Doyle makes third Senior major title his best

BY Bruce Young | Champions Tour | 2005 US Senior Open | Wrap | 01 Aug 2005

One of the more interesting stories on the Champions Tour added yet another chapter today when Allen Doyle added the US Senior Open title to his impressive list of nine Champions Tour victories, which had already included two majors prior to this week.

Doyle turned professional in 1995 at the ripe old age of 46 after a brilliant amateur career and had immediate success when winning three times that year on the then Nike Tour. That gained him access to the PGA Tour at the age of 47. His first year on the PGA Tour was a battle but he bounced back by winning the Tour School at the age of 48 and that, after having to survive two stages. He fared no better in 1997 but played a few events on the Nike Tour the next year before playing a few Seniors Tour events on turning 50 in July of 1998. He did not do well enough to earn the money required to gain his card but went to the Seniors Tour School late in 1998 and was again top qualifier. The rest, as they say, is history.

In his first season as a card holder he won four times and finished runner up on four occasions and ended the season in 1999 in third place on the money list with $US1.91 million. He would continue to plunder the riches of the Champions Tour over subsequent years and his win in his national Senior Open today would be his 10th in what has been an amazing career on that tour.

Not only was it the win that was so impressive today it was the manner in which he surged through a high quality field to do it. Doyle had provided some indication of better form after a slow start to the year when he finished fifth at the Ford Seniors Players Championship three weeks ago but today’s 63 will go down as one of the great rounds in Senior golf. It was four shots better then anybody else on day four and swept him past the likes of Loren Roberts, D.A. Weibring, Tom Watson, Greg Norman and Raymond Floyd to name but a few.

When he turned in 30 today, Doyle he still had work to do but he kept coming and although he finished more than an hour before the final group he had set a mark that was always going to be some sort of target. The nine shot deficit was the second biggest comeback in modern day major golf of any kind, bettered only by Paul Lawrie’s effort at Carnoustie when coming from ten back.

An ex-Walker Cup and Eisenhower trophy representative for the USA, Doyle swings the club almost in hockey fashion but his great golfing career has shown that there is more than one way to get the job done. His collegiate hockey background may have had something to do with his restricted backswing but it has proven to be a lethal weapon.

Craig Stadler appeared early in the day as if he was going to be the one they all had to catch. He reached 13 under through 6 holes and had slipped clear. Then came a double bogey at the 9th and then four more bogeys and another double at the 17th before a birdie at the last was some sort of consolation.

While Stadler was self destructing, D. A. Weibring appeared to be the next to put his hand up for the title when he moved to 11 under through 10 holes before he too succumbed to two late bogeys. Loren Roberts, in only his second Senior event, moved to 12 under at the 10th before he also double bogeyed the 11th and then bogeyed the 12th to fall back.

Greg Norman was being talked up as the one who might finish off the event with a rush as he had done so often in his regular tour career, and although he played well for 69, he was always just short of the mark. Still his cheque for US$121,000 is his biggest since finishing fourth at The International three years ago.

Fellow Australian Rodger Davis had a good week finishing in 9th place.

The Champions Tour now heads to the 3M Championship in Minneapolis.