner and Ryan Palmer led the first round with a 17-under 55 in the scramble, and Sabbatini and Tway were three back at 58. In modified alternate shot in the second round, Sabbatini and Tway combined for a 67
to join a five-way tie for the lead at 125.

In the final round, at better-ball, Jason Kokrak and J.T. Poston broke out of the tie and were running away with it. They led by four through the eighth, but they cooled after a bogey at No. 9, and Sabbatini was heating up, birdieing five straight holes on his own ball from No. 6. They birdied 11, went birdie-eagle-birdie from 13, and birdied the last two for a 60 and a 31-under 185, and won by two over Kokrak and Poston.