Daly Enjoys His Own Form of Contraction

Thinking has sometimes been a risky proposition, even for the best players, who often rely on instinct and muscle memory to carry them through the tough spots.

Along the same lines, John Daly says the best thing he ever did was stop letting others think for him. In a novel approach, he decided to think for himself.

“I let contracts dictate my life,” he said. “It was like, ‘You can’t do this,’ ‘You have to do that.’ It put a lot of pressure on me, a lot of stress. The contracts said if I wasn’t on my medication, I was gone.

“I was a walking zombie. There was just no energy in my life to do anything. That was the price I paid for listening to everybody.”

Daly stopped ... stopped listening, stopped taking anti-depressants and in essence stopped (or forfeited) his sponsorship deals with such heavyweights as Callaway and Wilson.

Larry Dorman of Callaway would not comment on the specifics of Daly’s deal and said instead that Callaway wishes only the best for Daly.

So far, this thinking thing is working out for Daly. As part of his new alliance with the European PGA Tour, he tied for 39th last week in Melbourne and tied for fourth at Phoenix two weeks ago. He also tied for 34th at the Bob Hope. Neither number is as important as Daly’s world ranking, No. 47. Daly wants to play the Masters and needs to remain in the top 50 to succeed. He’s a lock for the World Match Play Championship in two weeks at La Costa, where the top 64 players in the rankings are invited. This week he’s playing in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, and he will play the Nissan Open at Riviera next week.

Daly, who turns 36 in July, hasn’t won since the 1995 British Open and saw his world ranking drop all the way to 506. Last year, Daly made $828,914 and had four top 10s, his first such showing in three years. He credits it all to a renewed focus and desire, which are possible because he’s not distracted by off-the-course problems.

“It’s nice to just think about golf. It’s been a long time coming. My mind just told me to quit listening to everybody and get off that crap. I want to win, but I’m not going to force the issue,” said Daly, who says he’s better prepared mentally for the rigors of competing hard for a title.

“The biggest change is my bounce back,” he said. “If I have a bad hole, I make par or birdie on the next hole. In the past, it would ruin my tournament. I don’t get upset over shots like I used to.

“I’m a late maturer in life.”

A Good Idea

News item: Lanny Wadkins, 51, says he plans to play a lot on the Senior PGA Tour until June, when he replaces commentator Ken Venturi at CBS.

Reaction: Uh, any thoughts about picking up a microphone and practicing in the eight CBS events between now and June?

Hot, Hotter, Hottest

It was a royal meltdown Sunday at Pebble Beach when Pat Perez lost his cool and chopped up the 14th fairway after knocking a shot out of bounds, then chopped up the 18th fairway and tried to bend his three-wood over his knee after first knocking his tee shot out of bounds, then knocking his fairway shot into the ocean.

Jack Nicklaus, who noticed, says he used to get mad, but kept it to himself. As for Perez, Nicklaus said his anger over hitting the balls in the wrong places was misplaced. “The golf club didn’t do that,” he said. “It seems terrible to punish a club like that. I think the tour definitely needs to control that.”

Jack Update

Nicklaus, by the way, is a physical mess. It’s not because of his hip replacement surgery, it’s his back that forced him out of this week’s senior event in Florida. In fact, since the Senior British Open last July, Nicklaus has played in three made-for-TV events and withdrawn from three events, including the MasterCard Championships.

How this will affect his chances of playing the Masters is unknown, but it would be hard to believe that anything short of a broken leg would keep Nicklaus from playing Augusta National.

Trivia Time

Who earned their PGA Tour cards at the following ages: 25, 22, 20, 17?

Big-Timing It

Daly says Little Rock, Ark., isn’t that small a place and it has some good things going for it: “TCBY, Dillards.”

More Daly

His hometown of Dardanelle, Ark., is equally vigorous. “Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, what more do you need?”

Trivia Answer

Arnold Palmer, 25; Nicklaus, 22; Tiger Woods, 20; Ty Tryon, 17.

The Price of Success

Annika Sorenstam is going to be very busy this year because she has to defend eight titles. She starts the season defending titles in four of the first five events.

Star Power

Bill Gross, a businessman from Laguna Beach, paid a $7,500 entry fee to play in the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where his partner was Kevin Sutherland. On Sunday, Sutherland-Gross made the cut and were paired with Woods and partner Jerry Chang.

Gross seemed to have a good time: “I’ll tell you, I’ve faced bullets in Vietnam and been on television cameras, but there’s just nothing like it.”