Amanda Balionis, a CBS reporter covering the PGA Tour, recently shared an unsettling experience she had while travelling. Balionis described finding a suspiciously sweaty seatbelt in her rental car. The incident has prompted her to share her discomfort and question the cleanliness standards of rental car companies.
The ‘Sweaty Man’ Seatbelt Incident
Balionis, who travels extensively covering golf tournaments, recounted the incident on Instagram. She noticed an odd smell in her rental car, which she initially thought might be herself. However, she soon realised the smell was emanating from the seatbelt. “Okay, so I was driving home today. This is a new one. In my rental car, I kept smelling something that smelled like a sweaty man. And I’m like, is it me? I’m checking. It’s not me. And then I realised it was my seatbelt,” Balionis wrote.
She continued, questioning how a seatbelt could become so saturated with sweat. “How sweaty must a person be to saturate a seatbelt? And like, are you not wearing a shirt? Are you just bare-chested in a rental car and sweating responsibly with your seatbelt on? It’s on me right now. Has anyone ever experienced this in a rental car—a sweaty seatbelt? It’s getting more disgusting the more I think about it,” Balionis added.
Balionis labelled the experience as “new travel horror unlocked.”
Rental car seatbelts are often overlooked in standard cleaning procedures. Most companies focus on vacuuming, disinfecting high-touch areas, cleaning windows, and removing trash.
Challenges for Women in Sport
Balionis’s experience highlights a broader issue of overlooked hygiene standards and discomforts faced by women in professional travel. She covers around 22 to 23 PGA Tour events annually, including major tournaments. Instances of discomfort aren’t limited to travel alone.
At the 2023 LPGA Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona, players found themselves without a private locker room. The area was shared with VIP sponsors and tournament staff, offering neither storage nor privacy for the 29 competing professionals. Four-time LPGA winner Ryan O’Toole voiced her frustration at the time. “I’m not mad at the club, I’m not mad at the sponsor, I’m annoyed at the LPGA for just being an overlooked factor,” O’Toole said.
The LPGA responded to the issue by ordering 36 temporary lockers, which arrived the same afternoon, hours before the first round. Such incidents highlight how easily basic needs for women in sports can be overlooked.
Balionis’s Travel Rigours
Balionis is no stranger to the demands of frequent travel. During the 2025 NFL season, she spoke about battling a pinched nerve in her C4-C5 vertebrae. This caused shooting pain down into her shoulder blade. She worked to recover before a busy stretch of weeks reporting.
Instances like these serve as reminders of how easily basic needs for women in sports can be overlooked, and it often goes beyond hygiene.