Daly goes for a jackpot

TULSA, Okla. -- It’s no secret that the textbook method to prepare for a major, or any tournament for that matter, is to play a practice round. But John Daly, who reads his textbook with the light from a jukebox, followed a different plan to get himself ready for the PGA Championship.

“Playing slots over at Cherokee Casino,” he said.

How did it go?

“Did good the first day,” he said. “Didn’t do too good the other day.”

On Thursday at Southern Hills, he did good again. Daly came up with a cool three-under-par 67 on a hot opening day, where his unusual chain-smoking, caffeine-gulping, beat-the-heat method was just the right regimen to keep him only two shots behind first-round leader Graeme Storm.

Daly said he’s usually done in by a couple of bad holes every round, but not this time.

“If there was 14 holes on a golf course, I would have won 17 tournaments in the last year and a half,” he said. “That’s the way I look at it. One or two bad holes every round. And it’s tough, because you almost can’t help get down on yourself after that. But I feel good about my game.”

Storm, 29, from Hartlepool, England, is a former cake-factory worker who used to jet wash trays after he lost his playing privileges on the European Tour in 2002 and needed money to buy Christmas presents.

And so, in the baking sun, Storm made his first PGA Championship round a memorable one, tossing around a five-under 65 that included birdies at three of the first four holes.

It was downright adventurous. He missed a hole in one at the 11th by inches, left a 15-foot eagle putt just short at the 13th, and at No. 2, he hit his drive into some trees and still wound up chipping in for birdie.

Storm, who is ranked 128th, won the French Open in July and is playing his eighth consecutive week. He said he isn’t tired, but his pro golf career is looking a lot less weary than it did back at the cake factory.

When he ran up some debts and didn’t have his European Tour card, Storm made 145 pounds a week.

“I was just being a normal person doing an everyday job,” he said. “I’m not the only person to have struggled.”

Storm’s lead is three shots over Arron Oberholser and Woody Austin, who had 68s, and four shots over a large contingent at 69 that includes British Open champion Padraig Harrington, Geoff Ogilvy, Camilo Villegas and Lee Westwood.

Tiger Woods got off to a slow start in defense of his title and opened with a one-over 71. Phil Mickelson shot a 73 and Jim Furyk had a 75. Neither Masters champion Zach Johnson (74) nor U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera (81) made much of a move Thursday, except in the wrong direction. Cabrera’s round basically ended on the par-three sixth hole, where he took a 10.

Normally, Storm’s saga, the story of a onetime cake-factory worker who just happens to lead the PGA Championship, would be icing on the cake, but not when Daly’s around.

Daly has somehow managed to keep his cool in what is probably one of his most trying years. Off the golf course, he has battled with his wife (his fifth), had one of his television ads yanked because he appeared to be drinking while driving a cart, and fought weight problems and injuries to his shoulder and ribs.

At least he has managed to branch out in his business interests: He is starting a label of wines. What’s next, casinos?

Without the benefit of a practice round at Southern Hills, Daly hit 14 of 18 greens and generally had his way with the place. Maybe it made perfect sense. After all, when he came out of nowhere to win the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick as the ninth alternate, he didn’t play a practice round there, either.

The real problems Daly has been having are on the golf course.

In the past, he has cruised around and let issues roll off his back, bothered only when the beer was flat. But this year is different. Playing on sponsor’s exemptions after losing his playing privileges, Daly has either missed the cut or withdrawn from 12 of the 17 PGA Tour events he has played.

His ranking is 423, and as a two-time major champion, Daly isn’t used to that. Neither is he used to playing the way he did Thursday, but he said he felt good this time out and even tried out some new tactics, such as bending over to look at putts.

“Stuff I haven’t done,” he said.

Daly was asked his explanation for playing so well.

“I have no idea,” he said. “There was odds with all the caddies and players this week who would fall first, me or my caddie, so we made it. We made 18 holes.”

He said the heat didn’t get to him all that much.

“I light up a cigarette and drink some caffeine and it actually works. It does bother me, but I’m used to it, let’s put it that way.”

thomas.bonk@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The first round

Leaders and other prominent players after 18 holes at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.

*--* Player 1st to Par Graeme Storm 65 -5 John Daly 67 -3 Arron Oberholser 68 -2 Woody Austin 68 -2 Stephen Ames 68 -2 *--*

*--* Player 1st to Par Padraig Harrington 69 -1 Retief Goosen 70 E Justin Rose 70 E Tiger Woods 71 +1 David Toms 71 +1 *--*

*--* Player 1st to Par Colin Montgomerie 72 +2 Ernie Els 72 +2 Davis Love III 72 +2 Phil Mickelson 73 +3 Zach Johnson 74 +4 *--*

*--* Player 1st to Par Jim Furyk 75 +5 Vijay Singh 75 +5 Mike Weir 77 +7 Chris DiMarco 79 +9 Angel Cabrera 81

+11

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