What the Hell Is Going On With Robert Allenby?

A robbery, a kidnapping, mysterious perpetrators. An aging golfer’s wayward night leaves us with a lot of questions. 

After missing the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii on Friday, golfer Robert Allenby went to drown his sorrows at an Oahu wine bar. What happened next was pretty shocking: Allenbyclaims he was kidnapped from the bar, beaten, robbed, and left on the side of the road. Allenby himself posted photos of his injuries that show a busted up eye, nose, and a gash on his head. The Australian golfer claims that he was separated from his friends at closing time and then told by the alleged kidnappers that they had already gone downstairs. When Allenby reached the lobby, he alleges he was beaten, thrown in the trunk of a car, and then robbed.

“Not feeling great. Can’t open my eye. Haven’t been able to sleep. Thinking about going to the hospital,” Allenby told the Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte over text.

But with no suspects in custody and some serious discrepancies in Allenby’s report, many are questioning just what is going on with Allenby, a man who left a bar at closing only to end up with serious injuries a few minutes later. 

A witness claims she saw Allenby only a block away from the bar, trying to pay men off to get his belongings back. After a confrontation, she claims he was helped into a taxi. So, according to a witness, there was no trunk and no kidnapping. This substantively contradicts the golfer’s story, thickening the plot considerably.

“It’s such a shame that people are focusing on whether the story is true,” Allenby texted Rosaforte. “I say you only have to look at me to see the truth.”

The question that police seem to be asking is whether or not Allenby had simply seen too many Liam Neeson movies. “I’ve watched ‘Taken’ and ‘Taken 2’ a few times,”Allenby told Golf Week.  “It’s kind of like a spitting image, but I’m just very thankful that I’m alive.”

Photos by Chuck Burton / AP Images