Rory Sabbatini Opens Up On Tiger Woods Feud - "Media Fabricated"

The Slovakian says that his supposed feud with Tiger Woods came about after being misquoted in the media

When golf fans hear the name Rory Sabbatini, they'll first think of his switch to Slovakian citizenship and his stunning Olympic silver medal performance.

However, before his Slovak switch and aside from being a great golfer, he was also known for his supposed 'feud' with Tiger Woods over a decade ago.

Sabbatini was quoted as describing Woods as "more beatable than ever" at the 2007 Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow, and those comments were not forgotten about.

In an interview with Golf Monthly, Sabbatini said he received a lot of "unwarranted and incorrect" criticism for his words for the story that was "fabricated" by the media.

"A long time ago the media fabricated that Tiger and I had a feud with me not liking him and nobody ever bothered to fact-check and correct it as there’s never been anything like that," Sabbatini told Golf Monthly.

"I received a lot of criticism and a lot of grief from people because of it and I felt that it was very unwarranted and incorrect. 

"When Tiger beat me at Quail Hollow they claimed that I said that he was more beatable than ever, which I never did.

"I said that the Tiger that I saw play that day was a Tiger who could be beaten and we weren’t used to seeing that.

"The Tiger that we were used to was like an auto-pilot, he would dominate and destroy.

"I said that Tiger could be beaten as opposed to the Tiger that we were used to and they ran away with me saying that he was more beatable than ever.

"But, you know what, people are entitled to their opinions and most of the time they don’t know me.

At the end of the same year Sabbatini then missed Tiger’s event which, predictably, added some fuel to the flames.

“I had played three straight events on three different continents, I had some shin splints and my then wife was having some health issues and I pulled out and they made out that I had snubbed Tiger which was never the case.

"I have never had anything but the utmost respect for the guy, he changed the face of golf for us.”