The shocking pictures of the Australian golfer Robert Allenby after his alleged kidnapping, assault and robbery have filled the sports' pages in recent days, but the exact circumstances behind how he ended up in such a state have yet to be confirmed. In the wake of the 'incident', Allenby has sensibly decided to withdraw from this week's Humana Challenge event in California.
Allenby has decided after consulting a doctor for advice that it would be wise for him to miss the event, citing that: "This will enable me to ensure I am fully recovered".
The 43-year-old multiple PGA Tour winner expects to make a full recovery, both physically and mentally one suspects, and to return to the tour once his convalescence period is complete. The images showing cuts to his nose and head and severe bruising around his eye would indeed indicate some form of incident took place, but the precise set of events that led up to that seem at best 'hazy'.
He has been unimpressed by the counter claims that dispute his version of what happened last Friday in Hawaii, after he had failed to make the cut for the last round of the Sony Open tournament. He reported that he was kidnapped, assaulted, robbed and then dumped in the street after going to a Waikiki wine bar.
His only witness to the misdemeanour seems to suggest a slightly different set of circumstances behind how he ended up where he did.
The Aussie's depiction of what happened after he had arrived at the bar suggest that he was lured into the car park by a stranger who intimated that his friends were waiting for him there. Upon arrival at the alleged meeting place he was then subjected to a beating and thrown into the boot of a car, after which his memories of the following three hours seem to have become unclear.
In Allenby's version, a homeless woman subsequently spotted him being thrown out of the car after allegedly having been driven six miles away from the bar, devoid of his phone and wallet that he alleges were stolen by his abductors. He added that she had told him that she had witnessed a group of men kicking him and searching his pockets.
The woman in question, Charade Keane has since provided a different set of events, indicating that she actually found him just a block away from the bar he had earlier been drinking in. Her far more straightforward version of events suggests that she simply found him sat on a planter, "bloodied and confused" and involved in an argument with a couple of homeless men.
Allenby's caddie Mick Middlemo was not able to shed much extra detail on the events, claiming that the golfer had no immediate recollection of how he ended up where he did and in the state he was found in after waking up. It does seem odd however that Allenby should disappear for hours from the wine bar, as his fellow diners (including his caddie) presumably believed he had gone to the bathroom, but did not go to investigate.
Detectives in Hawaii are now investigating the robbery, checking those witness statements that they have already gathered and going through any security video footage that may assist them to piece the events of the evening in question together.
