Daly still battling personal demons

Within hours of winning nearly €616,800 at the American Express world championship last October, John Daly lost double that gambling in Las Vegas.

That is what Daly himself says in his autobiography to be released next Monday.

And the former Open champion reckons his total losses in the last 12 years could be as much as €47.9m.

“If I don’t get control of my gambling, it’s going to flat-out ruin me,” states Daly.

He lost in a play-off to Tiger Woods at the Amex championship in San Francisco and says he drove to Las Vegas and lost almost €1.3m, mostly on slot machines, and half of it in just 30 minutes.

The US Tour’s website commissioner Tim Finchem met Daly on Monday and said afterwards: “It is clear that he continues to be concerned about and grapple with significant personal challenges.

“I have expressed to John the Tour’s concern for his well-being, as well as his ongoing need to uphold the image and standards of the PGA Tour.

“While we will continue to enforce the regulations and policies of the PGA Tour, I have advised John of the Tour’s willingness to support him in his efforts to deal with his personal issues.”

Daly has managed to keep his career afloat with sponsorship deals, appearance money and “running myself ragged doing corporate outings instead of spending time with my family and working on my game”.

He said he owed over €2.9m to casinos prior to capturing the 1995 Open at St Andrews, but the situation then became worse.

Married three times, he has battled alcohol addiction as well, but says now: “Only gambling remains a problem.”