The world might never know what exactly happened to a golf champion who announced he was kidnapped, beaten, robbed, thrown into the trunk of a car and dumped at a Hawaii park.
By all accounts, even seven years later, Robert Allenby doesn’t know what happened to him, either.
The controversial Aussie opened up to Golf Digest about a saga that captured the world’s attention — which grew toward skepticism — and that led to a personal and professional spiral in his life.
What the world knows is in January 2015, Allenby missed the cut at the Sony Open and went drinking with then-caddie Mick Middlemo and pal Anthony Puntoreiro. Allenby said he believes his drink was spiked at the bar, and he awoke — discovered by a homeless woman — bloodied at a nearby park without his credit cards, wallet and phone.
Allenby posted a selfie of his injuries and his story — that he had been roofied and kidnapped — went viral. But the homeless woman denied the kidnapping aspect, and Middlemo later disputed the account, telling News Corp Australia that he believed Allenby fell over and hit his head.
Allenby definitely was robbed, and Patrick Owen Harbison was arrested in connection with the case for credit card fraud. But Allenby never filed assault charges, and the mystery remains.
“We know he fell or tripped and hit his head. We matched things up with what people told us and his injuries, plus the rock,” John McCarthy, who was then the lead investigator of the Honolulu Police Department, told Golf Digest. “He said he was assaulted, but we just don’t know for sure. He could have been assaulted. He could have been hit from behind while walking down Kapiolani Boulevard or pushed or shoved, and then they took his wallet. You can tell when someone is lying, and [Allenby] wasn’t lying. Let’s put it this way . . . it’s greater than 50-50 that he was assaulted, but we can’t prove that.”
Allenby said he did not have regrets about announcing his account because he was simply passing along what the homeless woman told him.
“I’m not embarrassed about it,” he told the outlet. “I didn’t say I was thrown out of the trunk of a car. I said I was told I was thrown out of the trunk of the car. A reporter said, ‘It sounds like the movie ‘Taken,’ and I said, ‘Yes, it does.’ Agreeing with him and what the homeless lady said to me compounded the story.”
Regardless, the story of a kidnapping that suddenly may not have been a kidnapping has followed him around (as have other public incidents, such as firing Middlemo mid-round). His PGA Tour career tanked, and so did his mental health.
According to Golf Digest, which caught up with Allenby at Admirals Cove, a country club in Jupiter, Fla., there would be long periods in which Allenby would not leave the estate.
“I didn’t want to be in public and have to deal with people saying negative things about me,” Allenby said. “I lost confidence in my golf. I lost confidence in myself. I struggled as a human.”
He was on antidepressants for six years and saw a psychologist.
“It was a very low time. I had so much fear and anxiety built up inside me,” Allenby said. “It ruined my confidence to go outside and to be in front of people because I [believed] they were always talking about it.”
Seven years later, he is doing better and off the antidepressants. He turned 50 last summer, which made him eligible for the PGA Tour Champions.
“The chance to go out there and compete again is pretty cool,” he told the outlet. “There aren’t many jobs that offer you a second chance.”