It’s Another Dose of Daly Affirmation

Can a misbehavior specialist reform? The long and often strange saga of one John Patrick Daly took a swift and unexpected turn Sunday at Torrey Pines, where he won the Buick Invitational in a sudden-death playoff, scored his first tournament victory in nine years, and then broke down into tears.

It probably was the best breakdown Daly has ever had.

“It’s been a long time. It’s been forever since I’ve won one on U.S. soil,” he said. “It means more to me because I got to a point there after 10 years of not winning anything, thinking you can’t win again. Every week I step on the first tee, thinking I can win, hoping I can win, but to finally do it again, it’s very, very special.”

For Daly, his return to the winner’s circle did not come without a struggle, which would seem only natural.

Forced into a playoff at the 18th hole with hometown favorite Chris Riley and Luke Donald, Daly came out of a greenside bunker, watched the ball roll down a slope and stop seven inches short of the hole, tapped it in for a birdie, and then watched Riley miss a five-foot putt that would have caught him.

The ball spun awkwardly out of the hole, and it was difficult to tell who was more shocked, Riley or Daly.

“I would have bet my life on that putt,” said Riley, who, like Donald, birdied the 72nd hole to get into the playoff. Donald had already missed his putt from six feet.

Daly covered his face with his hands, hugged his wife and began crying.

“I’m very emotional,” he said.

Daly’s closing round of three-over-par 75 was the highest by a winner in 13 years, not that it mattered much to him.

It had been 189 tournaments since Daly entered an event and won, since he came through at the 1995 British Open at St. Andrews. And if Daly is not only older at 37, he is presumably a lot wiser, which can only be good news for one of golf’s most star-crossed players.

“I don’t think I’m an underachiever because I’ve won two majors,” he said.

Daly had two major titles -- the 1991 PGA Championship and the British Open in 1995 -- before he was 30.

Daly now owns five PGA Tour victories -- including the BellSouth Classic in May 1994 -- and even though he has managed to overshadow his obvious talent with sometimes outlandish or unruly behavior, he had nothing to apologize for this time.

As Daly made the turn, there were 17 players within three shots of the lead. Phil Mickelson shot 69 and led a group of six players who finished one shot out of the playoff at nine-under 279. In that group was Duffy Waldorf, whose missed five-foot putt on the 72nd hole ended his day. Thomas Bjorn, Bo Van Pelt, Shigeki Maruyama and Jesper Parnevik were also a shot short.

Tiger Woods made a run, but he bogeyed the 12th and 15th holes to take himself out of the running. Woods tied for 10th in a group that also included Stewart Cink, who began the day one shot behind Daly but shot a 76.

Afterward, Woods said he’s a fan of Daly.

“I think it’s great to have anybody who has gone through the things he’s gone through and succeed,” Woods said. “What he’s done to his body on his own and then obviously with some of the bad issues that came up, for him to get through all that and still succeed is pretty impressive.”

Daly’s wife, Sherrie, and her parents were indicted last year on federal charges for allegedly laundering more than $1.2 million in illegal drug profits. Sherrie Daly could face as many as 20 years in prison. Daly’s personal history of questionable behavior, of sessions in rehabilitation, tearing up hotel rooms, gambling and binge eating has taken its toll, although he said he is not much different from anyone else.

“Everybody goes through ups and downs in life,” he said. “Mine just happens to be talked about a lot, which I’m very open to.”

On the course Sunday, he found some sort of refuge. Daly had a one-shot lead at the 15th hole, where he missed the fairway and made bogey. Riley, who bogeyed the 17th when his second shot was short of the green, caught up at the closing hole when he rolled in a 13-foot uphill putt from the fringe for a birdie.

Daly laid up at the 18th and couldn’t make a birdie, but he had a different idea for the playoff. He was 262 yards from the pin, chose a three-wood and went for the green, but the ball went elsewhere, coming to rest in the bunker on the right, a full 96 feet from the pin.

The rest was the easy part for Daly. The bunker shot, the tap-in, the victory. After that, there were tears and a plan for a celebration. How does the 2004 John Daly version celebrate a victory?

“I’m going to eat me some food, I know that,” he said.