This is what professional golfers often dream about. He won the last tournament he played. He is the defending champion in the one coming up. And its close to his hometown.
Thats Allen Doyle. He won the last Champions Tour tournament, the Bayer Advantage Celebrity Pro-Am. And this week its the Bank of America Championship, where Doyle won last year with a three-stroke victory over Bob Gilder and Bruce Fleisher. And the Concord, Mass., site is only a few miles from Doyles college home of Norwich.
Doyle won for the only time last year at this tournament, where a group of National Hockey League veterans play a charity event during the championship. Doyle himself is a native of Woonsocket, R.I., who played high school hockey in Boston.
‘I still consider myself a New Englander,’ said Doyle, who’s lived in LaGrange, Ga., for decades. ‘I probably wouldn’t have traded anything else I’ve won for this.’
A defenseman for local powerhouse Catholic Memorial who is in the Norwich (Vt.) University Hall of Fame, Doyle said it was ironic that he won the first cooperative event between the Champions Tour and the NHL.
‘Maybe this is what we need for me,’ he said, ‘get some more of these hockey deals, get my blood going.’
Doyle had 50 to 60 relatives in the galleries and hundreds more friends for whom he got tickets. They stayed around to see him finish after he waited out a 1-hour, 38-minute rain delay on the 16th hole last year.
The money race on the Champions Tour is still razor-thin with Gil Morgan clinging to an $80,000 lead over Hale Irwin. Both have won more than $1 million this year, though neither is playing in the Bank of America this week.
Doyle himself improved his position greatly with his victory in the tour’s last event. He went from 23rd on the money list all the way up to No. 10 with the win in the Bayer Advantage. He now has earnings of $605,122.
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Published June 21, 2004 04:00 PM