Great Honda Classic win for Sabbatini...but I didn't see it

Heard and read that Rory Sabbatini won the Honda Classic today in Florida...great for Sabo, who may be the most expeditious player on the PGA Tour and like one of the most polarizing.

It would have been nice to be able to watch the tournament -- I wasn't able to because DISH Network has dropped the LIN Broadcasting Co. channels as part of the fees squabble that kept the local NBC affiliate off my television.(see http://www.dishnetwork.com/campaigns/fair_satellite/locals/Lin-Austin/).

One of the great stories I can recall about Sabbatini occurred two years ago at the HP Byron Nelson Classic, which Sabo won by a stroke. Up by two coming into the demanding 198-yard par-3 17th, Sabo found the group ahead of his still on the green when he got to the teebox. Sabo moved the gallery to the left of the teebox out of the way to identify a yardage marker that was covered up by the crowd and pulled a 7-iron and stuck his tee in the ground.

As soon as the flagstick was replaced on the green, Sabo was over his ball and it was in the air a second hence. It landed on the green about 15 feet from the pin -- which was front-right near the water -- as the twosome in front of him was still on the back fringe, producing a hard look over the shoulder from a pair that knew who was behind it. The gallery roared and the assembled media chuckled -- it was SBS (Sabo being Sabo).

About the DISH/LIN squabble, how much are consumers supposed to endure before enough is enough? We went through the same thing a year or so ago when our home used TimeWarner for our cable services, but -- hell -- we didn't miss a golf tournament before.