Daly Would Really Like to Have a Few --Victories, That Is

For all you John Daly-watchers out there wondering just how the combination of barley, malt and hops works with birdies and bogeys, here is the latest: Daly said he isn’t drinking . . . again.

“I don’t have to look over my shoulder and wonder if I want a beer because I don’t,” Daly said.

This is different than what Daly said last month when he took the unusual tack of issuing a written statement that said he had started drinking beer again after 3 1/2 years.

Daly’s admission brought immediate reaction. Tom Callahan of Golf Digest wrote a column titled ‘A whistle from a dying man.’ John Mascatello, Daly’s agent, told Sports Illustrated “it was painful to see.” Recovering alcoholics cringed.

But at 30, Daly knows what he is doing, or at least he thinks so. The problem lies solely with his golf game, not his personal life, he said.

“It used to be just the other way around,” Daly said. “Now I have my personal life straightened out. I’m just looking forward to next year. It can only get better.”

That much is certain. Daly finished last in driving accuracy, had only one top-10 finish, missed nine cuts in 23 tournaments and won $173,557 to finish 121st on the money list--his worst position in six years on the tour.

What’s more, if you exclude Daly’s 1995 British Open triumph at St. Andrews, he has had only two top-10 results in the last two years.

Daly said his year took a sharp turn in the wrong direction when he was four shots off the lead at the BellSouth Classic, then wound up missing the cut.

“After that, I just couldn’t score,” he said. “I couldn’t get anything going and my confidence got real low.”

So Daly seems to be making a few changes. He told reporters in Hawaii that he was considering ending his relationship with Wilson. He parted ways with his longtime caddy. He had some beers.

He hasn’t played any better, though. In his last four tournaments, Daly tied for 66th at San Antonio, tied for 42nd at the Walt Disney and the Sarazen World Open and tied for 43rd at Kapalua.

Add to it the fact that he is overweight by about 20 pounds.

“I’m eating like a pig right now,” Daly said. “I don’t want to drink. I don’t like to drink. I waited so long to have a beer . . . it was no big deal. To not like the taste of it was a big deal. Next year is going to be all golf. I got that other stuff out of my system.”

*

Pay attention now, because we can go through this only once.

Golf’s off-season shifts into high gear this week with the $700,000 ITT LPGA Tour Championship at the Desert Inn Golf Club in Las Vegas, where Laura Davies and Karrie Webb have a chance to become the first woman player to pass $1 million in yearly winnings.

The next weekend, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, is the $540,000 Skins Game at Rancho La Quinta, featuring Daly, Tiger Woods, Fred Couples and Tom Watson. Then there is the $1-million Lexus Challenge at La Quinta’s Citrus Course, Dec. 18-21, featuring Raymond Floyd, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Gary Player.

The $2.1-million Diners Club Matches feature the winners of 11 of golf’s 12 major pro tournaments this year from the PGA Tour, Senior PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, missing only Masters champion Nick Faldo. The event will be played Dec. 12-15 at the Nicklaus Course at PGA West.

*

Chronically outspoken Curtis Strange was asked whether he will have to hold back in his part-time job announcing golf for ABC:

“I don’t think the world is ready for me to be as candid and as honest as I can be,” Strange said.

*

Proving it’s always a good idea to be on a roll, we now have a championship to find the World’s Best Putter, who gets $250,000 by proving it at the Compaq World Putting Championship.

The event, which will be played at Walt Disney World Dec. 2-3, is the brainchild of short-game guru Dave Pelz and ends a series of qualifiers that featured amateurs and pros.

Lee Janzen, Tom Kite, Payne Stewart, Bob Murphy, Patty Sheehan and Muffin Spencer-Devlin are among the 200 finalists who will try to make putts from distances of 12 feet to 81 feet.

*

The Presidents Cup, which made more news before it was played when the international team booted its captain, is packing its bags.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem will soon recommend to the Policy Board that the third Presidents Cup move from Lake Manassas in Virginia to a site overseas in 1998, probably Australia.

Greg Norman, who has been at odds with Finchem since the commissioner helped kill Norman’s World Tour plan two years ago, said Finchem is doing something right this time.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Norman said. “It was important for him to understand that the right direction for the Presidents Cup to go was to move it.”

Golf Notes

The USGA gave a special exemption to Jack Nicklaus for the 1997 U.S. Open at Congressional in Bethesda, Md. It would be Nicklaus’ 41st consecutive U.S. Open. Nicklaus, 56, is a four-time U.S. Open champion, but he hasn’t finished higher than a tie for 28th in the last 10 years. . . . The Wellness Grand Slam Challenge will be played Monday at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village. The event benefits The Wellness Community to help cancer patients. Details: (800) 266-1836. . . . The 30th California Women’s Amateur Championship will be played Dec. 3-7 at The Golf Club at Quail Lodge in Carmel. Details: (408) 422-4447. . . . The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s “100 Holes For A Cure” marathon will be played Dec. 9 at Braemar Country Club in Reseda. Details: (310) 479-8585. . . . Jim Vernon of Los Angeles has been elected president of the Southern California Golf Assn. Vernon is a member at Lakeside in Toluca Lake.