Robert Allenby

Robert Allenby has basked in rarified air for eight years now for he achieved what Greg Norman never could at the height of his powers in an illustrious career – and that is to win the Triple Crown of Australian golf which is the PGA, Masters and Open titles in a single year.

The Shark twice won two of our three major championships in the same year – the 1984 Masters and PGA and the 1987 Masters and Open – but it was Allenby in 2005 who strung all three together in the space of just three weeks.

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Rivalry

So much anticipation was in the air at Royal Sydney today when curtain rose on the Scotty and Rory Show.

Would we see the theatrical drama of so many great golfing rivalries of days gone by in as these two gentlemen of the game went head-to-head?

The crowd was massive stretching six and seven deep down the right-hand side of the fairway of the short par four – there was no spectator access on the left through the scrub – and golf fans were still pouring into the course.

Jack Nicklaus once described the Australian Open Championship as the fifth major of the world, and the names on the Stonehaven Cup are among the most legendary in golf.

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Pete Senior

Pete Senior might appear a little like Methuselah to some of the rising stars of Australian golf with several of them less than a third of his 54 years of age but, nevertheless, they look up to him as the defending Emirates Australian Open Champion.

Walking into the media interview centre at Royal Sydney today, he joked: “I’d booked a courtesy car from the hotel, but it didn’t turn up. They’ve obviously forgotten all about me.”

Of course one of the chauffeur driven Volvo cars was there, just others were waiting for the headline acts of the championship – Adam Scott (world No 2), Rory McIlroy (No 6) and Jason Day who rose seven spots to 11th overnight after his victory in the individual section of the $US8 million World Cup at Royal Melbourne on Sunday.

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