Like it is

WALLY HALL: Criticism of John Daly's ride is out of bounds

John Daly has lived a relatively quiet life the past few years.

He plays a little on the PGA Champions Tour and travels to major events in his RV.

Nothing like his first 20 years in the glaring spotlight of the PGA Tour when his life could have been a country-western album. Many of his problems were because of a battle with alcohol that was too public.

Now, Daly is back in the headlines, but he shouldn't be.

Daly will play in the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black this week, but it won't be his usually loud wardrobe that draws attention. Instead, it will be the fact he'll be the only golfer using a golf cart.

Daly has osteoarthritis in his knee and can't walk more than six holes. He applied for permission to use a cart, and for that an Associated Press columnist ripped the former University of Arkansas golfer in a piece that ran in Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The writer kept referring to Daly's early life in the public eye, for being so overweight he had lap-band surgery (and dropped between 80-100 pounds) that may have led to his knee problems, and that Bethpage Black doesn't allow carts on a regular basis.

Last month, Daly turned 53. If he feels he needs a golf cart to play a tournament and he has secured an exemption, so be it.

The writer suggested Daly should park his RV at a nearby Hooters, sign autographs, sell merchandise to a still-adoring fan base and leave the golf up to the real players.

Yours truly will fight for that writer to have the right to write his opinion, even while heavily disagreeing with it.

Daly won't be a spectacle riding in a cart -- officials have declared it will not have a roof -- but he will write another chapter in his book of being a guy who traveled from Dardanelle, and not a country club, to the PGA Tour.

That's why his fans adore him. He accomplished what they wished they could.

In 1991 he burst upon the PGA Tour as the ninth alternate who drove all night to get to Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., where he shot rounds of 69-67-69-71 to win the PGA Championship by three strokes.

He was all the talk, but he tried to keep it quiet that he gave $30,000 to the family of a man who was struck by lightning and died during the tournament.

In 1992, he won the B.C. Open, and in 1993 he tied for third in the Masters. In 1994 he won the BellSouth Classic, and as a long shot he won a playoff in 1995 to capture the The British Open at famed St. Andrews.

The next five years were turbulent as Daly made more headlines for marital problems and drinking than he did on the golf course. But his benevolence never changed.

Per capita, Dardanelle -- his adopted home -- probably had the most Rolex owners in the world. They were gifts from Daly to friends, friends of friends and family.

He wrote big checks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

In 2001, his game settled down and he started to win again. In 2004, he won the Buick Invitational and was named PGA Comeback Player of the Year.

Daly was struggling with a gambling addiction, and in his autobiography he claimed he had lost millions of dollars.

In 2016, Daly turned 50 and now competes semi-regularly on the Champions Tour, where golf carts are allowed. In 2017, he won the Insperity Invitational on the Champions Tour.

When Daly makes headlines for riding in a golf cart this week, he will be in that cart because of what he accomplished as a golfer, not for being a human with weaknesses.

Sports on 05/14/2019

Upcoming Events