Oh the agony for Steve Allan in Reno

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2004 Reno-Tahoe Open | Wrap | 23 Aug 2004

30-year-old Australian Steve Allan, could have been forgiven for getting ahead of himself as he stood on the final tee at the Reno Tahoe Open. After all here he was on the verge of his first USPGA Tour win holding a two shot lead over his playing partner, Hunter Mahan and Scott McCarron and with just one hole to play. Not that the 429 yard par four hole could be taken lightly however, as it is a great finishing hole and one where a par is a good score especially when your first USPGA Tour victory depends on it. The strong winds that the field had faced all day hardly made it any easier.

For Steve Allan, this would be a victory that would secure his immediate and perhaps long term future on the USPGA Tour. He regained his card for 2004 having played with non exempt status in 2003, that in itself an achievement given the uncertain nature of playing the USPGA Tour without exemption. His big cheques in 2003 had come at the Greater Milwaukee Open when 2nd, the BC Open when 5th and the Canadian Open when 11th. He had therefore regained the card that he had initially earned in 2000 for the 2001 year, lost it in that rookie year only to win it back at the Tour School and then lost full playing rights in 2002.

Allan has proven himself to be quite a gutsy competitor. This season he has overcome a slow start with a series of solid if unspectacular finishes of late and even today he would again show some true grit by overcoming a shaky start to work his way back into the tournament. Two early bogeys had him going in the opposite direction to what he was hoping for, but there was not a lot of experience in the players around him. With the exception of Scott McCarron, most were looking for their first win on the USPGA Tour and Allan got back into the mix with birdies at the fourth and fifth holes to be back at twelve under in a tie for second and just two back of then leader, Roland Thatcher.

Thatcher, who is a graduate from the 2003 USPGA Tour School has had to mix his play this season with several starts on the Nationwide Tour and has really struggled when they have come his way, making just four cuts in fourteen starts and a best placing of just 43rd. It was therefore an even bigger day for him than perhaps the others and it was soon to show. Thatcher fell away quickly after making the turn in the lead and a back nine of forty would see the end of him. He would finish fifth but he too will be thinking what might have been.

Allan and his playing partner, Hunter Mahan, grabbed a share of the lead when they both birdied the 12th hole and even a bogey at the 14th gave Allan little cause for real concern, especially when Mahan would also bogey and his closest chaser at that stage, Taylor, appeared to implode with a double at the 14th and a bogey at the 15th.

It soon became Allan’s tournament to win or lose and he would unfortunately choose the latter. The double bogey at the last, following a bladed bunker shot from a green side bunker, saw him fall back into a tie with McCarron, Thatcher and Taylor who managed to birdie the last to joint the party.

While Taylor may have been last to join the playoff, he was first to end it. A 14-foot putt at the last saw him birdie the hole and snatch victory from the jaws of the defeat that he had faced thirty minutes earlier.

For 28-year-old Taylor, who is also a rookie on the PGA Tour, this was a win that will further confirm his promise. He was getting close to retaining his playing privileges as it was, with a couple of top tens already this season and with nearly US$500,000 to his name he was already well on his way to security for 2005. Now he has no concern at all in that regard.

McCarron turned around a rather ordinary season, by his standard, by making the playoff and Mahan who is in his rookie season on the USPGA Tour after a brilliant amateur career will learn much from this experience.

The one who is no doubt feeling the worst as night falls in Nevada is the 2002 Australian Open champion, Steve Allan, but he can take some consolation in the fact that he will likely not be required back at Tour School this year and that he will earn US$224,000 for his great week.

Of the other Australasians, other than Allan, there were some efforts of note. Grant Waite recorded only his second top twenty of the year when 14th, Steve Elkington showed glimpses of yesteryear when 18th, John Senden was 24th, Phil Tataurangi made his first cut of the year on the USPGA Tour when 60th, Nick Flanagan, one year after his US Amateur win, made his first USPGA Tour cut and Scott Hend had a tough weekend for 71st.

The USPGA Tour now heads to Hartford for the Buick Championship.