Daily Times (Primos, PA)

Daly out of British, can use cart on PGA Tour in Ky.

- By Doug Ferguson

John Daly is free to ride a cart during the week of the British Open — just not at Royal Portrush.

Daly’s manager said Tuesday he is likely to play the Barbasol Championsh­ip next week in Kentucky, and the two-time major champion with osteoarthr­itis in his right knee already has been granted a cart to use in the PGA Tour event.

Andy Pazder, the chief tournament­s and competitio­n officer for the PGA Tour, said Daly late last year was approved to use a cart through 2019 at PGA Tour events and PGA Tour Champions events that require walking.

The R&A announced Tuesday that Daly had withdrawn from the British Open “due to a medical condition.”

The nature of that condition — be it his arthritic knee or a spider bite — was not entirely clear.

Daly has been dealing with arthritis in his knee, and he says he also was diagnosed as diabetic. That led him to request a cart for the PGA Championsh­ip at Bethpage Black under the Americans with Disabiliti­es Act, which the PGA of America approved after Daly submitted the required medical informatio­n.

The R&A rejected his request for a cart over the weekend, saying it felt walking was an integral part of the tournament. “We must also ensure, as far as possible, the challenge is the same for all players in the field,” it said.

Pulling out of the British Open, however, might also be linked to a social media post from Daly on Sunday.

In a Twitter note that he described as “My life chapter 84k,” Daly says he was on vacation in England last week when he was bitten by a spider without realizing it. He was taken to an emergency room on Friday — apparently at Uniontown Hospital in Pennsylvan­ia, north of the Nemacolin Resort — and taken straight into surgery to remove a major infection in his abdominal area. He says he also was treated for early sepsis from a brown recluse.

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