Champions Tour Insider: Allen confident at Hazeltine

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At the ripe young age of 50, Michael Allen is playing the best golf of his long career.

CHASKA, Minn. -- Michael Allen played the final round of the Senior British Open with Tom Watson. His goal this week is to play the final round at the PGA Championship with Tiger Woods.

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And to finish one stroke better than Woods.

"That's what I would like to do," Allen said.

"That's where I'm really lucky. I'm able to go out and compete with Tiger one week and Tom Watson the next. Life's pretty good right now."

Allen won the Senior PGA Championship in May at Canterbury Golf Club in suburban Cleveland. It came in his Champions Tour debut and put him into very elite and distinguished company. The only other golfer to win the Senior PGA Championship in his first Champions Tour event is Arnold Palmer.

"That was such a great honor," Allen said. "No. 1, to win there, to play great, to beat all of the guys that have beaten me for so many years out here on tour."

The aftermath of the victory has been a source for some surprise. Allen didn't expect a Champions Tour title, even a major, would bring him so much notoriety.

"I'm certainly not a famous guy, by any means," he said Tuesday at Hazeltine National. "But it's given me a little platform to be able to speak, people want to hear things. It's been incredible. It's been a great event for me to help me kind of climb up the ladder of golf and it's been fun."

Allen has found himself using that word -- "great" -- quite frequently these days. It is another source of pleasure for the 50-year-old.

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Michael Allen is 140th in FedExCup points.

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Allen discusses his schedule

It has been well-documented that Hazeltine, at 7,674 yards, is the longest course in major championship history. It starts with a 490-yard par 4 and offers three par 5 holes that more than 600 yards.

That's enough to get anybody's attention.

The length notwithstanding, Allen said Hazeltine "seems like a wonderful golf course.

"It's right in front of you," he said. "Not a lot of trickery out there. You're going to have to drive the ball really straight because the rough is really severe. I had a hard time getting it out.

"This is a long, long golf course."

The 12th is a 518-yard par 4.

"When I grew up, that was a pretty good par 5," Allen said.

That hasn't caused Allen to reconsider his options. He remains steadfast in his immediate goals and aspirations. They are linked to competing against the younger men of the PGA TOUR.

"My mind-set truly is I still want to play on the PGA TOUR for another year or two," Allen said. "I'm going to play a few senior events only when this FedEx thing, once I get kicked out of them or whatever. I'll play a couple of events then.

"I feel like I'm a PGA TOUR player. That's what I want to be. I work hard like I'm a PGA TOUR player. And really, until I can win on the PGA TOUR, I'm not really going to be satisfied, so that is my mind-set, that's my goal. I love chasing and I love working for it, and you know, I look forward to weeks like this. It's just what you play for."

The intensity of Allen's preparations hasn't changed, only the method.

"I put so much time into preparing for these things, with weeks of work ahead of time to come out and try and play, like last week, to make sure I'm feeling competitive out there," he said.

"For me, my work ethic has not gone down just because I'm 50. I know I can't sit out there and hit balls for four hours a day anymore, but that doesn't mean I can't prepare completely. I can sit there and chip, I can putt, I can hit balls for an hour. I can get my body to go to the gym, make sure I'm ready."

Allen also has modified his on-course work. He played 18 holes at Hazeltine when he arrived late Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday it's nine holes, plus "a nice practice ... a good two, three hours at least and make sure I'm ready for every facet."

"Once you start seeing the golf course, you start understanding what shots you're going to need around the greens, what type of shots you can hit into greens," Allen said.

That's what his practice will consist of -- zeroing on the shots Hazeltine demands.

"Canterbury, I knew I had to hit a lot of wedges, so I really worked on that part of my game," Allen said. "Now here, you're going to have to hit a lot more long irons, or even a few 3-woods and rescues into some of these greens.

"The main thing right now is to also understand where I want to hit the ball on the greens, and really preparing for the shots around the greens, the type of shots we are going to have and the speed of the greens."

Champions Tour Insider notes:

• Allen will tee it up at 12:55 p.m. Thursday with Bob Tway and John Daly off the 10th tee. Tom Lehman is in a group with Sergio Garcia and Rory Sabbatini. They'll go off at 8:15 a.m., also off the 10th tee.

• The Champions Tour returns next week with the JELD-WEN Tradition where Fred Funk is the defending champion. Funk, with his victory at the U.S. Senior Open, moved past Bernhard Langer in the Charles Schwab Cup points list.