New challenge for Allen is dealing with 2008 job security  PGATOUR.com Correspondent MADISON, Miss. -- Unfortunately, Michael Allen knows the drill far too well when the calendar turns from August to September. Save for a precious few years, the following always was on his to-do list. 1) Pick up an entry form for the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. 2) Fill it out.  Thanks to a big finish at Turning Stone, Michael Allen will happily skip his almost-annual trip to qualifying school. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
3) Write a $4,000 check that serves as a buy-in for what many believe is the most cutthroat tournament on the face of the globe. 4) Drop it in the mail. 5) Nervously await first tee assignment. 6) Tee off. 7) Sweat bullets during the competition. 8) Succeed. Allen does this with such numbing regularity that it has become his rite of late fall. But here's the thing about Allen, 48, a plucky veteran who resides in Scottsdale, Ariz. There are precious few guys who play golf for a living would not contemplate committing a felony to have Allen's success rate in the finals of that cursed little thing called q-school. Allen has played in the 106-hole emotional meat grinder that is the finals 13 times. He has advanced to The Big Show on nine occasions, which, in baseball parlance, would translate into a lofty .692 batting average. Simply put, no one has ever played q-school better than Allen. His is a record that may never be broken. "That's quite impressive,'' said veteran Jim McGovern, who, like Allen, has become a q-school fixture. Said Allen: "I don't know if I should revel in something like that.'' So here it is late September 2007 on a sultry Friday afternoon just outside Jackson, Miss., in the midst of the second round of the Viking Classic. Allen, a journeyman in the classic sense, already has reached Step 5 in his annual eight-step qualifying school program. "I never start thinking about q-school until the end of March,'' he deadpanned, laughing at himself and what has been his station in professional life. Notice the past tense above? Although q-school might never be the same, darned if Allen doesn't get to play hooky in 2007. That's because he played golf last week like he knows how, birdying the 70th and 71st holes to grab solo second in the Turning Stone Resort Championship and the biggest check ($648,000) of his career -- a payday that took care of his money list business for the season and guaranteed a job for 2008. Don't tell Allen no one remembers who finishes second. His result at Turning Stone is one he will never forget. "I was hung over for two days,'' he said. So Allen found himself breathing some rare air once he arrived in Mississippi. He is playing this week and the rest of the season with the house money that comes with the safety net that is fully exempt status. And he admitted after his second-round 2-over-par 74 that left him just inside the cut line with a 2-under-par total of 142 he isn't quite sure just how to act. "I feel more relaxed, a lot looser,'' he said. "But in a way that was a negative today. I lost a little focus. I wasn't playing with my usual edge.'' The lapse cost him five shots coming home after he had moved into contending position at 7 under for the tournament. But Allen was in no mood to beat himself up. "It's nice to have a job next year,'' he said. "I'll never be a star out here. I'm a survivor.'' If you're in survival mode, the PGA TOUR is a nice place to do it. Allen needs to make four more cuts to reach 150 in his career, a number that guarantees some status as well full vestment in the pension program and the opportunity to participate in the TOUR's group insurance plan. That perk is most important to him because his youngest daughter, Michelle, 10, is a diabetic. Allen didn't always chase the dream and make a late-season dash for the cash though. He stepped away from the grind in 1996 and 1997. He tried building houses. He applied for a job in medical sales. He took a job as a teaching pro at Winged Foot. But the tug of the game and its myriad challenges brought him back. "I'm just better at this than other things,'' he said of golf. Don't scoff, even if Allen's name doesn't show up among the top 200 in the Official World Golf Rankings. He has banked more than $2.9 million in his last five full seasons on TOUR. "Even if I have a tough year, it's $400,000 in earnings and another $200,000 or $300,000 off the course,'' he said. "I can't go make that in the real world.'' That is why Allen always is prepared for qualifying school, even the few times he hasn't been asked to attend. "It's the ultimate challenge,'' he said. "I guess you can say I love challenges.'' Apparently. |
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