From pressure putts to bunker brilliance: Tiger and co's 2018 highlights

Slovak Sabbatini

Don't be surprised to hear these words at the Sony Open: "Now on the tee, from Slovakia, Rory Sabbatini."

The South Africa-born Sabbatini last week became an official citizen of Slovakia, according to Slovak newspapers SME and Novy Cas. Sabbatini's wife, Martina Stofanikova, is from Slovakia.

The Slovak Golf Association says it is sending proof of citizenship to the International Golf Federation, which would allow the 42-year-old Sabbatini to play under the Slovak flag. It also would make him eligible to play for the Eastern European country in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Sabbatini is No 203 in the world rankings. The Olympics takes no more than two players from each country - four if they are among the top 15 - until the field size is at 60 players. Currently, the No 60 player in the Olympic ranking is Dutchman Daan Huizing, who is ranked 340th.

"I believe that I will be successful for Slovak golf and will be a source of inspiration for Slovak youth," Sabbatini said last Wednesday at the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic in New York.

Rastislav Antal, vice president of the Slovak Golf Association, said he was proud that Slovakia will have its first PGA Tour player. Sabbatini is fully exempt from finishing 97th in the FedEx Cup last year.

"We believe that Rory will be able to achieve successful results for Slovak golf and can raise the interest of our public and our children to become actively interested in golfing," Antal said.

Tale of two tours

The European Tour was at its strongest in the weeks leading to the only major championship not on American soil. Otherwise, the gap widened again in world-ranking points distributed to the winners on the PGA Tour and European Tour.

PGA Tour events in 2018 offered an average of just under 57 points to the winner, compared with 41.3 points on the European Tour. That's an average difference of 15.7 points, up from 15.1 points a year ago.

Throw out the four majors and the four World Golf Championships that are part of both tours' official schedules and the gap gets wider.

The PGA Tour offered an average of 50.4 world-ranking points for its regular events (not including opposite-field tournaments). That's more than all but three European Tour events - Abu Dhabi, the BMW PGA Championship and the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. It's worth noting that the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth is a flagship event and automatically gets 64 points, though it had a weaker field than Colonial the same week, and was more in line with the Sony Open or Canadian Open.

The European Tour average, minus the majors and WGCs, was 31.73 points for the winner. The PGA Tour had only three tournaments that offered fewer than 32 points to the winner - the John Deere Classic, Safeway Open and RSM Classic at Sea Island.

Europe had seven tournaments that offered more world-ranking points that week than the PGA Tour, three of them in the summer between the US Open and the British Open - the French Open, Irish Open and Scottish Open.

A big setback for the European Tour was when two PGA Tour fall events, Las Vegas and Mayakoba, had stronger fields than the Turkish Open and Nedbank Challenge, part of the Rolex Series that leads to the Race to Dubai conclusion.

Meanwhile, the eight Rolex Series events offered an average of 45 ranking points to the winner, down from an average of 48 points a year ago.

Divots

PGA Tour Live will be available next year for Amazon customers in the US through Prime Video. ... Of the top 10 players in the world at the end of the year, Tony Finau played the most tournaments at 29. ... Ireland's Padraig Harrington and South African Ernie Els are among five players who are using a onetime exemption from being in the top 50 on the career PGA Tour money list. Steve Stricker is using his one-time exemption from top 25 in career money.

Associated Press