A Long Shot, 66 for Allen : British Open: An unheralded American makes monster putt for a birdie, shares the lead with Norman.

By SHAV GLICK

July 20, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland —

The largest green on the Old Course of the Royal and Ancient covers 5,555 square yards, more than an acre. It takes two men 1 1/2 hours to mow it and they cover 3 1/2 miles each.

Michael Allen used all of it Thursday to sink a putt of “at least 100, maybe 150 feet” that helped him shoot a six-under-par 66 and share the first-round lead of the 119th British Open with favorite Greg Norman of Australia.

Allen was on the 13th hole, but he was nearer the cup on the fifth hole when he made his birdie putt across one of St. Andrews’ legendary double greens.

“I hit it as hard as I could,” Allen said. “It broke a little from left to right, bounced up in the air about a foot and disappeared.”

Peter Jacobsen, who was putting on the fifth hole at the time, stopped and bowed in the direction of Allen.

“Peter was bowing, and I was thanking the gods,” Allen said. “It was not only the longest putt I ever made, it was the longest I ever saw. I’ve never even made a chip shot as long as that.”

Later in the day, Jacobsen was also at six under par before he knocked a chip shot into the terrifying Road bunker that guards the 17th green and made a double bogey.

That left Allen and Norman in front, followed by British favorite Nick Faldo at 67 and an international group of eight--Jacobsen and Payne Stewart of the United States; Christy O’Connor Jr. of Ireland; Ian Woosnam of Wales; Ian Baker-Finch and Craig Parry of Australia; Martin Poxon of England and Sam Torrance of Scotland--at 68.

Hundred-foot putts were not for everyone, however. Craig Stadler was that far away on the sixth green, which shares its surface with No. 12, and took five putts, including a one-inch whiff. Stadler finished with an 82, the day’s high score he shared with Rodger Davis of Australia and Graham Farr of Scotland.

“The best shot I hit all day went in the water (at Swilcan Burn) on the first hole,” Stadler said. “That sort of set the pace for the front nine.” The former Masters champion rallied from a 48 to a 34 on the back nine.

On a day so warm and bright that scantily clad sunbathers on the sands of St. Andrews Bay were at times more entertaining than the golf, par 72 was no match for the world’s finest golfers on the world’s oldest course.

Fifty players bettered par, and another 30 equaled it in the lowest-scoring orgy in British Open history. Only an afternoon wind, which pestered late starters and drove sun-worshipers off the sand, kept the number of par-breakers from soaring higher as conditions were otherwise perfect for scoring.

Low scores are not unusual for Allen, 31, a former mountain climber who studied horticulture at Nevada Reno before taking up golf. Followers of the Los Angeles Open will remember Allen as the player who ripped Riviera Country Club with an opening-round, eight-under-par 63 in February before finishing 12th. He also had a final-round 63 to win the Scottish Open last year at the famed Gleneagles course in Perthshire.

That round had some spectacular moments, too. In one stretch, Allen chipped in from 18 feet, holed a 40-foot bunker shot and chipped in a second time.

“When my caddy handed me my putter on the next hole, I’d forgotten what it was for,” Allen recalled.

The victory in the Scottish Open encouraged Allen to try the American PGA Tour again, after three earlier failures. In 18 tournaments this year, he has made the cut in 11 to earn $74,397 and rank 114th on the money list. His highest finish was in Los Angeles.

“It’s nice to be back in Europe on a links course,” he said. “In the States, the courses are different. They are so exact and penal unless you hit the perfect shot. It’s been a long, hard grind for me over there (in the United States), but if you want to make it to the top in golf, that’s the place to be.”

Allen, who had seven birdies before making a bogey on the final hole with three putts from 40 feet, is not the only athlete in his family. His father, Charles, played at Wimbledon in 1946, losing to Chris Evert’s father, 16-14, 6-0, 6-0.

Although the 17th, the Road Hole, was the most pivotal all day, the 18th, a straightaway 354 yards with no bunkers, produced its share of excitement, too.

Faldo, two-time winner of the Masters and the 1987 British Open champion, eagled it to take sole possession of third place, and Norman, the 1986 British Open winner, almost drove the green and made a birdie to pull level with Allen.

“The eagle at 18 made my day, for sure,” Faldo said. “I hit a two-wood off the tee so I would have a fuller second shot to the green, but the ball took off and rolled too close to the green. I had to hit a shot I didn’t want, a pitch and run, and I got the break right. First, it went right to left, and then swung left to right. It was a real bonus for it to go in.”

Faldo said he rarely uses a two-wood but put it in his bag especially for this course, calling it “a good links-course club.” He used it off the tee five times.

Norman used his driver and hit the ball almost flag high, off the edge of the green but in a fluffy lie.

“I wanted to chip it with a five- or seven-iron and let it swing through the Valley of Sin,” Norman said, “but with the lie I had, I had to use my putter and try and knock it as close as I could, which wasn’t very close. But I made the (16-foot) putt, and that’s all that mattered.

“I played a pretty solid round of golf, six birdies and no bogeys, and that’s a good way to start off a tournament, especially in a major. It’s nice to come from behind on the last day, but it’s better when you start out good and don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself.”

The 461-yard 17th, the hole Seve Ballesteros and others call “the most difficult par-four in golf,” played up to its reputation.

Ballesteros himself, who won the tournament there in 1984 with a par to Tom Watson’s bogey five, had a double bogey on 17 to wind up at 71. He pulled his second shot far to the left, from where he wedged over a bunker, but the ball caught the downslope and rolled to the back of the green into three-putt distance.

Parry and Jacobsen also made double bogeys on No. 17 that knocked them out of a share of the lead, and Faldo’s bogey had the same result for him.

Poxon, on the other side of the coin, hit a five-iron for his second shot that rolled four feet from the hole to set up a birdie.

“It was better than sex, that five-iron,” Poxon said.

SCORESTHE LEADERS

Player--Score

Michael Allen: 33-33--66

Greg Norman: 34-32--66

Nick Faldo: 35-32--67

Peter Jacobsen: 31-37--68

Payne Stewart: 34-34--68

Sam Torrance: 34-34--68

Craig Parry: 32-36--68