SAN FRANCISCO — If it walks like John Daly and talks like John Daly, is it John Daly? Not necessarily. It might be John Daly II.
The son of the two-time major winner is in San Francisco this week, where he’s going along nicely at the U.S. Amateur Championship. After making it through stroke play and into the Round of 64, the younger Daly beat his buddy, Cooper Claycomb of Bowling Green, Ky., 1 up in his opening match at the Olympic Club on Wednesday. He did so with a combo of prodigious driving and dead-eyed putting that called to mind his old man in his prime.
“I felt like I hit it good,” Daly II said. “I made some good putts and kept it in play.”
Like his father, Daly, 21, plays collegiate golf in his home state at the University of Arkansas. Also like the elder Daly way back when, he has a sturdy build and baby caterpillar growing on his upper lip.
But the men aren’t carbon copies of each other. Even when the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, it isn’t hard to tell the two apart. Daly II, for instance, has a compact backswing, not an ankle-scratcher, and while he digs the long ball, he says his grip-it-and-rip-it mindset doesn’t owe to his DNA.
“I feel like that’s just what you have to do these days,” he said. “Everyone hits it so far.”
Other golf-related lessons come directly from his father. Take this tip on how to handle pressure. “Just have fun. If you just let yourself have fun, the nerves disappear.” Or the remedy when your chipping goes awry. “Just hit a bunch of chips left handed.”
There are benefits, of course, to being the son of a famous Tour pro, but also tiresome drawbacks. Daly II understands that he can’t escape comparisons. The same questions are put to him repeatedly. When they were again on Wednesday, his answer had the ring of something he has sounded many times before.
“He’s got two majors and I don’t,” he said. “I’m just trying to be the best version of myself.”
That version has some victories of his own. One was at the 2021 PNC Challenge (OK, yeah, he was paired with Daly Sr.). Another came at the Southern Amateur last month, which earned him a spot at the Olympic Club this week.
If he can stay unbeaten through late-day Sunday (that’s five more matches, if you’re keeping score at home), Daly II will notch the biggest W of his young career.
But that’s not what he was thinking on Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m going to go to the locker room and maybe get in the hot tub,” he said.
Before that, though, he planned to call his dad.
