Did you happen to notice that John Daly finished dead-ass last in thr Target World Challenge, hosted by somebody who never gives in.
Dead-ass last and got $170,000 for his now famous I-give-up attitude towards golf.
How many times are we gonna have to watch him get an 8 on a Par 3 ?
How many times are we gonna have to watch him get a 12 on a Par 4 ?
He knew, even if he finished dead-ass last, he’d get his biggest check of the year. And so he did.
That’s just sad.
Now, because he’s a trainwreck waiting to happen, he’s gonna get 30 ( probably ) sponsors exemptions for 2007, so he can quit on the host and miss 15 cuts in those 30 opportunities.
I was John’s biggest fan … for way too many years. I watched him upclose and personal at Fuzzy’s Wolf Challenge. I watched him and Lenny and a couple of others play for … “fun”. I stood in line til Tommy Zoeller, Fuzzy’s brother, got him to give my kids an autograph. Still got it. It’s next to my autograph from Paul Hornung. One a Hall of Famer. The other, a Hall of Shamer.
Now he’s given in to way too many times, made way too many bad decisions and quit trying one too many times.
Can’t quit smoking. Can’t quit eating. Can’t quit marrying. Can’t quit gambling.
But he can quit trying to play each and every hole the best he can with the enormous God-given talent he has.
Until he quits quitting on himself and his legion of fans, I’m quitting on him.
Sorry John.
Hey Tiger, if you invite me to your tournament, I’ll play each and every hole like it’s the only thing in my life for that moment.
I wish John could do the same.
Peace John. I hope you find it … someday. I hope you don’t grow old, grow even fatter and find yourself wishing you’d actually tried … instead of giving in.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Personally, I like John Daly exactly the way he is. Flawed but genuine.
I hate to admit this but I can relate to John Daly much more then I can to Tiger Woods. The giving in…the bad decisions, the finishing dead last… Yeah, I’ve been there. Tiger, on the other hand is sheer perfection. I can’t even aspire to that. Admire, yes…but he’s way too perfect to relate to in any way.
So I think that’s it. We need John to keep it real, and when he does show sparks of the brilliance we know he’s capable of, it’s that much more exciting.
As far as how many times are we’re gonna have to watch him get a 12 on a Par 4? I guess only as long as we want to. Because once we stop wanting to watch him he won’t be getting those exemptions.
The thing is I think golf needs personalities and they can’t all be exemplary personalities. Sure, I feel John should be more careful about his health, both physical and mental, but I don’t think he should ever stop being John Daly. And…I don’t think he will.
Thanks for your thoughts, Patricia. That was very genuine and well said.
I love John, but it seems that the tournaments are enabling his self-destruction and we’re participating in that.
I don’t want to watch him slowly make himself into a sad, pathetic figure to be pitied. I want him to fight the demons and win.
There’s two different ways to look at him and we’ve chosen the polar opposites.
Not a big deal, nor worth arguing about, as it won’t ultimately affect either of us.
Golf’s a game of integrity and his is suffering because of those incidents of giving in.
At our club level, we’d be accusing him of sandbagging to keep his handicap up.
At the Pro level, he’s just thought of as an attraction, to be dropped like a bad habit, when he’s no longer worth the trouble.
The problem will be that he’ll still have to live with the fact that they cared not about the man, just about the gate and the money it brought.
I’d rather be a talentless nobody than a talented freakshow.