|
The Daly Show
Shark.com Staff
December 26, 2006
Of all the golfers on the PGA Tour, nobody needed to find his old touch in a Christmas stocking more so than John Daly.
No golfer has come out of nowhere to electrify the sport than Daly did when he went from ninth alternate to 1991 PGA Championship winner. Unfortunately, no golfer has experienced more highs and lows since than Big John.
 | | "I'm totally dedicating myself to golf this year, and my mind will be more into it," Daly said. |
There have been the four marriages and the two major championships, the millions of dollars he's squandered in gambling losses and the hundreds of people he's inspired with his generosity. There have been the drunken binges and the talks he has with other AA alumni at golf tournaments.
There have been the 370-yard drives and the missed 2-foot putts, the big crowds he draws and the fans he also disappoints with his too-often withdrawels during a tournament.
Yep, nobody has a more complicated, more misunderstood existence than Daly -- yet few golfers are as beloved as he is. And John can use that support today.
For the first time since his unlikely win at the 1991 PGA, Daly enters a PGA Tour season without full-exempt status after he finished a career-worse 193rd on this year's money list. That's what happens when you only have one top-25 finish in 21 starts -- and that wasn't even in a stroke play event (he finished T17 at the World Match Play Championship, meaning he won one match).
"It has been one of those years that nothing has gone right," said Daly, who battled several injuries in 2006.
But Big John seems to get more than his share of mulligans, so he didn't even bother to go back to grueling Q-School to get full-exempt status because he knew, due to his drawing power, he could get enough sponsor exemptions to fill out his 2007 schedule.
"I have put in a lot of time on the tour," he said. "I have been faithful to a lot of the tournaments. I have played in tournaments the tour had asked me to play in because they kind of needed me to play in. So I hope a lot of sponsors out there will kind of give me some sponsors exemptions."
And that's exactly what has happened as tournaments have been offering Daly so many sponsor's exemptions (more than 20), he'll actually have to turn some of them down.
"It's impossible. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to play in all of them," Daly told the San Diego Union-Tribune last week in an interview at the TaylorMade-adidas Golf Company headquarters, where he has spent the month living in the parking lot in his bus.
(Only John could pull off living in a parking lot in his multi-million-dollar bus -- another study in contrasts).
 | | It has been one of those years that nothing has gone right," said Daly, who battled several injuries in 2006. |
The big question, of course, is what will Daly do with all of these free passes? Will he use them to kick-start his career in where only one of his five career PGA Tour wins have come in the last decade (the 2004 Buick Championship)? Or will he continue to squander some of the most amazing talent the PGA Tour has ever seen?
Daly told the San Diego newspaper he's "totally dedicating myself to golf this year, and my mind will be more into it." Of course, it's easy to say these things in December, when you haven't just three-putted a hole or woke up one morning feeling every bit of your 40 years.
Once again, Daly is receiving plenty of support from an equipment company. This time, it's TaylorMade that has made him the centerpiece of a marketing campaign for a new Maxfli ball, the "Fireball." And they're in the process of developing a line of Daly Maxfli clubs.
Daly also got an assist from Tiger Woods, who used one of his two wild-card spots to his Target World Challenge event. Just by being in the field, Daly was assured of his biggest paycheck of '06, even if he finished last ($170,000) -- which is exactly where he finished after an 80 in the final round.
But Daly knows the beauty of golf is these free passes end on the first tee of a tournament. The scorecard doesn't care how many majors you've won, how much your fans love you or how much potential you possess in your game.
It's all about performance. Daly knows his window of opportunity is closing. We'll find out next year how serious he is about turning his career around.
Again.
| The Par Report is posted every Monday on Shark.com. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Greg Norman. |
|
| 
