Is the man that is the epitome of “Grip it and Rip It” style of golf, back? After two rounds at the Farmers Insurance Open, John Daly is three back from the lead shooting 8 under and tied for third place. The Farmer Insurance Open is ironically at Torrey Pines, the same course that Daly made a surprising playoff win. That win was seven years ago and has been Daly’s last win on the PGA Tour. Since then Daly has dropped out of numerous tournaments, had problems with the law, lost his PGA tour card (he only plays right now on tournament and sponsorship exemptions), and lost over a 100 pounds.
A good score after two rounds is not usually something to get excited about, but when it comes to the common man’s golfer, people start turning their heads. Fans, media, and tournament directors would love to see Daly make a huge comeback because he can create huge amounts of revenue and is hugely popular with all types of fan bases. Ever since his win at Torrey Pines, Daly has played bad round after bad round but has shown some flashes of brilliance. That last flash of brilliance came at Saint Andrews- The Old Course in The Open Championship last July. Daly shot an opening round of 66, 6 down and high on the leader board. Unfortunately, Daly went on to shoot 4 over the next day and ended up finishing tied for 48th after all four rounds of golf had been played.
During the second round of the Farmer’s Insurance Open, Daly was able to shake off what has been in the past the downfall of his game and go on and still finish strong. Daly’s major hiccup was 14 holes into his second round on the front nine’s hole number four. A par four that Daly had birdied the day before gave him his troubles. He shot a double bogey on hole 4 to bring his 9 under down to 7 under. Daly stayed confident and two holes later birdied hole 6 and pared the remaining holes to give him the score he has now. Daly has two rounds left to finish strong with a possible win or give his critics the benefit of the doubt and make his first two rounds at Torrey Pines look like a fluke.
Nothing would make me happier in the sport of golf to see the local man from Dardanelle, Arkansas finish strong and resurrect a career that many thought was dead. It’s been a rough road for Daly over the past few years and it would make a lot of people happy to see him become the next feel good story in sports, again. Daly has changed his life around at least that is what he has publically told his fans and media and like other sports figures it would be great for him to be rewarded for his decisions.
I will leave you with the thought that not many golfers can pull off the look Daly has been sporting the last couple of tour seasons. He has a very eccentric dressing style now that is somewhat outlandish but also a tribute to the old school style of clothing that has not regularly been worn in tournaments since the late Payne Stewart. It is fairly hard to play golf and look like a combination of Luigi and green go signal at a stoplight though. He definitely wasn’t hard to find on the course today.
All Photo Rights are to the AP.
No comments:
Post a Comment