Tulsa, Okla. – There was a time, before he became a budding sommelier coming soon to a liquor store near you, John Daly Wines, including such hearty stock as The Fairway Range, The Lion’s Range and of course, The Perfect Round.
Before he became a shill for anyone willing to write a check to help offset the costs of a life that has become a reality programmer’s dream and the basis for any clichéd country song ever inked, John Daly was a pretty good golfer. And during Thursday’s opening round of the PGA Championship, the man who has eight missed cuts and has withdrawn from four other tournaments this season convinced the person who matters most of that – himself.
Instead of falling apart at the first sign of trouble, Daly persevered through a day that was more conducive to frazzled nerves than patience, shooting a 3-under-par 67.
“I bent over to look at some putts, stuff I haven’t done,” Daly said. “And I actually sat over the putts longer – instead of three or four seconds, it was more like six or seven today.”
If Daly, who could step right in alongside Sam Adams on the Broncos’ defensive line, bending over to read putts is a surprising, if not pretty, sight, then you have some idea of what the first 18 holes of the final major championship of the season was like.
There were oddities of all kinds up and down the leaderboard. Like unheralded European Tour player Graeme Storm leading the field following a bogey-free 65. Or Mike Small, one of just 20 PGA professionals in the field, hanging tough with the PGA Tour pros and standing in second place before faltering late. Or U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera taking a 10 on the 200-yard, par-3 sixth hole.
Even so, Thursday belonged to Daly – which was a good thing, because he, as well as anyone who’s dropped a dime into a jukebox to hear a sorrowful tune, can tell you, tomorrow is promised to no one.
“I don’t know how well I’ll play the next day, or the next three days, hopefully, but I got a little bit of confidence in certain areas,” he said.
With Daly, trouble, either on or off the course, never seems to be very far away.
Three weeks ago at the British Open, the world’s 423rd-ranked player also took the lead at 5-under – unfortunately for Daly, he still had seven holes to play. He finished those up in an untidy 8-over, shot 74 for the round and was never heard from again, typical of a two-year stretch in which physical problems has led to mental instability.
“If there were 14 holes on a golf course, I would have won 17 tournaments in the last year and a half, that’s the way I look at it,” he said. “Look at my score cards – one or two bad holes every round – you almost can’t help but get down on yourself after that …
“I just feel like I’m swinging too good and I’m playing too good – something good is going to happen. I believe that, otherwise I wouldn’t be playing. If I didn’t think I could win anymore I just wouldn’t be playing.”
Of course, by playing, Daly means something closer to Sunday mornings at the local goat farm rather than a major championship. While others were worrying about the heat, or the narrow fairways, or the Dow Jones plummeting 300-some points, Daly was just being Daly – which is to say he wasn’t giving a coherent thought to much of anything.
To prepare for his opening round, Daly didn’t stalk the grounds at Southern Hills; rather, he adjourned to a nearby casino to play the slots. After a while – and having donated an undisclosed amount to the establishment – the management let Daly have its golf course to himself for about three hours.
“It was probably the best practice I did,” he said.
Even as he basically hit the ball, found it and hit it again, bobbing into and out of trouble, Daly said even he expected something bad to happen.
“To be honest, I was waiting to make a seven or eight because that’s the way the year’s been going,” he said.
But it didn’t, which meant that 16 years after he won the PGA after making the field as the sixth alternate, 12 years after winning his second major at the British, and three years after his last win of any kind, Daly will tee it up today, with a chance to become more than the butt of a joke.
“This golf course doesn’t suit his game at all,” Ernie Els said. “It’s nice to see him up there at the top of the leaderboard. Amazing.”
Staff writer Anthony Cottoncan be reached at 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
