The Washburn golf team is coming off a strong performance their last time out when they captured a meet victory at their home Washburn Invitational. Many players had strong showings, but none were better than that of junior Blake Allen.

Allen finished first in the individual standings defeating his teammate, junior Andrew Beckler, by two strokes.

Allen is from Lenexa, Kansas, where he attended Shawnee Mission Northwest High School. His mother, Dana, is a real estate agent and his father, Bret, works in the home loan industry selling mortgages.

Blake is the youngest of the three Allen boys, who are all within four years of each other. Garrett is the oldest and graduated from Washburn in May of 2017. Colton is just a year older than Blake and is on track to also graduate from Washburn this spring. Both Colton and Garrett played golf during their time at Washburn.

Allen and his girlfriend, Amanda Conway, recently welcomed a baby boy named Grayson Cash Allen into the family on March 10. Conway ran track her freshman year at Washburn before leaving it behind after she got into nursing school.

The decision to come to Washburn was made somewhat easily for Allen after seeing the experiences his brothers had.

“I knew basically after my junior year of high school, maybe even before then, that I wanted to pursue golf at least to college and possibly after college,” said Allen. “So, I came on a visit here and obviously my brother had already been here, so I knew how great the school was and I loved the campus, loved the classroom sizes and just thought this would be a perfect fit for me.”

At Washburn, Allen is studying entrepreneurship and finance. His first goal after graduation is to see where his golf game is at and hopefully pursue playing professionally if the opportunity arises. If that doesn’t work out, he wants to run his own business.

Allen has had a couple different ideas with one in particular standing out that he may pursue. He wants to try his hand at having a liquor store, a gas station and a car wash business all in one.

“I just think those three things are something that’s never going to go out of style,” said Allen. “Everyone’s always going to buy booze, everyone’s always going to need gas for their car and your gonna need to clean your car, so I think there’s high demand for all three of those things.”

Innovation is always something Allen has been good at. He said he may not be creative in the artsy sense, but that he’s always been good at coming up with different business ideas.

“I may not know all the blueprints and all the steps to get into the ultimate idea,” said Allen. “But I can come up with the big picture and if I have a little help along the way to figure out all the small things I think I can make it work.”

Golf has never seemed like a job for Allen. He doesn’t really have a day where he dreads going to the course thinking “oh man I have to go play golf.” As a result, he enjoys playing golf in his free time in addition to his competitive game.

Allen says he may not come out and really focus and grind and try to get better all the time, but he enjoys just coming out and playing 18 holes with his buddies.

Skydiving is something Allen is looking forward to doing in the next few years. He really wants to jump by himself but doesn’t want to spend the money it would take to go through classes to jump by himself. Allen has always enjoyed heights and thrill-seeking activities specifically roller coasters because of the exhilaration he gets from it.

Two summers ago, Allen had the experience of a lifetime when he played in the Watson Challenge golf tournament put on by Tom Watson who is considered the greatest golfer from Kansas and one of the best overall.

The second morning Allen and his brother were eating breakfast in the cafeteria when Watson himself approached them and asked if he could sit and eat with them. They of course said yes and were just amazed that they were sitting face-to-face eating breakfast with one of the best golfers ever.

It was a different side to Watson than what Allen had seen the day before playing with him on the course.

“He’s not the most talkative guy,” said Allen. “Maybe that was just because we were on the golf course and it was a tournament, so he was playing to beat everybody and play as good as he can.”

Nevertheless, it was an experience that Allen said he would never forget, especially given the fact that he ended up beating Watson by a couple strokes that day.

In his own career, Allen started to realize his ability when he won the Kansas Junior Amateur Championship and the Kansas Amateur Championship in the same summer. That accomplishment made him one of only three players to ever win both tournaments in the same summer.

“That was probably the biggest summer of my life,” said Allen. “It just kind of made me realize that I’ve got the ability to compete at that level.”

Allen has put in a lot of work behind the scenes to elevate his game to that level of play.

“His hard work has contributed to his success by being prepared,” said teammate Ian Trebilcock. “Nothing surprises him on the golf course. When he finds himself in a tough spot, he knows he’s put in the practice which gives him the confidence to pull off the shot.”

Blake and the Ichabods will be back in action on April 5 when they travel to Kansas City to play in the NSIC Preview.