“Okay, so I was driving home today. It’s a new one. In my rental car, I smelled like a sweaty guy. And I thought, Is it me? I’m checking. It’s not me. And then I realized it was my seatbelt. How sweaty does a person have to be to meet the seatbelt? And like, aren’t you wearing a shirt? Are you just naked in a rental car with your seatbelt on? Sweating it out responsibly? Has anyone ever experienced this in a rental car? “The new travel horror,” Balionis wrote on Instagram.
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Rental car seatbelts are one of the most frequently overlooked surfaces in standard cleaning procedures. After cars are returned, most companies perform basic cleaning, including vacuuming the interior, disinfecting high-touch areas, cleaning windows, and removing any debris. But seatbelts rarely make that list.
Balionis covers approximately 22 to 23 events on the PGA Tour, including the Masters, PGA Championship, Genesis Invitational, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, RBC Heritage and the Tour Championship. She’s on the road often, so we’re sure she has many other stories like this to share, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. For women, professional navigation or any journey involves unexpected inconveniences, and the world of golf is no exception.
For example, at the 2023 LPGA Tournament of Champions in Lake Nona, players arrived and found that there were no private locker rooms available. Ironically, this area was shared with VIP sponsors and tournament staff. Yet there was neither storage nor privacy for the 29 professionals competing that week. In fact, four-time LPGA winner Ryan O’Toole said at the time:
“I’m not angry at the club, I’m not angry at the sponsor, I’m angry at the LPGA because that’s an overlooked factor.”
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After the issue was exposed, the LPGA responded by ordering 36 temporary lockers at the venue, which arrived that same afternoon, a few hours before the first round. Examples like this are a reminder of how easily women’s basic needs can be ignored in sport, and this often goes beyond hygiene.
As far as Balionis is concerned, traveling is nothing new to him. During the 2025 NFL season, he spoke openly about battling a pinched nerve in his C4-C5 vertebrae, which was causing sharp pain in his shoulder blades. Yet he did his best to recover from the grueling weeks ahead of him on the ground as a reporter. Likewise, Balionis has been at the center of some of the most compelling storylines of the 2026 season.
Still on the course, Amanda Balionis continues the conversation at TPC Craig Ranch
Ballionis is currently on the field in Texas as part of the full CBS Sports on-air crew for the 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson along with Jim Nantz, Trevor Immelman and Frank Nobilo. Covering the PGA Championship at Aronimink has long been a long time for him at many events.
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On the field, Balionis has been among the most notable name conversations of the week. After Windham Clark came into controversy on Saturday by carding a 66, she came to him with a very specific question. He noted that coming into the tournament he was ranked 132nd on the PGA Tour in strokes gained, and that was a stark contrast to how he had been playing on the greens all week.
Clark’s reaction was funny, as he said, “God, I don’t think I’ve ever been that bad at putting stats, so thank you for telling me. I’m hitting good shots. I played well at Augusta. I played well at Hilton Head. I have some good targets. I never made putts. So now, to make putts, it’s really liberating.”
Heading into the final round, two shots off the lead, Clarke looks like a player who may have got his timing right this time. And as for Balionis, she’s recovering from the horror story and getting ready to get back on the course.
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