Aussie fury at Daly’s latest wild outburst

ORGANISERS of next month’s UBS Hong Kong Open will be reviewing an invitation to John Daly after he walked off midway through the first round of the Australian Open in Sydney.

Daly is facing another Australian PGA Tour fine and also had an Australian PGA Championship invitation for later this month withdrawn following his actions at the 11th hole of The Lakes club.

Daly shook hands with playing partners, Craig Parry and Hunter Mahan after running out of golf balls when he put at least six balls into a large water hazard down the right side of the 11th fairway.

Daly was seven over par after 10 holes and looked visibly upset after a ruling on the 10th when penalised two strokes for an infringement in a bunker. Daly then seemed to show little care in casually putting out for a 10th hole triple bogey.

The 1991 US PGA and 1995 British Open champion then stood on the 11th tee hitting ball after ball into the water before a Tour rules official arrived at the hole.

In a later Twitter message, Daly remarked: “When u run out of balls you run out of ball. Yes, I shook my playing partners hands & signed my card w/rules official.”

Trevor Herden, Golf Australia’s Director of Tournaments, called Daly’s actions ‘unprofessional” and said action needed to be taken.

Herden stated running out of balls was no excuse. “If you run out of golf balls, and you are acting in a professional manner, you will call a rules official and we will get the type of ball he is playing with and replenish his stock,” Herden said.

Herden said Daly appeared to become upset after hitting the wrong ball out of a bunker on 10.

Herden added: “He is a Major winner, we have to pay him some respect, too, even though his times have moved on slightly. But I would say this will be the last time we will see John Daly.” The PGA Tour of Australasia said no appearance fees had been paid to Daly.