Jun 11 2009
John Daly, On the Comeback Trail
Since John Daly is so popular on this site, we’ve decided to give you all a little update the Lion, given the fact that he’s back in the news. We do want to mention that we’re a little surprised about his popularity. More people come to this site because they search for ‘John Daly’ on search engines than any other keyword. Kinda surprising.
Anyway, Big John Daly is on the comeback trail, starting today at the St. Jude Classic from TPC Southwind in Memphis. If you need a little background, Daly was suspended for six months for conduct that brought unwanted publicity to the PGA. The most recent situation that brought the hammer down from the PGA was when he was picked up by police outside of a Hooters in Winston-Salem, NC. Needless to say, he was not of sound mind when they found him. All in a day’s work for Daly.
I’m happy to say that the suspension may have shown Daly the error of his ways. Since then, he has cleaned up his act a little bit. He even had lap-band surgery to lose weight, and he took on Rick Smith as his swing coach. He also kept playing during his suspension, participating in seven tournaments on the European Tour. However, he missed the cut in three of the seven tournaments he played in.
The highlight of his year on the European Tour was at the BMW Italian Open, where he finished tied-for-second at 11-under par. The most impressive statistic of his performance at the Italian Open is that he didn’t shoot over 70 in any of the four rounds. He shot 69 for the first three rounds, and finished strong with a 66 in the final round.
So, keep an eye on Daly. It will be interesting to see how he carries himself now that he’s 60 pounds lighter back on the PGA Tour. He just teed off a little while ago at the St. Jude Classic, so we’ll try to keep an eye on his progress and update you if anything happens.
