Aussie hopes Bay Hill sets him up for a run at majors
Robert Allenby picks up where he left off last year, trails leader by one entering third round.
By BOB HARIG
Published March 18, 2006
ORLANDO - If a player were to win the Masters, Open and PGA this year, he'd be deserving of a ticker-tape parade and bronze statues at each venue, not to mention a lasting legacy in golf.
Robert Allenby did it last year and got a few pats on the back and great appreciation in his homeland.
Of course, we're talking about the Australian Open, the Australian Masters and the Australian PGA.
The three championships were played Down Under in late November and early December, and Allenby, an Aussie who has homes in Melbourne and West Palm Beach, pulled off the triple.
It's not the same as winning the U.S. Open, the Masters and the PGA Championship, but it's still pretty impressive.
Nobody had ever won all three in a row. Nobody had ever won all three in the same year. (Nobody has won all three of the U.S. majors in the same year, either.)
For Allenby, 34, who has played the PGA Tour for eight years, it was sort of a ho-hum deal.
"It's a different scene," Allenby said Friday after putting himself in contention at the Bay Hill Invitational. "Obviously the depth of the fields over here is a lot stronger than we get in Australia."
Still ...
"To win them, all three, week-in, week-out, three weeks in a row, it was a lot of fun," he said. "I'll definitely remember it and all of the Australian people who follow golf down there will remember it for a long time, too. It's nice to create history and stuff like that."
Of course, Allenby would rather be creating it here on the PGA Tour or in the major championships.
He put himself in position for his first PGA Tour win in five years with a 5-under-par 67 at the Bay Hill Club to finish a stroke behind Lucas Glover, who shot 67 to complete 36 holes at 134, 10 under par. Allenby is tied for second with another Aussie, Rod Pampling, who shot 65. First-round co-leader Dean Wilson (70) was another shot back, with the other first-round co-leader, Bart Bryant (71), tied for fifth with Sergio Garcia (69).
Ernie Els, who began the day one shot out of the lead, shot 73 and is eight back. Tiger Woods had 71 and is seven strokes back.
Long considered one of the top players in the world, Allenby has just four PGA Tour titles, the last coming in 2001. He has 15 more worldwide, including 11 on the Australian tour.
"I think if I could win one here, I'd probably go win the next two or three as well because that's the type of player I am," Allenby said. "I really thrive on confidence, and once I get the confidence going, I feel invincible and it doesn't matter who I'm up against. I know on any given day, I can beat them."
Allenby looked like he was going to be a major player on the PGA Tour when he won four times in 2000-2001, finishing 16th on the money list both years. He had two seconds in 2002 but only one top-three finish the next three years.
Last year was especially difficult as Allenby dealt with chronic inflammation of his hands. The malady still bothers him, and he said it has gone undiagnosed. In fact, one of his hands bothered him so much in the fall that he nearly withdrew from the Australian Open before the final round, despite leading.
He still won the tournament, went on to beat Bubba Watson in a playoff at the Australian Masters (improving his worldwide playoff record to 9-0), then captured his third in a row at the PGA. He is currently ranked 36th in the world, but has been unable to post a top-10 finish in four previous starts on the PGA Tour.
"I don't think I've lived up to what I'm capable of doing, definitely not," he said. "If I have, I probably would have had three or four majors by now. I'm know I'm good enough to win any tournament there is. It's just a matter of getting out of your own way sometimes and letting yourself come through, and I haven't done that yet."