Tiger Woods turns baby man Rory Sabbatini into golf's Patrick Ewing - again

Rory Sabbatini is the funniest guy in golf. Just not intentionally.

The more Sabbatini opens his mouth, the more he plays the clown. Tiger Woods continues to make Sabbatini look like the Patrick Ewing of golf by destroying the South African whenever he makes one of his grandiose predictions about challenging Tiger.

For those too young to remember, Ewing is the Knicks center who “guaranteed” that the Knicks would win countless playoff series. The Knicks kept losing Ewing’s guarantees, but Ewing was undeterred. He only pronounced more impending victories.

That’s Sabbatini. He keeps baiting Tiger and then plays smaller than Mini Me. The latest Sabbatini salvos before the final round of Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone were his most hilarious - and desperate - yet. Sabbatini crowed about having “beat (Tiger) by five” in the final round of the 1996 NCAA Championship when they played head-to-head in the final group.

Only problem is Tiger won that NCAA title by four shots. He took a nine-stroke advantage into the final day over Sabbatini. His 80 and Sabbatini’s 75 with no pressure on were meaningless. Tiger had already wrapped up the tournament. Sabbatini’s boast would be the equivalent of Ewing bragging about outscoring Michael Jordan in the fourth quarter of a game the Bulls won by 20.

Of course, Tiger responded to the ridiculous diatribe by dropping a 65 on Sabbatini’s head Sunday. He didn’t just erase Sabbatini’s one-stroke final round lead. He obliterated it. In typical fashion, Sabbatini himself shot a 4-over 74.

And that wasn’t even Sabbatini’s worst moment of the day. No, that came when he whined enough that police officers ejected a fan who said, “Hey, Rory. Still think Tiger’s beatable?” according to the Associated Press.

Which just makes all golfers look even wimpier than they already do.

Sabbatini isn’t good for golf. He’s just good for a laugh.