FBR OPEN

January 31, 2006

Robert Allenby

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: You had a good fall over there in Australia, and your first tournament back here on the PGA TOUR. Just talk about the three wins and then being back out here.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Obviously the three wins were great. Winning the Australia Open was great the first week. I wasn't expecting to win. I had a pretty bad hand injury. I cut it with some glass and I couldn't even hold the club tight. I didn't have any strength in my right hand, but I just got lucky the first day, shot 9 under, and then hung on for the rest of the way.

The last three days down there was pretty tough. It was blowing between 20 and 30 miles an hour winds. You had the ocean on one side and the bay on the other and the golf course was pretty exposed. It was a nice one to win.

Then the Australian PGA in Coolum in Queensland, I just kept my form and kept making putts and hitting good shots and finished that one off nicely. I hit an 8 iron there to two feet to beat Matthew Goggin by a shot.

And then the Australian Masters down in Melbourne, I played well from start to finish there and was always up there, within a few shots of the lead going into the last sort of nine holes or so. I managed to beat Bubba Watson in a playoff there.

It all worked out pretty good. They call it in Australia the Triple Crown because they say no one has ever done it before, so it was kind of nice to do. So it was good. It was a good way to finish the year because last year wasn't the best year for me. I struggled pretty much from LA all the way through the year with some hand injuries that we still don't know exactly we're getting closer, but we still don't know exactly what's going on.

I keep getting inflammation in my hands. It keeps flaring up from day to day, week to week, and some days I can't close my hand and some days I can. We're getting down to maybe a nerve condition, we don't know. But they're going to do a nerve conduction test on my right arm in about four weeks, so we'll see what comes about there.

But I saw orthopedic surgeons at home in Australia and saw some really good doctors, and they think maybe a nerve is trapped in my elbow, but they're not 100 percent sure. And normally the only way you can find out is to cut it open and go in there. And because I won three times, he said, "I'm not touching you." (Laughter). He said, "Be on your way and go."

I played really well in Australia and I got my World Ranking back down to where it should be, but there's still more room in there to go a lot further.

I've had a great seven weeks off. I put a beautiful 15 pounds on. I've just got rid of five in the last two weeks (laughter). It was kind of nice, you know. It was nice to live a normal life for once.

For 15, 16 years I've been going from either Europe to Australia to play or from America to Australia to play at the end of the year, so I don't have November, December off, and the Tour starts up. This Tour is so long that it makes it hard to have any time off. Sometimes you get that feeling mentally that if you take time off, you're behind the 8 ball. My doctors said if you want to get better, you've got to have some time off, and I thought this would be a great week to start off my year.

So it was nice to have seven weeks off, take the kids to school every day and just do normal life things. I guess I've been practicing for the last two weeks and trying to get my game right. It feels pretty good, feels like it's getting close. Hopefully by Thursday it should be in good shape. If I keep making the putts and keep making good shots, who knows what might happen? But I'm looking forward to starting, starting the year.

Q. Would you talk a little bit more about the hand ailment? And if they don't know what it is, what have they ruled out? Does your hand physically swell up or just get painful?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Just the fingers and the knuckles.

Q. They swell?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, they swell up and get really painful, yeah. Last year they diagnosed me with rheumatoid arthritis, but none of the tests had shown up. Apparently even in blood tests, it doesn't always show up. But the symptoms are there for that type of illness. He's not really sure.

I went and saw him last week, my doctor here in Florida, and he said it's probably one of the hardest cases he's ever had. And I said that's just like me to have something like that. But I don't know. I've got really sore wrists every now and then. My carpal tunnels are pretty sore, and that's another thing that we're going to check out. But I have had MRIs of the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder, the neck, the hand. You name it, I've done it, and everything has shown up perfect. That's why we're not sure what's going on.

You know, I'd say it's just a common overuse thing. A lot of doctors are saying that, as well. I mean, I haven't had a lot of time off in 15 years as a pro. It's probably just an overuse thing.

Q. Can you talk about this tournament and just the layout of the tournament, the atmosphere of this tournament?

ROBERT ALLENBY: This is a great tournament for crowds, obviously the highest attendance of all the tournaments that we play in on the Tour. You know, 16 is definitely a very loud hole. It's a lot of fun. You know, the crowds, they come out here and they definitely make it exciting for us. It's a fun event.

You know, you've just got to be aware when you tee off on 16 that they're going to be loud. I mean, it's not as loud as it used to be because of all the tents and so forth, the stands that they've put around there.

I remember I think it was 2000 or 2001 when I played with Phil Mickelson in the last group on the last day, and that was loud when he teed off there. By the time I got to hit, I was shaking in my boots. Look, it's just a fun event. The crowd, they go wild there. You know, they're appreciative.

Q. Are they knowledgeable about you specifically? It seems like every player that goes through there, they know things about.

ROBERT ALLENBY: It depends how you perform after 12 dozen beers (laughter), because by the time you get to 5:00 in the afternoon and they've started at 10:00 a.m., you can only imagine what they're like (laughter). I know how I would be. You've only got to give me a dozen (laughter).

Q. What's the most creative that you've heard from there that you can repeat in public?

ROBERT ALLENBY: There's not many I could repeat because most things that come out at 4:00 in the afternoon out of someone's mouth around that hole is not too pleasant. You know, obviously "Get in the hole," is always the first one that comes out of their mouth. And then when you don't hit a good shot, they let you know. They let you know you've hit a bad shot. You just laugh at it because you know that you're just waiting for it.

You know, one side is aggressive and then the other side is sort of the comedy side, the laughable lot. It's funny how you get a certain mixture on one side of the hole and then on the other side of the hole you get the good and the bad, you know.

Q. Some people think it's a little too

ROBERT ALLENBY: Sometimes. It depends on the crowd of people. Alcohol will do that to some people, especially when it's what is it, the alcohol is not very high, either, in the beer that they're drinking. Imagine if they were drinking Australian beer. They'd be passed out (laughter).

Q. Talk about the three wins that you said got you back to the rankings where you want to be and it's the kind of golf we're used to seeing from you. What happened? Did you make any changes going in? Did you get healthier? Or how do you explain suddenly getting on form there?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I mean, I couldn't hold the club the first week in my right hand, and I kind of think it might have been maybe a blessing. One thing I did find out is that light grip pressure in my right hand for hitting shots and also for chipping and for putting, I was pretty deadly. So it definitely all I've been working on the last couple of weeks with my putting and chipping is just having a really soft right hand. It's been feeling good.

I think it just created a lot more feel in my game. You know, I might have been just giving it the old death grip a little bit too much. You've got to take the good out of the bad, and obviously having the injury was bad, but I won three times and a lot of good came out of it. Even if I hadn't have won, a lot of good came out of it, just knowing that my right hand grip pressure was definitely a good key.

Q. You didn't make any big changes to like your putting or anything else?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I didn't make any changes at all. Actually I did make some changes going down to Australia. I made some changes some swing changes, and I did make some changes throughout my whole game. I had sort of on and off been seeing Leadbetter through the year last year and it wasn't really working for me, and I decided to just go back and do my old stuff.

I did that probably about three or four weeks prior to going to Australia, and just got more natural with my game and more into shot making instead of thinking about my swing, and with my putter, I moved the ball back about an inch and a half, two inches in my stance, and that made a huge difference to my putting. And obviously getting nice and soft with the right hand really helped a lot.

Just those couple of different changes really made a huge difference. And I feel like right now that I'm just really shaping the ball a lot better than I was. I'm not even thinking about where my swing is or anything like that. And for like the last year and a half, that's what I've been thinking about, was my swing, is it in the right slot, and I had got away from it.

1I play my best golf when I just think about where I want the ball to end up instead of thinking about my swing. So those changes were really good for me. It's even better when you do it yourself and it comes off.

Q. What were some of the routines or maybe superstitions that you adhere to throughout the years round after round? Is there anything that you always do constantly?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I just have the same routine for everything. I just try and keep it simple and basic, but that's it. I mark the ball with Australian coins. That's about it. I use a $1 coin for long distance so I can see it because it's quite large and a small little $2 coin. They're both gold, and I use that when I'm close to the hole. That's about it. I change my jocks every day.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Talk about caddying for your wife today.

ROBERT ALLENBY: That should be interesting. She hasn't played for a while because she's had a bad back and a bad neck, but yeah, I've got to caddie for her this afternoon in about 15 minutes.

Q. Shouldn't you be getting yardages for her?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Actually this will be the third time I've done it.

Q. Just in terms of quantifying the mystery, how many different doctors?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Five or six.

Q. For some Americans who maybe don't appreciate what a big deal winning all three of those premier tournaments are like

ROBERT ALLENBY: It would be like winning three tournaments here in a row, I guess. But Australian Open is your national title. So for any American it would be like winning the U.S. Open.

Q. How impressed were your fellow PGA TOUR members?

ROBERT ALLENBY: They gave me a lot of crap. They were very complimentary, but they gave me a lot of crap because they didn't think I had a hand injury (laughter). Afterward, I said, "Look, I don't care what you say, I can beat you with one hand." Just jokingly, but they were giving me plenty, and I'm going to give them some, too.

Q. Have you noticed with seven weeks off any difference?

ROBERT ALLENBY: You know, it did feel a lot better after about the first three or four weeks, and the last two weeks it started getting a little bit achy again, I think because I was hitting balls. But it was starting to feel a lot better, but it had its moments.

Certain foods and certain alcohol and stuff like that flare it up, as well. I've just got to be careful. The thing is I don't know exactly which food is going to hurt it. I know which alcohol hurts it (laughter). That's the one that really P's me off.

Q. Have they discussed (inaudible).

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, we went through all that.

Q. What about temperature, like hot or cold? Does that make a difference?

ROBERT ALLENBY: It does a little bit, yeah. Hotter weather actually makes it swell, and cold weather sort of feels like I've got really thin sort of fingers, which actually feels kind of normal, but I still get that little sort of stiffness in those knuckles there.

Q. This is not uncommon among Tour players?

ROBERT ALLENBY: A lot of guys have rheumatoid arthritis and other types of arthritis. I put this thing on about a week and a half ago. Someone said you should try this. It feels the same to me.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you for joining us. We appreciate your time.

End of FastScripts.