Daly (69) still out there hacking

John Daly is sick. He is coughing. He is unshaven. He is wearing a windbreaker the size of a spinnaker. He smoked only four cigarettes while he played his opening round Thursday at Riviera Country Club.

He says that’s the reason he’s coughing.

“If I’d have smoked my usual two packs, you wouldn’t hear me coughing,” he said.

Granted, this isn’t the normal human reaction, but then you have to toss conventional wisdom right out the window when the topic is Daly.

His week got off to a typically unconventional start. Daly had no problem switching his pro-am tee time Wednesday with Phil Mickelson for an earlier time because it meant he had an extra hour to play with. He went to a Willie Nelson concert at the Nokia Theater. So Daly isn’t about to complain, even though he really has a bunch of reasons that surely would give him permission.

His ribs still hurt nearly a year after he injured them at the Honda Classic, when he stopped his club in his downswing after hearing a fan click a camera. He is considering suing the golf course.

His invitations to tournaments have dropped, partially because he keeps missing cuts.

He lost 84 Lumber as a sponsor, and even worse, he lost Hooters. If there was ever a prototype sponsor for Daly, this was it.

And now it’s gone. Back in the day, the Daly high point for sponsors was the time he wore logos on his shirt for TrimSpa and Dunkin Donuts at the same time, which Daly compared to simultaneously endorsing Alcoholics Anonymous and Budweiser.

Daly is still trudging on, as his playing opportunities and sponsors shrink, unlike his waistline. He’s making a go of it, even if it’s on a low-nicotine, high-anxiety diet that’s not even half right.

As sickly as Daly felt with flu, he still posted a two-under 69 in the Northern Trust Open, and that’s despite a bogey at the into-the-wind 18th.

He also made it up all 53 of the railroad tie steps from the back of the 18th green to the level practice area behind the clubhouse without stopping once to catch his breath, have a smoke or wallow in misery.

Maybe Daly knew the treat that was waiting for him. After he signed his scorecard, he ducked into a cubicle just off the hallway, the one with 15 boxes of doughnuts stacked on a table, and dug into one. It was glazed.

Meanwhile, there’s no way to sugarcoat what’s happening to Daly.

At 41 and in his 19th year on the PGA Tour, his only exemption into tournaments is as a past champion, and there are 28 other exemption levels ahead of that one.

This means he is dependent on sponsor’s exemptions to get into tournaments, which is how he played at the Sony, where he tied for 69th as an MDF (made cut, didn’t finish); the Hope, where he withdrew; and at Pebble Beach, where he missed the cut. Daly also missed the cut at Torrey Pines, after getting in as a past champion. He’s playing at Riviera on a sponsor’s exemption.

You don’t need to be an accountant to figure out that the numbers aren’t adding up. After four events, Daly has earned $9,805. In the 13 years since his victory at the British Open, Daly has won once, the 2004 Buick Invitational.

It’s tough out here for Daly. He wasn’t invited back to the FBR Open after he missed the cut last year, but Daly said there’s a reason he didn’t play so great: His wife was in prison.

No wonder he likes Willie Nelson songs.

Daly may be long on odds, but he’s not short on hope. He said he spent about five hours with his swing coach, Butch Harmon, before Pebble Beach, and he thinks he might be on to something.

It’s just taking some time, and that’s something in short supply right now for Daly. He needs something good to happen, as soon as yesterday. That’s too much to hope for, so at this point, Daly just wishes he felt better.

“The last two days have been brutal,” he said.

Maybe the next three days will be better for him. Daly still has the soft touch around the greens, he still pounds the ball off the tee and his fan base remains solidly behind him.

He said he simply needs to keep playing, that he’s learning to trust the swing Harmon is teaching and he wants to remain healthy. That would make him happy, and it would also make his sponsors happy.

“I withdrew from 12 tournaments last year because of being injured,” he said. “And you have sponsors down your throat saying you have to play 20 events and you’re hurt and having to withdraw. . . . I didn’t want to do it. You know, when you’re hurt, you’re hurt.”

And at the present, John Daly is sick, unshaven, coughing, and needs a break. That’s what hurts.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com