Through the smoke, he still has fire
At 50, Daly eager for new golf life on Champions tour
“I wish I would have had the mental attitude back in the ’90s like I do now.” — John Daly, who will make his PGA Tour Champions debut Friday
Underneath those garish pants, behind the cigarette smoke, John Daly has his regrets.
He fully admits that amid the hard living of too much alcohol, marital strife and gambling he “wasted” much of his talent after his folk-hero rookie victory in the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick.
There are Hall of Fame players whowould covet Daly’s two major championships— especially the second in the1995 British Open at St. Andrews. But there isn’t much else to admire— other than his rabid band of followers.
Daly has only five wins on the PGA Tour, the last coming in a playoff12 years ago at Torrey Pines, and he has posted only 32 career top-10 finishes. By contrast, Phil Mickelson has 42 wins, including five majors, and179 top 10s.
“I wish Iwould have had the mental attitude back in the ’90s like I do now,” Daly said on a conference call thisweek. “I wasted my talent in the ’90s.… All the money was coming in, and I didn’t work hard enough at it. I didn’t do the right things to prepare myself to win golf tournaments.
“That’s definitely on me. But that’s just not the case anymore. I’m just kind of a grinder now.”
We will soon find out if Daly is a changed golfer— and a changed man, for that matter, because his personal demons always have bled over into his professional life.
After turning 50 on April 28, Daly will make his debut on the PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Champions Tour) on Friday in the Insperity Invitational in The Woodlands, Texas.
This is unquestionably the most anticipated and publicized Champions bow since Fred Couples in 2010. Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Duffy Waldorf are fine senior players, but they’ve never come close to capturing the country song-worthy appeal of Daly.
“John doesn’t move the needle; he is the needle right now, and we’re excited to have him,” Insperity tournament director Jane Wand macher told Forbes. “He is just what our tour needs.”
Daly made need the tour as much as it needs him.
He hasn’t enjoyed full-time status on the PGAT our since 2006. For a decade Daly lived off a steady diet of sponsor’s exemptions afforded by tournament directors seeking a guaranteed draw. But he rarely delivered on theweekend when it mattered most. He has only three top-10 finishes in the last 10 years.
The opportunities mostly dried up. Daly played10 times on the PGA Tour last season and missed eight cuts. He has made one start this year, in Puerto Rico in March, and didn’t reach theweekend.
He no longer faces that pressure. There are no cuts on the Champions. Checks are guaranteed.
“I’m really excited— one to make it to 50,” Daly said, offering the wheezy chuckle of a two-packs-a-day smoker. “And two, just to be able to have kind of a home to play again. It’s been pretty tough these last few years not knowing where I’m going to play or waiting by the phone for exemptions.”
Daly has two full years of exempt status and is looking forward to spending time with many of his old acquaintances, including Fred Funk, Peter Jacobsen, John Huston and Fuzzy Zoeller.
“I knowthe tour is very, very competitive, but apparently they’re not scared after the round to go in and have a drink together,” Daly said. “That’s what’s cool about this tour.”
Daly told the story recently of Zoeller, one of his closest friends, once offering to give him
$150,000 if he stayed alive until 50. Daly said he recently called Zoeller to remind him.
“He even said he thought it was 40,” Daly said, laughing. “I told him just to giveme a bottle of your Fuzzy vodka and we’ll call it even.”
If Daly drives it anywhere close to the 300 yards he did when he led the tour in distance for 10 years, he could be a menace to the old guys. But he needs to have a short game too.
“My game is nowhere near where Iwant it to be,” he said.
Daly’s personal life seems to be
in order. He has been in a relationship with Anna Cladakis, a former Hooters promotions director, since 2008, and she home-schooled-Daly’s youngest child, John Patrick-Daly II, who is now attending a high school golf academy in Florida. “He’s thriving,” Daly said. Daly insists his own mental makeup is the best it has been. And he expressed that in away only he can:
“We’re like doers instead of don’ters now.”