johndalyrules

August 13, 2007

TULSA, Okla.--When John Daly was introduced at No. 1 tee before the final round of the 89th PGA Championship, a leather-lunged fan yelled, "Sooie!"

After Long John struck his tee shot, another man hollered, "Go in the hole!"

That was a stretch, but not by much.

The first hole at Southern Hills measures 464 yards, and Arkansas basketball trainer Dave England said, "John's drive had to go 400 yards."

From the trees on the left side, Daly punched his second shot just past the green, then chipped within inches to secure his par.

The round continued that way, with Daly missing fairways often but scrambling well. He shot his third consecutive 73 after an opening 67 for a total of 286, six over par, and a tie for 32nd place.

For the second straight day, John's wife, Sherrie Daly, was there to watch some of his round. She parked their SUV in Steve Elkington's parking space (as he had missed the cut), and drove away with John about 15 minutes after his round, but not before Daly signed a few autographs and did a talk-and-walk with the media posse.

He even stopped outside the vehicle for a few minutes and seemed to be in a good mood.

"I had a few bad breaks, but I really putted well," Daly said. "I didn't hit a green from No. 4 to No. 14 but got all but one of them up and down, I think."

The killer for Daly was his second shot from right of the fifth fairway, which struck a tree and was never found. Counting a two-shot penalty for the lost ball, he did well to make a bogey 6 on the hole.

"The ball stuck in a tree," Daly surmised. "I played the par-fives in three over par today and still shot 73."

Someone asked Daly if he was "back."

"Oh, I don't know," he said. "It was a good week. Just take some small steps. I got some confidence. I'm going to Sweden and Holland and then hope to play some of the FedEx events. I need to win $300,000 to $400,000 more this year."

Daly blamed some tweaking he did on his TaylorMade driver with causing his off-line drives the past three days.

"I put some more weight in the toe of the driver," Daly said. "I'm stubborn. I go with feel. The TaylorMade people know better than me. It's my fault, but hell, I tried."

Daly drove into the left rough at No. 2 but still eventually made a 15-foot birdie putt. He found the left rough again at No. 3 and did well to get up and down from a greenside bunker. At No. 4 he drove left into the second cut, within 40 yards of the green, but had to settle for a par 4. So perhaps he was overcompensating when he drove to the right at No. 5.

Steve Stricker, Daly's playing partner who closed with a 71, was a study in contrasts. He was usually in the fairway, 50 yards behind Daly's drives.

"John is a great guy -- one of the nicest guys out here," Stricker said. "It's a challenge to play with him -- he plays fast and there's a raucous crowd. It's affected me in the past but today I had a lot of fun. You just have to stay in your own little world. It's funny, I don't think the commotion bothers John at all."

Daly finally used a 3-iron and 2-iron respectively to hit the 17th and 18th fairways, and finished birdie-par.

But he said, "Tiger uses irons off the tee, but I just can't play that way. I'm not confident in my 6-, 7- and 8-irons into the greens."

All in all, Daly said, "I just love the way I hit the ball this week."

He'll play in Fuzzy Zoeller's fun charity event, also involving rocker Alice Cooper, today.

As Daly left the grounds, Woods was playing the 10th hole with a three-shot lead. Daly was asked if Tiger was catchable.

"No, he's not beatable today," Daly said. "I could see it when he made the putt at No. 8."

Daly had bowed to Woods after Tiger made that birdie putt.

"He just smiled at me," Daly said, grinning.

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