PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - The biggest draw in the PGA Tour's inaugural Ginn sur Mer Classic had little tosay after Wednesday's pro-am.
Maybe John Daly has a new motto: Grip it and zip it.
Perhaps it was a practice round that lasted five hours, 11 minutes (with just three amateurs instead of the usual four). Or maybe it was the layout of the Arnold Palmer course that had Daly (Dardanelle, Arkansas Razorbacks) using his 3-wood more often than his usual weapon of choice, the driver.
Or could it be he's just fed up after another mediocre season in which his best finish in 23 starts is 16th place at the Buick Open?
"I don't have anything new to say to anybody," Daly told a PGA Tour media official when asked to stop for an interview.
With that, Daly headed to Tesoro's clubhouse, stopping long enough tosign a couple of autographs and to hug Golf Channel announcer Kelly Tilghman by the practice green.
Repeated requests by reporters for Daly to stop and answer a couple of questions were met with no reaction. Finally, after he went to a locker room and was headed to a car his caddie had waiting for him by the clubhouse entrance, Daly muttered something about "it's really wet out there" and "I'm going to be wearing out my 3-wood this week."
No quips, no controversial quotes from the player who, despite his poor play, will no doubt draw the biggest gallery in today's first round.
It's been that way ever since Daly came out of nowhere to win the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick as the ninth alternate. Since that magical moment, there have been too many ugly situations to mention. The divorces. The drinking. The millions of dollars he admits he's lost gambling.
Just four months ago, Daly showed up at the Stanford St. Jude Championship with scratches on his face. Daly claimed his wife, Sherrie, who spent time in jail this year on a federal money laundering charge, attackedhim with a steak knife. Sherrie countered that he sexually assaulted her and made up the knife attack to cover up his own wrongdoing.
The couple, who had filed for divorce, later called a truce.
Daly might not want to talk about the past, but he's made plenty of money from his autobiography, My Life In And Out Of The Rough.
He has won as many majors as Greg Norman (2), but he has shown none of the consistency of the Great White Shark, finishing out of the top 150 on the PGA Tour money list six of the past 11 years (he's No. 182 this year).
"John's obviously been through a lot, but he's still immensely talented," veteran pro Mark Calcavecchia said. "It just baffles me to be able to hit the ball as far as he does with the talent and the touch he has and for him to play as poorly as he does. That just blows my mind. I don't see how hecan play that bad."
Daly, at 41 and never known for his physical conditioning, already is in the twilight of his career. He received a record 21 sponsor exemptions this year, but will those opportunities continue if he doesn't improve?
Absolutely, Calcavecchia said.
"The tour needs him," Calcavecchia said. "I'd love to see him win again. He's probably been given more chances than anyone should be given, but he's John Daly. The crowd loves him. He's like a wild Phil [Mickelson]. You never know what you're going to get with JD. He might hit one 350 yards, and then he might hit the next three in the water."
Daly's last trip to South Florida didn't go so well. In March, he had to withdraw from the Honda Classic at PGA National after only two holes with a shoulder injury. Daly was hurt trying to stop his swing after he heard a fan's camera go off.
His lack of patience was evident Wednesday on his next-to-last hole when, after hitting his approach, he didn't bother to finish the hole, instead walking on to the next tee.
Ironically, one of his amateur partners, Bill Crandall, was just talking about how "delightful" it was to play with Daly. Asked about their interaction, Crandall said, "Every time we asked him a question, he told us what we wanted."
Afterward, he apparently had nothing left to say.
Sports, Pages 18 on 10/25/2007