Robert Allenby’s Credit Card Thief Nabbed; His Kidnappers To Remain At Large In Perpetuity

Honolulu strip club regulars and tourists walking of the Amuse Wine Bar can breathe a big sigh as police have caught the man who took Robert Allenby's credit cards while the Australian PGA Tour golfer lay passed out after hitting his head on a rock.

Though Allenby concocted for multiple television interviews a story of kidnapping and ditch dumps and what sounded like offspring of the Manson family beating him up for national television, the Honolulu Police Department spokesman tells the Herald Sun's Aleks Devic that the media exposing the contradictions made their job more difficult.

A Honolulu PD spokesman said Allenby’s version of events as “very consistent” throughout and criticised media coverage of the incident, which he said had made the police’s investigation more difficult.

When asked if police believed the suspect had obtained the cards from a passed out Allenby, the police spokesman said: “We’re not speculating as to how he got it. We know he had it and he used it.”

Update on 2015-02-13 05:12 by Geoff

**Allenby issued a statement through the tour signaling the saga is over and presumably, the results of his drug test to prove his story of drugging will be kept to himself.

"I want to thank the Honolulu Police Department for their on-going work in this investigation. As I have continually said, these detectives are the best at what they do and I was always confident they would discover what happened. I continue to fully cooperate with the HPD and I look forward to this matter being fully resolved.

I also want to thank the many people who have expressed their support and concern for me in the last month." - Robert Allenby

Video: Torrey's 3rd, 4th, 5th UnShackeled

Longtime readers may recall a while back various informal surveys of how the site could be better and high on the list was more video and in particular, more architecture.

I'm not sure this will satisfy that desire entirely, but this is a pilot for a series of web-friendly videos in that vein. With the Farmers Insurance Open soon to start, there is no better time to look at the underwhelming stretch of holes 3-5 at the overwhelmingly beautiful Torrey Pines South.

Play begins Thursday, but in the meantime, my quick take on what should be a stellar three hole stretch.

Gates Open On TPC Scottsdale's $15 Million Renovation

Having long felt like the course was a three or four-hole gem with the rest pretty ordinary, I was excited when news of Tom Weiskopf's hiring was announced and we wrote about it on The Loop.

After seeing Shane Bacon's Back9 tour with Weiskopf along with the drone shots, the whole lunar-golf-in-the-desert vibe of the course looks lost to unsightly flashed white bunkers, making the prospect for a revamped TPC Scottsdale became a lot less exciting. Seeing more shots in this Matt Ginella-Rex Hoggard chat on Morning Drive really highlighted the horrible look of bright white sand fighting the desert's browner hues.

AP's John Nicholson previewed the re-opening and Weiskopf also touched on the Church Pews added to the 18th hole.

Out of respect for the historic Pennsylvania club's Church Pews bunker, the course architect refers to the four long, thin strips of raised, turfed ground as islands.

"That's reserved for Oakmont. There is only one Church Pews," Weiskopf said. "Those are islands in there. Four islands. Big islands. Some people call them church pews. They can call them whatever they want. You don't want to be in there."

This will also be one of the few renovations with bunker placement based on ShotLink data, all because the guys are eating their kale.

Weiskopf used ShotLink data from the last five years to put the fairway bunkers back in play for even the longest hitters. He cut the number of bunkers from 73 to 66 and filled them with white sand that area tour players tested for two years on the back range.

Also surprising is seeing some bunkers shallower than they were in the past, especially at the famed 16th. During the pro-am, Tiger's release pattern miscue (once called a shank) is notable in part because (A) he shanked a bunker shot, and (B) how shallow that bunker now appears.