Robert Allenby: What Happened to Robert Allenby That One Night in Hawaii?

By Matt Cochran | Jan 13, 2016

Jan 27, 2015; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Robert Allenby speaks with members of the media during his press conference during a practice round at TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course. Mandatory Credit: Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports /

Courtesy of Golf Channel

Courtesy of Golf Channel /

Robert Allenby is returning to the scene of his alleged kidnapping and robbery when he tees off this week at the Sony Open – but we still don’t actually know what happened to Allenby last year!

One of the most bizarre golf stories from the PGA TOUR in 2015 was the saga of Robert Allenby. One year later, Allenby returns to the place where he was allegedly kidnapped, beaten, and then robbed.

There are still plenty of loose ends to his story because no one really knows what happened, even Allenby himself. To refresh our memory, let’s see if we can piece together Allenby’s account of the whole ordeal.

It all started after Allenby missed the cut at the Sony Open in 2015. Following his Friday round, the Aussie went to a wine bar called Amuse with his caddie at the time, Mick Middlemo, and Allenby’s friend Anthony Puntoriero. This seems to be the only confirmed detail from the incident as the story begins to get fuzzy from here.

Initial reports suggest Allenby and his entourage were reportedly talking with two men and woman after they had dinner at the wine bar. The crew left the bar at 11:06 PM and Allenby’s credit card was used to buy two bottles of tequila at a nearby liquor store.

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20 minutes after Allenby reportedly left the wine bar, two homeless men found him passed out on a corner 100 yards away from Amuse, asking where “the third guy” was who was supposed to be picking him up.

Later in the night, multiple witnesses confirm seeing Allenby at a local strip club with “a group of friends” and the crew ran up a $3,400 tab. His credit card was eventually charged over $20,000 for the entire night.

The same homeless man who found Allenby passed out earlier in the night found the four-time PGA TOUR winner yet again at 1:00 AM. He was 50 feet from the location he was previously found. The homeless man claims Robert fell and hit his face on a rock, causing the gash on his face.

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A half an hour later, a homeless woman by the name of Charade Keane helped Allenby into a taxi. Rather than going to the hospital or to the police, Allenby went back to the resort he was staying at to call his 13-year-old daughter.

The whole story is sketchy from beginning to end, but since the whole ordeal surfaced we’ve been able to piece together some loose ends.

While it remains unclear whether or not Allenby was actually mugged, one thing is for sure. Someone did have a shopping spree using his credit card. Owen Harbison was caught on surveillance video using stolen credit cards which included Allenby’s. Harbison pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve five years in jail.

However, Harbison can’t explain how everything played out or how he came to possess Robert Allenby’s credit card. Harbison told the court, “I would like to take full responsibility and apologize to Mr. Allenby for my role in his bad evening. I’m not really quite sure how it played out, but I did spend and use his cards.”

While Allenby claims he was drugged, kidnapped, and later thrown out of a car, there hasn’t been any evidence to confirm these accusations. He also claimed that Keane, the homeless woman who helped him, told him he was thrown out of a car and that several homeless men were “kicking [him] to see if [he] was alive, and then trying to steal everything else from [him].”

Allenby’s story died down following the arrest of Harbison, but some questions still lingered. A few months later, another incident involving Allenby went down, only this time it was on the course.

He fired his caddie, Mick Middlemo, in the middle of a round after the two had a dispute. After walking off the course, Middlemo spoke with the media and claimed that Allenby’s Hawaii story was all made up. Mick told News Corp Australia:

"“Do I think he got mugged and bashed and absolutely robbed? No I don’t. That’s the story I told because that’s the story he told me to tell because I wasn’t there. Do I think he just fell over and cracked his head? Honestly I do. I think he fell over and someone picked up his wallet and had a great time with his credit card.”"

The other party that was present that night, Anthony Puntoriero, has since disputed this claim by Middlemo and claims that Mick just said these things for financial gain. And the drama continues.

Fast forward to 2016. This week marks the year anniversary of Allenby’s wild adventure as the Sony Open in Hawaii tees off this week. Most would used an incident like Allenby’s as a learning experience, but that’s not the case. He’s returning to the scene of the crime this week.

He has a decent track record at the Sony Open with three top-10 finishes including a runner-up in 2010, but that’s not why he came back. Allenby says he’s not going to run away from his fears.

"“The worst thing you can do in life is run away from stuff. If I hadn’t come here, I’d have been running away. And I probably would never have let it settle in my own mind and allow me to move on.”"

When asked if he had any dining plans for the week, Allenby told the Honolulu Star Advertiser, “Room service and the hotel restaurant.”

We may never know what happened that Friday night in Honolulu. Was Robert Allenby actually kidnapped, mugged, and then thrown out of a car? Is there any truth to what the homeless people claim? Or was Allenby just blackout drunk and caused all the harm to himself?

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Any of these are possibilities, but one this is for sure, it’s a classic case of “Whodunnit.” After binge-watching “Making a Murderer,” I’m even more inclined to get to the bottom of it.