For Allen, great win but bum victory dance
CLEVELAND - Unaccustomed as Michael Allen was to public winning - which is to say he almost never did, when it counted - the poor soul didn't even have a quality victory dance. When he holed that last 10-footer, and a gutsy one it was, all he did was flip his long putter a half-turn, catch it down by the head, and start shaking hands all around.It seemed such an empty display for marking the end of his weary trek through golf's wasteland, a career of almost total futility over 20 years. But now he finally had a win he could call his own, in the Senior PGA Championship Sunday. OK, it wasn't on the big tour, but it was a win of consequence, a senior major against some of the guys he used to play against so futilely, so it almost counts the same.
Well, to set Allen's complex record precisely straight: He did win once on the European Tour in 1989, and he did win once on the Nationwide Tour, in 1998, but he's 0-for-334 on the PGA Tour since joining it in 1990. And this was a career that included a spell as an assistant pro at Winged Foot, where he got to wash the practice mats, and a spell in the 1990s as a housing contractor, of which effort he said, “Even in that market, I managed to lose money.”
Things are looking up. Allen, just 50, was in his first Champions Tour event, by surprise invitation, and as such joins Arnold Palmer as the first to win the Senior PGA in his debut. The victory gives him a year's free pass to play the Champions Tour (formerly the Senior Tour), but Allen, having already demonstrated his awesome stubbornness, plans on going back to the big tour.
“I'll be the first guy to win his first Senior Tour event before he wins on the PGA Tour,” Allen cracked. Then he bought champagne for the media corps.
This one wasn't a lock till the 18th green. Allen started the day with a 1-shot lead on Tom Kite and Jeff Sluman, who backslid. The tension came from Larry Mize, who was two behind at the start, and who took the lead by two on a four-birdie 30 on the front. It was pretty much head-to-head from there. Mize bogeyed the par-4 12th from the rough, and Allen came along right behind him and dropped a 5-footer for a birdie and the lead for good.
Mize, who won the 1987 Masters by harpooning Greg Norman with that famous chip shot in the playoff, is now 0-for-13 in his young Champions Tour career. He might have had a chance to win at the 18th, but he overran his 30-foot birdie putt by 10 feet. Still, he holed the return for a great save and a 67. He was still only a shot behind Allen. Given Allen's history, it would be prudent of Mize to stay loose for a playoff, or maybe even compose a quick victory speech.
Allen had bogeyed the 18th in the first round, then parred it twice. Now he had 439 yards to negotiate in four shots. The Senior PGA was his to lose. On the tee, his caddie thought so, too. “Do you think a 3-wood?” he hinted.
“Naw,” Allen said. “I got this. I'm hitting driver, and I'm smashing it.”
So he smashed in perfectly, and then he flipped a sand wedge from about 120 yards to 10 feet. He could two-putt from there for a par and win. But he wanted to finish like the champ he thought he never really was. And so he locked himself in and rolled the ball home for his own 67 and a two-shot win at 6-under 274.
Relief and euphoria, he said. A combination of heady sensations washed over him when that putt dropped.
“It's been a long time, a lot of belief, a lot of hard work,” Allen said. “It's wonderful. It's a relief to know that you can do it, too. And it's also a new beginning, to kind of believe in myself.”
It was a family thing, too. Allen's wife Cynthia immediately called the kids. She got their youngest daughter, Michelle, nearly 12.
“Daddy won, right?” Michelle said. “He didn't tie, he won?”
“Yes, he won …”
“Are you sure he just didn't tie?”
[Yes, he won…]
“How much money did he make?”
NOTES - Tom Watson made a late rush with a 4-under 66 to finish fourth at par-280, and rued the putter … “I drove the ball very well,” he said, “and it all comes down to - I used to make all the short putts and now I make a few of those. And now I have some fear, and when you fear them, you're going to miss them” … Jay Haas, defending champion but never a factor this time, finished with a flourish, getting an eagle at the par-5 15th for a 1-under 69, a tie for 10th at 2-over 282 … Canterbury gave up two aces - Roger Chapman at the 17th in his third-round 73, and Chip Beck in the final round, at the 13th, in his 69 … Greg Norman shot 73-72-73-72 - 290, 10 over, and tied for 49th … “No comment,” Norman said.
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