`Career amateur' hits the jackpot in golden years

Eight years ago, when the Walker Cup was staged at Portmarnock, one member of the American team was perceived as no more than a career amateur who could be expected to grind out a result, invariably against a bright young thing who was already thinking ahead to the professional game.

Little did anyone - and, one suspects, the player himself - imagine what the future would hold, but Allen Doyle's victory in the US Seniors' PGA Championship at Palm Beach in Florida on Sunday provides further evidence of the riches that are available to those willing to chase their dreams, no matter how late in life.

In that 1991 Walker Cup encounter (which the Americans won 14-10), there was a strong Irish connection, because, on the first day, Doyle teamed up with Jay Siegel to beat Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington in the foursomes, and he then defeated McGinley in the afternoon singles.

Two years later, Doyle was again in the American team at Interlachen and emerged with a 100 per cent record as the United States retained the trophy.

Yet Doyle's decision to turn professional in 1995, at the age of 46, still came as a surprise. He opted to play on the Nike Tour, to gain competitive experience, before progressing to the US Seniors Tour this season. Two events into his Nike Tour career, he won a tournament. Now, with his idiosyncratic swing which some American commentators have likened to the "slap shot" efforts of ice hockey players, he tops the Seniors Tour money list with $666,724. Not bad for a latecomer to professional golf.

"If anyone tracked my career, everywhere I've gone, people have dismissed me as a guy who probably wasn't that good," said Doyle after his US Seniors win. He went on to confess: "Every rung I've gone on the ladder, that first win has been special."

In his rookie season on the US Seniors tour, Doyle has shown he has the mental strength to compete with players who have spent three or four decades playing for money. His performances, too, could act as an inspiration for others, among them Christy O'Connor Junior.

O'Connor made his US Seniors' Tour debut in Palm Beach and finished in tied-50th place for $3,910 in prize money. But O'Connor went into the tournament pretty cold and suffering from a lack of competitive play. He should be better for the experience when he takes up a second invitation to play in the Home Depot Invitational, which starts at the TPC at Piper Glen in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, where Doyle will also be in action again.

O'Connor, incidentally, has also confirmed he intends to visit the US Seniors qualifying school later in the year.

Meanwhile, Glen Day was another player to take a big step forward in his career when he won the MCI Classic at Harbour Town in a three-man play-off on Sunday, ramming in a 45-foot birdie putt for victory at the first tie hole. For a player who spent a number of years on the European Tour, it represented a major breakthrough as it was Day's first US Tour success.

"Everybody told me I'd win when I least expected it," said Day. "I didn't expect it."

Day was the first of the three players involved in the play-off to complete his round and spent some 90 minutes in the players' lounge at Harbour Town waiting for the field to finish. But his birdie was enough to see off Payne Stewart and Jeff Maggert and give Day victory in his first play-off. "I'd gotten really close a lot last year," said Day, "and pretty much every year I have had a chance at least to win - and it hadn't happened."

The newest winner on the US Tour heads to the Greater Greensboro Open at Forest Oaks this week, where he will be part of what is regarded as the weakest field on the circuit.

Only three of the top 20 players in the world rankings will be at Greensboro - all of them non-Americans: Vijay Singh, Steve Elkington and Jesper Parnevik.

Keith Nolan, meanwhile, returned to tournament play after a month's break in the Nike Tour event at Shreeveport last weekend but failed to survive the cut. The Bray golfer is in the field for this week's Nike Tour event, the South Carolina Classic, where he will be seeking an upturn in fortunes.

Britain and Ireland's attempt to win back the Walker Cup from America at Nairn near Inverness on September 11th and 12th is to have a crowd limit of 7,500 each day.

An adult ticket costs £15 per day, with under-16s being charged £5. Entry on the practice days is free, however, as is car parking throughout the week.

Tickets may be obtained from the Royal and Ancient Club ticket office at St Andrews (0044 1334 472112).

Buoyed by the success of the Britain and Ireland side in the world team championships in Chile last November, a training squad visited Nairn last month. They included Gary Wolstenholme and Graham Rankin, members of the winning Walker Cup side at Porthcawl in 1995.

The side to face the Americans is to be selected at the end of July.