With his seriously ill mother's blessing, Victorian Robert Allenby is gunning for a fourth Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship title this week at Coolum.
It has been well documented that Allenby had badly wanted to win last week's Sportsbet Masters at Huntingdale so that he could dedicate victory to his mother Sylvia, who is battling cancer.
The 37-year-old was unable to do so, even though his mum made it out to Huntingdale on the Sunday afternoon hoping to see him claim another win, and the realisation that he had missed his chance when he stumbled at the 15th saw his emotions take over.
But having had the chance to spend some more time with his mum on Monday and Tuesday, Allenby decided to honour his commitment to play at Hyatt Regency Coolum this week.
"Monday I was thinking about not coming because I just didn't think that I was mentally and emotionally ready to play for this week," Allenby said on Wednesday afternoon after playing in the pro-am.
"I said to my mum Tuesday morning when we had breakfast … 'I'm happy to stay home and just be with you if you want, I don't have to go (and) play, you're more important than golf so tell me what you'd like me to do'."
"And she said 'I'd like you to go up there and win the tournament'. That's why I'm here, that's my ultimate goal is to try and win the tournament."
"But the good thing about my mum, she said 'I'd love you to win the tournament but if you don't win don't worry about it, it's not the end of the world', she said 'I'll still love you after'."
Struggling with his emotions after Sylvia Allenby also made it to his annual charity dinner on Monday night in Melbourne, Allenby puts his mother's ability to 'do the best she can' despite the disease down to her upbringing in Yorkshire.
"We know what's going to happen and we can't control it but the most important thing is that we can give her all the love we can and give her all the greatest memories that we can as well to keep her spirits high and keep her fighting for as long as she can," he said.
"But it's hard, I've never had to deal with anything like this in my life. I've never lost anyone really. When it's your mum and dad it's a little bit different and plus being the youngest of four … she's always been there for me."
A win would be even more special because his mum and dad both backed him as a 17-year-old when he left school at the end of year 11 to pursue his dream to be a pro golfer.
His parents sold their house to help fund his early forays overseas and both parents continued to encourage him throughout those junior days to help mould the player that he has since become.
"She's always been a strong person, she's always been whatever your dream is, go for it," he added. "When I was a kid, when I was a 17-year-old kid and left school at the end of year 11 … my mum's always been a huge supporter for me."
"My mum and dad had to give up a lot, they had to sell their house to do that, so they really took