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Being a two-time USGA champion secures you a lofty spot in the record books, but it doesn’t give you a pass from delivering school lunches and taking care of the turf at your local First Tee chapter.
“You don’t forget these kids,” said Allen Doyle, whose presence around First Tee – Troup County in LaGrange, Ga., goes deep. Yes, his daughter Michelle is the executive director, and yes, the 74-year-old Doyle is chairman of the board. But more poignantly, few enter golf through the caddie ranks anymore, as Doyle did.
“If not for First Tee, many of these kids wouldn’t be getting a chance to play golf,” said Doyle. “It’s where they are learning integrity and all their values, so these places are important.”
Doyle’s commitment to give back has direct ties to his middle-class roots outside Boston. If a trusted member of Spring Valley Country Club in Sharon, Mass., hadn’t pushed for this gritty and fearless caddie to receive a scholarship from the Francis Ouimet Fund back in the 1960s, who knows if any of this beautiful golf life would have unfolded.
And make no mistake, Allen Doyle has authored a story rich in flavor. In 1994, he famously turned pro at age 46, and won three times the following year on the then-Nike Tour, earning a promotion to the PGA Tour. Upon turning 50, he became a force in the senior ranks.
Asked to look back upon a brilliant amateur career that included 23 victories and berths on three Walker Cup Teams, Doyle said that his four wins in the Sunnehanna Amateur “put me on the map.” But what resonates most is the 1994 World Amateur Team Championship in France, where he shot 30 on the final nine to win individual honors and lead a USA Team that included Tiger Woods, Todd Demsey and John Harris to victory.
It would hardly be the last time Doyle showed an uncanny ability to score in the clutch. “I was always able, when I was in position to win, to put a vice grip on it,” he said.
The two biggest of his 19 professional wins amply demonstrated that. The only question is: Which of his two straight U.S. Senior Open victories had a bigger impact, 2005 at NCR Country Club in Kettering, Ohio, or a year later at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kan.?
Coming from nine back through 54 holes to win with a closing 63 at NCR was unforgettable – it remains the biggest final-round comeback in USGA history. But Doyle points to ’06 because “it was back-to-back, and I beat Tom Watson in his own backyard.”
Doyle knows he broke thousands of fans’ hearts that July weekend, but that’s sports. The hearts he’s raised since, thanks in part to an annual endowment through the
Ouimet Fund and his donation of a $1 million PGA Tour Champions bonus annuity to various charities more accurately define the man.
Doyle’s two daughters played collegiately at Southern Mississippi (Erin) and South Alabama (Michelle). They’ve each qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, and Erin has played in 10 USGA championships. The family, noted Doyle, has been blessed, and giving back is motivation for all of them.
Asked why he decided to donate that $1 million annuity to charity, he replied simply, “Because I just felt like it was the fair thing to do.”