Ageless story of Allen Doyle

Allen Doyle is a legend who dominated the golf scene in his adopted state of Georgia. Russell Kirk, USGA Former Walker Cupper Griff Moody grew tired of saying the same thing every summer when the young golfers at his alma mater, the University of Georgia, would ask him whether he’d won his state amateur that year. “No,” he had to say almost every year except 1980. “Allen Doyle did.” “Who the hell is he?” the out-of-state kids reflexively replied before Moody had to explain to them that “this sumbitch can play!” It reached a point in the late ’80s when Moody finally decided to address the root of this annual problem with the 1978, ’79, ’82, ’87, ’88 and ’90 Georgia Amateur champion (and runner-up on four occasions plus five Georgia Mid-Amateur titles in a six-year stretch in 1984-89 and five Southeastern Amateur titles from 1983 to ’92). “You’ve got to start playing in bigger national events,” Moody implored Doyle. Doyle, a transplanted hockey player from New England, was a whale in the relatively small golf pond of Georgia, where he l...