Australian golfer Robert Allenby 'still shaking' after beating

Robert Allenby injuries

By Doug Ferguson

His left eye bruised and swollen shut, Australian golfer Robert Allenby is still shaking over a beating and robbery that left him unable to remember anything except being dumped in a gutter near a park.

"You think ... that happens in the movies, not real life," Mr Allenby said. "I'm just happy to be alive."

The golfer posted a photo to his private Facebook account showing a bloodied scrape on his forehead and the bridge of his nose.

He said that came from being thrown from the boot of a car. He said the bruise on his left eye must have come from being beaten in the car.

"I don't know what they hit me with between the eyeballs, whether a fist or a baseball bat," he said. "Whatever it was, it hurts."

Mr Allenby missed the Sony Open cut and then went to Amuse Wine Bar in Honolulu, Hawaii on Friday night with his caddie and a friend from Australia.

He had been to the bar earlier in the week, thought it was a trendy spot and wanted to try the restaurant. Mr Allenby remembers having dinner, a few glasses of red wine and that was about it.

He returned to the bar with police and watched tape from a surveillance camera that showed him leaving with four people, he does not know who they were. Mr Allenby said he has no recollection until getting kicked and prodded by homeless people searching for whatever he had left.

Mr Allenby said his wallet, cash, driver's license, PGA Tour badge and cellphone were taken. All he had on him in the gutter were two receipts, the American Express card to pay for dinner that he put loosely in his pockets and a watch.

He said the receipt showed that he paid for dinner at 10:06pm, and paid for the wine at 10:48. He said the restaurant closed at 11pm.

Mr Allenby said he was checked out by the doctors, but he did not have a blood test to determine if he was drugged.

"I did ask to get a blood test, but they said it was probably out of your system," he said.

Mr Allenby said a homeless woman told him he was thrown out of the car, but the ordeal was not over just yet. He said several homeless were "kicking me to see if I was alive, and then trying to steal everything else from me".

"I'm still shaking, still scared," he said. "It's just so surreal, just amazing. How does that happen to me?"

hnews@herald.ie