Steve Orme at Coolum, Sportal
An emotional Robert Allenby has dedicated his emphatic four-stroke victory at the Australian PGA Championship to his late mother.
Wearing his customary Sunday-pink shirt in memory of Sylvia Allenby, who lost her battle with lung and kidney cancer in late January, the in-form Victorian played 'flawless golf' to post a bogey-free five-under 66 on Sunday and claim his fourth Kirkwood Cup.
Having taken a one-shot advantage into the final day, the 37-year-old was in total control of every facet of his game as he held off a star-studded chasing pack.
But while Allenby showed no signs of cracking under the pressure on the revamped Coolum layout, his emotions took over at the official presentation ceremony.
"It's nice to win with the pink shirt on, that's for sure," Allenby said before breaking down.
"This year pink was always my last-day shirt and it was always in honour of my ... sorry."
"Pink is in honour of my mother. Throughout the year I've had a couple of chances to win a couple of tournaments in America and in Europe and just haven't come through because I've let too many emotions get in the way of things."
"It's been a very tough year but to come out on top last week and this week has been absolutely fantastic. It's definitely going to be fantastic for my career, it's just the little bit that's been missing and I just want to say thanks - and dad I love you."
Joint runner-up Scott Strange, who lost his sister to breast cancer in 2008, paid tribute to his final-round playing partner after backing up his drought-breaking win at the Nedbank Challenge last week.
"On Saturday I just ... it's hard, you don't know how to approach that but I just walked up to him off the first tee and said 'nice win last week and nice to see you won with a pink shirt on'," Strange said.
"And he knew what I meant because in Abu Dhabi we played a practice round and his mum was sick and we were having a chat about bits and pieces because I knew how much he wanted to win."
"I told him I'd won for my sister last year and I said, 'it will happen, you have to let it happen' and he was hoping all year to get one and now he's got two."
Allenby rushed to Brisbane airport immediately after accepting his $270,000 winner's cheque to board a flight to Melbourne in preparation for his 36-hole charity day to raise money for the Challenge Cancer Support Network on Monday.
But while his celebrations will have to wait, the world No.26 at least took time out to reflect on a spectacular finish to an already successful campaign.
"It's been an amazing run the last couple of weeks, obviously I got a lot of confidence out of last week down in South Africa," he said.
"At the start of last week I just felt like I had one more tournament left in me. I've had some great results here ... and I just thought I had enough energy to come here and hopefully play well and it's just so nice to come here and play better than well."
"Obviously the field that we've had here this week is Australia's best and we've had a few international players as well alongside John Daly. I'm very honoured and very, very pleased to take out the tournament."
Asked to account for his impressive late-season surge, Allenby, who had to rely on a sponsors invite after only deciding to contest the tournament at the 11th hour, revealed: "I've been working very hard with a guy back in Florida where I live, Darren May, he's a Pommy guy and we've just been working on my swing and my short game really hard in the last few months."
"I've put a lot of work and effort into my game and it's starting to come good."
"Obviously it's that good now I'm starting to win tournaments and the putting feels fantastic. I feel very calm and very relaxed over it."
"This is a fantastic way to finish the year."
"I should thank Coca-Cola for giving me a sponsor's invite because I was a very late entry. I got a sponsor's invite to play the tournament and now to have four Australian PGAs is pretty awesome."