Playing his own game: what makes the ‘Wild Thing’ tick
It seems John Daly is not going to be taking up full membership of the European Tour after all, and what a pity if that is the case.
To be fair to Daly, the days of trashing hotel rooms and drinking binges have long gone, but the ‘Wild Thing’ remains one of the biggest draws in golf, and with good reason.
Ordinary golf fans can identify far more with Daly - the overweight, heavy smoking, wild swinging country boy with a bad haircut - than the latest cap-wearing clone off the college production line.
Daly swings a club like many weekend amateurs and has a ‘grip it and rip it’ philosophy which means he spends plenty of time visiting parts of the golf course other players can’t even reach.
All of which explains why it was Daly, and not California native Tiger Woods, who enjoyed the vast majority of support from the large crowds which flocked to Harding Park in San Francisco for last week’s American Express Championship.
The roars when Daly took out his driver to smash the ball onto the seventh and 16th greens, both par fours measuring around 340 yards, were deafening, almost as deafening as the groan when he three-putted the second play-off hole to lose the title and £735,000 (e1.05m) first prize to Woods.
“If anyone has any ear plugs I’ll borrow them,” joked Colin Montgomerie after playing with Daly in the third round and being paired with him again for the final round.
“It’s very noisy out there but it’s all good fun. It’s part of the game when you are playing away from home if you like.
“If this was in Scotland it might be different but I’m enjoying it.”
Different is the perfect word to describe almost everything about Daly, from his appearance to his diet regime, his preferred mode of transport to his willingness to say what he thinks.
Daly says he has lost around 35lbs from last summer’s high of 276lbs (almost 20 stone). Back then he told people losing weight would make his swing too quick, then his doctor told him to choose between having surgery on a bone spur in his right heel or losing weight.
“I quit eating the junk,” Daly told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Two hundred lbs is my goal.”
And the secret behind this amazing weight loss - the Hooters diet. “I eat there all the time,” says Daly, who is sponsored by the chain of restaurants which specialises in a certain kind of waitress.
“I’m trying to get them to market a John Daly platter.”
Daly travels much of the PGA Tour in his RV - recreational vehicle or enormous mobile caravan about the size of a small house to non-Americans - and enjoys nothing more than hanging out with country and western singers.
He also plays the guitar himself - the self-penned All my exes wear Rolexes is a classic - and at charity events will often produce his guitar and sing his favourite song Knocking On Heaven’s Door. Once, without thinking, he played it at a hospice event.
Woods arrived in San Francisco after four days with his personal trainer, Daly throws up whenever he exercises and has sworn never to darken a gym’s doors again.
“Long as I can walk 18 holes, I’m fine,” he says.
Daly has earned enough money this season to qualify for the season-ending Volvo Masters - Sunday’s prize money counts towards the Order of Merit and he was second to David Howell in the BMW International Open in Munich - but he has not played enough events to maintain his membership.
A trip to Spain in the next two weeks would rectify that, and what a welcome addition Daly would make to the tour.
“I love going over there and playing,” he said in San Francisco.
“I enjoy the European Tour. It’s more laid back in a way than ours is. Guys hang out a little bit more.
“Our tour has a bit more money but only a few of us get to hang out in the States, we’ve either got a trainer or a psychologist following the guys. My entourage is a bunch of drunks having a good time.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
