Patched up Daly sticks to his guns
Daly yesterday revealed he had played the last 13 holes of his second round at Muirfield “basically one-handed” after injuring his right hand playing a shot from the rough.
The 36-year-old had the hand x-rayed on his arrival in Holland on Saturday and found the source of the pain was a piece of glass that had been there for years embedded in a bone just above the knuckle of his first finger.
The glass was removed and the wound stitched, but when the stitches came undone during a practice round, Daly resorted to his very own brand of running repairs.
“I don’t care, I’m not going to watch it bleed!” Daly explained. “I hit a shot on the fifth hole at the Open on Friday and it felt like somebody just stabbed a knife through my finger.
I played 11 holes today and my right hand just started bleeding really badly. I put superglue on top of it so hopefully that will stop the bleeding. If it doesn’t work I’m going to have to get it re-stitched. The stitches came out the other day and that’s what really hurts.”
Unsurprisingly, Daly missed the cut at Muirfield with rounds of 74 and 77, but was happy to stay on in Europe and is one of the star attractions in a strong field at Hilversum.
Ryder Cup team-mates Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood, Paul McGinley and Bernhard Langer are all competing for the first prize of £193,000, along with Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter.
The biennial contest should have taken place shortly after Langer’s win last year, but was postponed in the aftermath of the US terrorist attacks.
But Langer is not concerned about the form of the likes of Lee Westwood, Pierre Fulke or Paul McGinley, as the contest at the Belfry grows nearer.
“You have some guys in very good form and you have two or three who are not playing as well as they were 12 months ago,” admitted Langer.
“The American team might have a couple who are struggling too.”
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