Daly's woes deepen after disqualification

John Daly’s career took another turn for the worse today when he was disqualified from playing at this week’s Bay Hill Invitational.

A day after being unceremoniously dumped by his coach, Daly missed his pro-am tee time at Bay Hill, an offence that earns automatic disqualification from the tournament proper.

Daly told PGA Tour officials he thought his tee time was 9.47am, whereas in fact it was 8.40am.

His absence caused further damage, as two other players, Ryuji Imada and Nick O’Hern, were also expelled from the tournament for missing the pro-am. They were the first two alternates for the morning pro-am but were not on site.

It has been a rough week for Daly, the two-time major winner whose rollercoaster career appears to be in a serious decline amid a series of poor performances and continuing off-course problems.

After missing the cut at last week’s PGA Tour event, Daly spent the following day in an on-course bar, and his exploits were documented in a series of photographs published on a local newspaper’s website.

Then came the news that coach Butch Harmon, who only started working with Daly recently, had ditched the player, reportedly accusing him of being more interested in drinking than practicing.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said he had not spoken to Daly about his behaviour last weekend.

“I’m not fully briefed on the details and we have not engaged John on that at this point in time, but we are available to work with him,” Finchem said.

“We hope he can deal with his issues in a way that allows him to continue playing golf. Over the years, you’re well versed in the issues that have plagued him and his life and how he’s dealt with them, and most cases not dealt with them.

“It is, on the one hand, something that makes him very endearing to fans, because he is perhaps the ultimate come-from-behind, blue collar upstart with all of these challenges.

“On the other hand, we have certain conduct (codes) that we have to maintain, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Other players were reluctant to comment on Daly’s situation.

“That’s not my role to talk about it or get involved in it,” said Phil Mickelson. “I hope things get better, but that’s not my area of voicing opinions.”

Daly, 41, who finished 188th on the PGA Tour money list last year, does not even have full playing status this year, instead playing tournaments mostly on sponsors’ exemptions.

He has not posted a top-50 finish in seven starts, slumping to 573rd in the world rankings.