By Mark Lamport-Stokes
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (Reuters) - The curious tale of Robert Allenby's bruising ordeal in Honolulu has taken some unexpected twists but the Australian on Tuesday stuck by his original version of events.
On Jan. 17, Allenby reported that he had been abducted the previous day from a wine bar, robbed and then dumped from a car in a Hawaii park about six miles (10 km) away after failing to qualify for the Sony Open in Honolulu.
Conflicting reports have since emerged with witnesses claiming they saw the golfer passed out 100 yards from the wine bar but Allenby said he had told only the truth, though he had a window of two-and-a-half hours without any memory.
"Everybody should understand there is an investigation going on to what did happen on that Friday night," Allenby told reporters at the TPC Scottsdale ahead of this week's Waste Management Phoenix Open.
"The authorities are doing their absolute best. We're hoping in the near future that something will be reported and that we will definitely get to the bottom of it.
"There's definitely been a lot of confusion, but I think the No. 1 thing that you should all remember is that my story stays exactly the same as the way I told it. I told you what I knew, and I told you what someone told me. I never lied to anyone."
Allenby, 43, has said he went out for dinner and drinks in Waikiki on with his caddie and a friend, then became separated from his companions after the group had paid their tab.
He later told Reuters that the next thing he recalled was waking up groggy in a park to find he had been beaten and robbed of his wallet, cell phone, cash and credit cards.
Allenby, who was left with facial injuries, said a homeless woman he encountered in the park told him she had seen a few men drive up in a car and throw him out of the vehicle.
"From about 11:06 p.m. to about 1:27 a.m., I have no memory in my brain, I have nothing," said Allenby. "I have been going backwards and forwards and there is just nothing.
"I can't tell you how frustrating that is because we all want to know the truth, we all want to get to the bottom of it. My headaches have only just gone, two days ago.
"But there's no way in the world what I drank could do what was done to me, not a chance in the world."