Allenby Finally Gets The Pain Off His Back - Now For Those Monkeys

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday October 28, 2006

Peter Stone

The hard marker craves more wins, writes Peter Stone.

ROBERT Allenby has earned $US1.5 million ($2m) in the US this year, the seventh year in a row he's topped seven figures, and finished in the top 25 in all four majors in 2006. Others would be pretty damn pleased with themselves. Not Allenby. He marks himself hard.

For starters, he didn't win. Indeed, he hasn't won on the PGA Tour since winning twice in both 2000 and 2001. He has been left behind in the rush of Australian victories with 10 of his fellow countrymen - Stuart Appleby (five wins), Geoff Ogilvy (three), Adam Scott (three - although the 2005 Nissan Open in Los Angeles is not considered an official victory as only 36 holes could be played because of weather), Rod Pampling (two), Craig Parry (two), Peter Lonard, Mark Hensby, Aaron Baddeley, Andre Stolz and John Senden - all winning since Allenby's most recent victory.

It narks him, not their success, but his lack of it.

"It's been an OK year, a little bit disappointing. Some good, some bad. I am playing consistently (21 events, one missed cut), but not well enough to win. Obviously, in my own self-belief, I should be winning at least once or twice a year," Allenby told the Herald as he prepared for this weekend's Chrysler Championship, which is the last regular tournament for the year. Allenby fired a first-round 72, eight shots behind leader Brian Gay.

He departed for the US in January with a truckload of confidence - with good reason. Hadn't he just weeks earlier soaked up the euphoria of winning the Australian Open, PGA and Masters in successive weeks? No one, not even Greg Norman in his prime, had been there before.

Sure, the quality and depth of the Australasian Tour is not that of the US Tour, but those he beat at home were far from hacks. Appleby, Scott, 2005 US Open champion Michael Campbell, Lonard, who had won two of the three big ones a year earlier, and former US PGA champion Shaun Micheel were all here at stages.

And, he did it with a crook hand. Not a day went past without a medical update. The old line, beware the injured golfer, was never more apt.

Not so in the US. In mid-March, he looked ready to mine the Australian confidence when he finished fourth at the Bay Hill Invitational, won by Pamp- ling, but three weeks later, on the Sunday of the Masters in which he finished tied 22nd, he felt twinges in his upper back which were a precursor to the tsunami which was to follow. A week later in the Heritage Classic at Hilton Head, while playing with Ogilvy in the final round, the back gave out completely. Body rotation without searing pain was impossible and he withdrew after nine holes. He took a month off, then played the Bank of America Colonial followed by Jack Nicklaus's Memorial tournament, making the cut, but withdrawing at the weekend.

After another week off, he went into the US Open at Winged Foot, having not hit a shot, not even a putt, as he couldn't bend over without difficulty since departing the Memorial. Somehow he managed tied 16th. It wasn't until the British Open, after 16 weeks, that the pain departed. Through those weeks, his back was poked and prodded, shot up with cortisone. "The injections were the most painful thing I've ever had. One hit a nerve. I didn't cry, but I nearly blanked out. It was brutal," he recalls.

He's no medicine man, maybe he should be with all the aches and pains he's had through the years, but was told it was inflammation of the T5 lumbar, whatever that is, most probably caused by bad posture through the years. The mechanics of the golf swing were obviously a major factor.

Now he feels brand new. His form isn't too dusty, either - on his home course, the Admirals Club in Orlando that is. Just a week or so ago, off the back pegs, he shot 58 (12 under) and a couple of days later 61. "I was playing with these three amateurs, all in their 60s, and one of them said on the final green, 'I've never played with anyone who has shot 58'. I had no idea. I did my sums, '29 on the front nine, hole this 15-footer for birdie and another 29'," Allenby says. He drained the putt. Call it another confidence boost.

"I'm looking forward to coming home and hopefully doing it all over again. It was a tall order to win all three, but I did. I'll give it my best shot. There's no reason why I can't do it again. I've been there, done that," he says.

The first of the treble is the open next month at Royal Sydney, where he won his first Australian Open in 1994. It wasn't pretty over the concluding holes as he went head-to-head with Brett Ogle. Allenby finished bogey, double-bogey, bogey, bogey for a one-shot victory over Ogle who finished bogey, par, bogey, bogey.

At the time, Allenby claimed he didn't choke. Now he is prepared to concede maybe they both reached for the throat. "You could call it that. We were both falling over the whole way coming home. I think it was because we both wanted it so badly. I was fortunate enough to have enough strokes up my sleeve," Allenby says.

At his home in Melbourne, he has a framed photograph of him holding the trophy aloft and the scorecard, not to remind him of the stumbling finish, but rather his first open triumph. It remains a proud memory.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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