Allen shows he's getting better with age on 51st birthday
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
LA JOLLA, Calif. -- The sportswriter meant no offense and none was taken.
His observation was true, though. Scott Piercy had regularly outdriven Michael Allen by about 40 yards during Sunday's final round of the Farmers Insurance Open.
"But he's young," Michael Allen protested weakly, a broad grin on his face.
As if on cue, Piercy walked out of the scorer's trailer, leaned into the scrum and playfully punched Allen, who was celebrating his 51st birthday Sunday, on the left shoulder.
"This old guy can play," Piercy said, coming to his playing partner's defense. And the numbers told the story as Allen fired the day's low round of 65 to move to 11 under and into a tie for fifth.
The round of 7 under vaulted Allen 31 spots up the leaderboard and came seven days after he finished solo third at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. He had earned a spot in the Champions Tour season-opener by winning his over-50 debut at the Senior PGA Championship a year ago.
For Allen, who has played some of the best golf of his career in the last three years, the 65 was a career low at Torrey Pines -- and marked just his 12th sub-70 score in 43 rounds there.
"To be honest with you, I just wanted to beat this golf course for once,'" Allen said. "It's been a long time. ... This course isn't really a course that I think I should compete great at. I'd have a better chance at LA or Hilton Head.
"This is just a hard golf course. So for me to shoot this kind of score, I'm extremely pleased."
Allen teed off in the first group of the day and finished about two hours ahead of the leaders. He climbed the scoreboard, though, with a string of five straight birdies that began on No. 5. Birdies on Nos. 11 and 13 then pulled the veteran within two before he began to run out of holes.
"Well, (the pressure increased) a little bit, but I knew I wasn't in contention yet," Allen said. "I knew that I still had to make at least two or three more birdies to kind of get to at least 14 to have a chance. At that point I wasn't too uptight about it. I just was trying to keep staying committed to my shots and trying to get it around this golf course.
"If I had gotten a couple putts and made them, I probably would have started getting a little nervous, but I really just kind of had a nice time today."
Indeed. Allen was serenaded with a chorus of "Happy Birthday" as he walked up the 18th fairway on Sunday. His 50th had come during the third round of last year's FBR Open but there was no such celebration.
"My biggest disappointment last year really was missing the cut out there ...," Allen said with a wry smile. "I was really getting a little uptight there because I wanted that 16th hole to sing 'Happy Birthday' to me. ... This was nice, though."
Allen was trying to join Craig Stadler and Fred Funk as the only players to win on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour after turning 50. Both those players had multiple TOUR wins before joining the Champions Tour, though.
Allen, on the other hand, is doing things the opposite way. He's still looking for his first PGA TOUR victory and toward that end, he plans to play with the young guns 20 times in 2010. He'll also play seven Champions Tour events.
Allen's first full season on the PGA TOUR was back in 1990. Since then, he's won nearly $6 million, which is relatively modest given the expenses a player incurs traveling from event to event. He also has two children to put through college.
"I'm still trying to make a living," Allen explained. "... I love playing out here. I'm not like a lot of those guys who have had some great careers leading up to it and won quite a bit. I still want to win out here. That's my No. 1 goal.
"Once I can accomplish that, I'll take different things into sight. But right now I enjoy playing out here and I enjoy my endeavor to try and win some golf tournaments out here."
And the way Allen sees it, he may be better prepared to accomplish his goal now, at the age of 51, than he was 20 years ago.
"Watching the young guys play, you can see yourself in that," Allen said. "Years ago, when you're fiery, you're kind of frustrated you're not really as good as you think you are. Kids come out, they're phenomenal on the range, they shoot good scores, they get their cards and they're obviously great players. That's how I was anyhow.
"Now I'm a little more relaxed. I understand it better. I don't quite get as caught up in missing a cut or hitting a bad shot, all the emotions that we kind of get caught up in playing golf. It's a more enjoyable game for me now than it was when I was 30."
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