Daly Tries to Stay the Course

He wore a salmon-colored shirt and a dark blue sleeveless quilted vest with the head of a lion stitched on the back. It was his uniform all week at Riviera Country Club, where John Daly dressed for success.

Moments after he made a birdie putt at the 18th hole Sunday to finish off a 67 in the last round of the Nissan Open, Daly ducked under an umbrella and made his way up the wooden steps to the locker room at the clubhouse to pack his bag.

He could stuff a fourth-place finish in there, the result of another breezy week at the office for Daly, who has a victory and now a fourth to show for his last two weeks of work.

You have to say it has been a wild ride, but that’s what we have come to expect of him. We are just having a hard time recognizing exactly which Daly we’ve got now, Nice John or Big Bad John?

Daly said this week that he “just wants to do good,” and that is as noble a goal as you’ll hear from him.

But is this the same Daly who was behaving so erratically he quit playing the last two months of 2003? The same Daly who either withdrew or was disqualified from four of his last seven PGA Tour starts in the same period? The same Daly who six-putted a hole at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic by tapping it like a puck?

And now we have seen the other side of Daly, the winking, golf ball bludgeoner with the soft touch and the down-home philosophy.

He seems to delight in the unexpected, so it has to be asked now whether Daly has just announced his return to the top level of the sport or is setting everyone up for another gigantic pratfall.

In other words, where does he go from here?

Actually, we already know where Daly is going from here: Tucson.

He’s playing in the Chrysler Classic of Tucson next week, where the prize money is $3 million. That’s not near what 64 players are going after at La Costa, where a $7-million match-play tournament is going on at the same time.

Daly isn’t invited to that one, because his ranking has been in hibernation for about the last nine years, during which he hadn’t won until last week. He was ranked 288th before he won at Torrey Pines, and he moved all the way to 85th when he got to Riviera, but that’s still not good enough to put him into the big-money tournament this week.

So that big $1.3-million Daly bus is Arizona-bound, probably at this very moment, steaming toward the desert with his three 42-inch plasma TVs beaming and his stereo system blaring and the wheels humming.

If he hasn’t become tired of listening to his own CD, maybe Daly has it cranked up right now. The CD is called, simply, “My Life,” and if it really is about what he says it’s about, the names of the songs aren’t going very far toward changing his reputation:

“I’m Drunk (And Broke)”

“I Only Know One Way”

“All My Ex’s Wear Rolexes”

“Longball Rebel (With A Cause)”

Daly’s ex-wives number three, which is one more than his major championships. That would be a record, if someone who knew Daly thought up that category.

You may have heard some of the lyrics to “Ex’s”:

Now, Momma Lou makes chocolate gravy;

Lord, she is so nice.

Poppa Jim pulled me aside and gave me some advice.

He said, ‘Quit spending all your money on all those old skanks.

Just put some in your pocket and put some in the bank.’

That sound you hear is Irving Berlin falling off his piano bench.

It’s on the golf course where Daly is singing a different tune. He has a new three-year deal with Dunlop to play new equipment, including something called a LoCo driver and ball and something called a Redneck putter. If that stuff wasn’t named just for Daly, it’s the biggest coincidence of all time.

Daly is doing so well, he even has gotten the attention of Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton, who went on record saying Daly would be a welcome addition. Let’s follow that story. It’s a long way to September and the Ryder Cup, but Daly seems pointed in the right direction.

Maybe he will come all the way back and people will remember that he was one of five U.S. players since World War II to win two major championships before 30. The other four were Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller and Tiger Woods.

That’s good company for Daly, who vows that keeping good company will remain important for him as he steers that bus down the road and he tries to keep it between the white lines and his life on the straight and narrow. He doesn’t need any bus wrecks now.