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The post John Daly is hurt in the, um … then describes it in the most Daly way appeared first on Golf.

John Daly, ahead of this week’s event on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, was asked to throw out the first pitch for the home team of the host city, the St. Louis Cardinals, and did so in this fashion: He walked to the mound, turned around toward home plate while still in stride and clocked 72 on the gun, while in shorts and sandals, at the age of 56. That’s impressive. 

But should that either not do it for you, or you want to hear another feat, Daly’s got one more. 

On Friday, during the first round of the Ascension Charity Classic, he shot a four-under 67. Only seven players were better. But Daly was hurting.    

From here, this was his exchange with reporters after his round. We’ll let him take over. 

“John, before the round started, you were contemplating not even playing, weren’t you?

“Yeah, yeah. I actually don’t want to talk about it, but the L-2, I guess I pinched it yesterday on No. 2,” Daly began. “The pro-am was so long and I waited and I kind of went at a drive and the L-2 kind of goes to your private parts and I’ve been hurting since then. 

“I mean, the guys stretched me and gave me some pills to take. It hadn’t happened to me since I kicked football with him when we played at Helias. It’s a lot of water and just kind of rest it a little bit.”

“Can you elaborate on the actual injury?” 

Before he does here, we’ll share this. The website healthline.com describes the L2 this way: “The L2 vertebra is located in the lower curvature of the spine, and the portion of the spinal cord that it protects is known as the lumbar cord. Injury in this area can cause nerve damage, loss of feeling in the lower extremities, and difficulty with walking and movement.” And Daly is an honest man. 

Let’s continue. 

“Your L-2 goes to your … [nods]”

“Oh, yeah.”

“And I guess I pulled a muscle in it and it went to my [grunts],” Daly said. “I feel like somebody kicked me in the n**s, is that the way I want to say it? Yeah, it’s been like that ever since I played the pro-am yesterday. Painful last night, then I saw the guys this morning and they kind of stretched me a little. It was brutal.”

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“How did it feel throughout the day?”

“I was very careful sitting on the golf cart, let’s put it that way.”

OK then. 

To recap, Daly is playing with the world’s best players above the age of 50, is just two shots out of the lead and did so in the above fashion. That’s at least notable. 

Before he left the interview area at Norwood Hills Country Club, Daly had one last back-and-forth. 

“What are you going to do the rest of the day, just rest, go somewhere and sit?”

“I’m going to go to Hooters, going to have some wings and drink a pitcher of Miller Lite,” said Daly, a pitchman for the restaurant. 

“That will be perfect.”

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The post John Daly was asked why he’s popular. His answer was very John Daly. appeared first on Golf.

The post John Daly was asked why he’s popular. His answer was very John Daly. appeared first on Golf.

He dished on what Justin Thomas calls him. 

And his mother coming “out of her grave.” 

And social media. 

And distance. 

And LIV Golf. 

And a text to play golf with the Mannings and country singer Eric Church. 

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There were no cliches. At no point during his pre-tournament press conference for this week’s Shaw Charity Classic did John Daly speak of taking things one shot or round at a time. And that actually segues well into his first exchange, one of the more memorable ones of this golf week, which we present unfiltered:

Reporter: “So I hear that you really appeal to a younger generation of golfers and sports fans in general coming up. Why do you think that is?”

Daly: “No idea. I got no idea. I don’t know. I think Chad does a great job with our T-shirt companies with the sayings on it; young kids like it. I don’t know, maybe because of the beard they think I’m really Santa Claus, but Justin Thomas told me I’m Bad Santa, so that’s out the window. I have no idea.”

Reporter: “How do you explain sort of the connection, whether it’s young or old, that you’ve had with fans all these years?”

Daly: “I think because there’s really no skeletons in my closet. If I screwed up, I’ll honestly say I screwed up, and I think fans like that. I think I’m not — I’m not looking over my shoulder; are they going to know about this or that. Everybody knows everything about me on this tour — my life, my ex-wives, everything — and it’s out there so there’s not really anything to hide. I think, hopefully, it’s the honesty.”

Reporter: “And are you happy you’ve approached it that way?”

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Daly: “Yeah. My mom would have come out of her grave if I didn’t.”

And there you go. Daly was asked about his popularity, he answered, and then he doubled-down on it. But the interview was just beginning. Some of it is news, some of its commentary. We’ll try to help. 

John Daly on social media 

Reporter: “What do you think social media’s done, because maybe 20 years ago, your profile might have been different, but now we see you driving golf balls across a freeway into football fields, stuff like that. Do you like the social media?”

Daly: “I think it’s great, I think it’s great to connect with the fans that way. Some people that don’t get to come watch you play or something like that. And plus for business, it’s great for business as well. I think it gets a little out of hand sometimes, but I think it’s great for everybody. I think it’s saved a lot of people’s lives, for one thing.”

Editor note: Saving lives? That’s bold. But here’s the video of Daly hitting over the freeway, onto a high school football field, which happened last month in Akron, Ohio. 

John Daly on distance 

Reporter: “Are you starting to lose some yardage? How do you sort of deal with that?”

John Daly: “You just deal with it. Like I’ve got my irons a little stronger to make up some of the difference, but I’m 56 years old. You can ask anyone — I was talking to Ernie Els; Ernie Els hits it a long way and he says he’s starting to lose some as well.

“You just kind of make the clubs, adjust the clubs to where if you can get as close to where when I was 35 — I’ll never be like it was 25. … You just kind of hope for the best and it doesn’t keep going down too, too much longer.”

Editor note: Daly, who led the PGA Tour in driving distance from 1991 to 1993, and from 1995 to 2002, still gets it around — he’s 12th on the PGA Tour Champions this year in the aforementioned category, at 292.5 per pop. 

John Daly on LIV Golf 

Reporter: “John, what do you think of some of the world’s top golfers leaving the PGA and joining the league in Saudi Arabia, or LIV?”

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John Daly: “I think you have a family, you want to raise that family to the best of your ability. If they’re going to give that much money, hell, I would have done it. But I wish the tours could have got together and not just say, hey, we’re going to do this if you go there. You’re only going to play eight this year, go play ’em and play some of ours. Stay on our tour and play our tour. I think if we would have done that, I think it would be a lot easier.

“I think LIV’s going to help grow the game of golf in an entertainment way and even the money’s — the money, that’s what it is, that’s why the guys are leaving. I wish Jay [Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner] … and Keith [Pelley, DP World Tour commissioner] and everybody could get on the same page.

“Yeah, go try it out, you know. … I just wish they could get along because I think it could help grow the game. If it was handled a little different, I think these guys would still be playing the Tour as well.

Reporter: “Did they make you an offer?”

John Daly: “No. I’m too old, no, no. I think Phil [Mickelson] was probably about the one that was going to be the only guy over 50 that could probably get in. I think they’re probably going to go after young college kids, which would be smart. They’re really good. That way, if they don’t play too good on the LIV, they haven’t committed to the tours, so the Tour can’t really say yes or no. You can go out and apply for your Tour card, go to school, get some Korn Ferry stuff, because they’ve never been a member of it. That’s where I kind of see LIV going.”

Editor note: LIV Golf, the controversial, Saudi-backed series, has played three events. Daly, in an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, said he “begged” LIV Golf Commissioner Greg Norman for a spot in the upstart tour.

John Daly on playing golf with Peyton and Eli Manning and Eric Church

 Reporter: “Did I see right that you were just out playing golf with the Mannings and Eric Church?”

John Daly: “Yeah. I missed the cut, and Eric texted me. He said, what are you doing tomorrow? It was 12. Probably going to be drinking. He says, come out and join us. I go, yeah, I could probably play seven or eight holes, because I’ve got to do a Q and A. I had to do a Q and A like at 12 or 1 on Saturday as part of — if I missed the cut. I played seven or eight holes with them. It was a blast.”

Editor note: Daly, after missing the cut at last month’s Open Championship at St. Andrews, played golf with the Mannings and Church the next day at Kingsbarns Golf Links. He shared the photo above over his Twitter account.

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While the newest mulleted-major champion is not revealing his LIV Golf intentions publicly, the original is showing his cards in regards to the Saudi-backed league.

Only it doesn’t look like we’ll see him tee it up on the LIV anytime soon.

Two-time major winner John Daly revealed in an interview with Piers Morgan that he “begged” LIV Golf Commissioner Greg Norman for a spot in the upstart tour.

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“You know, we work really hard,” Daly told Morgan on Piers Morgan Uncensored. “I play with Brian Harman in a practice round and some other guys in the practice rounds of the British Open, and it’s like we play pro-ams. We get it, OK? That’s what is the backbone of a lot of our tournaments. But, Brian Harman says, ‘Give us a box of chocolates for the effort.’

“We make tent visits. We do this, we do that. I play two-to-three pro-ams every week on the Champions Tour, and you know we don’t play for a lot of money on the Champions Tour. So, I almost feel like, ‘OK, I’m not getting a lot out of this. What are we doing?'”

Daly said the situation is much different on the LIV Tour.

“It’s a big party. They play for a lot of money, which these guys that are on that tour deserve that money,” Daly said. “I think there’s a lot of others guys that deserve that money, especially this old man.”

When Morgan asked Daly about the hypocrisy and morality in playing on the LIV Tour, whose Saudi backers are often tied to human rights violations, Daly deflected.

“Piers, let’s not talk about that. [The PGA Tour’s sponsors] don’t want to be mentioned in that,” Daly said. “The politics is so stupid.”

Unfortunately for Daly — and everyone who wants to see John Daly shooting 80 to win nearly a million dollars instead of Pat Perez — Norman seems to have squashed that idea.

“Greg says he’s not doing any more and I’m too old,” Daly said.

But Daly did have another way he could contribute.

“Let me go into entertainment and get all my friends to do the concerts and stuff,” Daly said.

He could take it one step further and have Daly actually perform the concerts himself.

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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — John Daly had an eclectic mix of logos on his gray pullover in the first round of the Open Championship: Trump on his right sleeve, Ohio-based Wentz Financial Group on his right chest, California-based Mark Christopher Auto Center on his left chest.

There was one other emblem, too, emblazoned just above the auto center logo: that of the Masters Tournament.

Yes, that Masters Tournament.

This was curious for a couple of reasons: (1) Daly hasn’t played in a Masters since 2006; he does travel to Augusta during Masters week, but only to hawk merchandise in the Hooters parking lot on Washington Road, and (2) Augusta National, you might have heard, isn’t big on endorsement deals.

So, what gives? There’s a simple explanation.

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“I bought this at Augusta,” Daly told GOLF.com after his opening 73 on the Old Course. “I don’t have a gray one, so I brought it over here with me.”

A gray top for the Old Grey Toon.

Daly said Sun Mountain, the golf apparel and bag manufacturer, typically provides him with his outerwear, but his latest order hadn’t arrived before he left for Scotland.

“They’re going to make me some more,” he said. “I’m just waiting on it.”

In the meantime, his Masters-themed pullover — albeit at the Open Championship — has been serving as a solid substitute.

“I like it,” he said with a laugh. “It’s comfortable.”

Daly isn’t the first major winner to wear a Masters-branded logo in competition. At the first LIV Golf event, in London, last month, Phil Mickelson wore a black Masters vest on the 1st tee, before a couple of holes later swapping it out for a non-logoed version.

Mickelson’s fashion statement was presumed to be some sort of non-verbal protest against the PGA Tour.

And Daly’s? He was just trying to stay warm.

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The post The John Daly and Bryson DeChambeau Show was a blast to watch (pun intended) appeared first on Golf.

The post The John Daly and Bryson DeChambeau Show was a blast to watch (pun intended) appeared first on Golf.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Bryson DeChambeau and John Daly share at least one thing in common, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but mostly they could not be more different.

DeChambeau is muscular and cleanly shaven. Daly is built like Santa, and has a bleached blond beard that is the envy of every garden gnome. DeChambeau wears stylish, clingy Puma gear that shows off his chiseled figure. Daly wears purple pants adorned with flowers and skulls, and a baggy grey windbreaker from the Masters merchandise shop (yes, really).

DeChambeau once added 40 pounds of muscle on a diet of steaks and protein shakes. Daly once lost nearly 70 pounds in two-and-a-half months on a diet of popcorn and Jack Daniel’s. DeChambeau’s approach to golf is fueled by physics and speed training and the deeply technical teachings of Homer Kelley. Daly’s approach to golf is, well, grip it and rip it.

Daly smokes Marlboros. DeChambeau smokes Bridgestones.

All of which is to say, when DeChambeau and Daly set out together in the 7:52 a.m. grouping in the first round of the 150th Open Championship — with Cameron Tringale along for the ride — they were a study in contrasts.

Balls

Save for one obvious thing.

DeChambeau and Daly, who until Thursday had never played a competitive round together, are to golf-ball mashing what Bird and Curry are to three-point shooting. Superstars. Legends. Iconoclasts. Daly led the PGA Tour in driving distance 11 times, and, in 1997 — with a balata ball, Daly will be quick to remind you — became the first player to post a season-long average north of 300 yards. DeChambeau has been the longest driver on Tour the last two seasons with ball speeds (220 mph!) that even a few years ago were inconceivable. In 2019-20, DeChambeau broke the 17-year-old Tour driving distance record with an average poke of 322.1 yards.

So the opening round of this historic major gave golf fans quite a thrill: the Yoda and Skywalker of tee-ball obliteration, blasting their way around the Old Course together.

Before we proceed, let us be clear: Daly, who is now 56, is not the JD of Crooked Stick lore. Far from it. His swing is still long and flowy but he has lost some speed, and he lumbers around the course with a bum left knee. As he walked from the 13th green to the 14th tee Thursday, a marshal in a green golf cart joked to Daly, “Take the buggy.”

“Can I have it?” Daly quipped back.

At least we think he was joking.

A moment later, in the same walkway, Daly’s longtime girlfriend, Anna Cladakis, leaned over the ropes and handed her beau a cup of ice and a Diet Coke, of which he has been known to consume up to 12 in a round. Daly took only a few more strides before a young fan offered him a beer.

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“I need a vodka,” Daly joked.

Daly also could have used something else on Thursday if he wanted to keep up with golf’s new long-drive king: about 50 more yards. “It was fun just to see the power he has,” Daly said after posting a more-than-respectable one-over 73, four shy of DeChambeau’s mark. “He’s hitting his 4-iron 280, 290 off the tee. On 15 [a 455-yard par-4], he hit 7-iron off the tee, which is amazing. It’s a blast to watch.”

The fans seemed to agree, urging on both players on every tee box. On the 465-yard par-4 13th, DeChambeau laid back with an iron. When Daly pulled driver, the crowd roared its approval.

“I want to get it past that left bunker,” Daly said later. “If he hits driver, he wants to drive the green.”

On another hole, DeChambeau did. Daly, too.

At the 351-yard par-4 12th, both players launched soaring drives that rewarded them with eagle putts, though, with the putting surface obscured from the tee box, neither was sure of it. DeChambeau arrived on the green first to find both of their balls within 40 feet of the hole. He looked back down the fairway toward Daly with a big grin and gave him a thumbs-up.

“Right here!” DeChambeau bellowed.

DeChambeau sounded genuinely happy for Daly, and not only on that occasion. When Daly nearly drove the green at 18, DeChambeau offered up a hearty, “Nice shot!”

DeChambeau and Daly aren’t close, but they clearly respect one another and undoubtedly appreciate each other’s go-for-broke style of play.

On the 15th tee, Daly appeared awed by how far DeChambeau had smashed his 7-iron. As Tringale prepared to hit, Daly pulled DeChambeau’s 7-iron out of his bag to compare it to his own. He put them side by side, shook his head and just laughed.

DeChambeau was equally roused by Daly’s game.

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“It was something to see,” DeChambeau said of Daly’s five-birdie round. “He’s obviously wobbling a little bit around the golf course, but he’s getting through it. And, man, for him to shoot the score he shot today was pretty impressive. I was on 13 or 14, going, What is he, one over, still right there? And the crowds obviously love him. It’s great to feed off that.”

Indeed, everywhere Daly went, he heard some combination of adoration and playfulness from the usually decorous Scottish galleries. Along the 15th fairway, fans desperate to get Daly’s attention yelled things like:

“Love the trousers!”

“Hey, John, where we goin’ for drinks after?”

“Is he smoking a cigarette? What a legend!”

After the round, I asked DeChambeau if Daly — in his prime and with modern equipment — would have been longer than DeChambeau.

“That’s a question for him,” DeChambeau said. “But I think he could. He probably for sure had like around 85 to 88 ball speed back in his day. And that’s with equipment and the golf balls not being as firm. I’m sure he had the speeds that I have out there.”

I didn’t get a chance to ask Daly the same question, but Daly has previously spoken on the topic.

On the Full Send podcast last year, Daly said that, yes, peak Daly would outdrive DeChambeau — “by far.”

“Bryson, what he’s doing is phenomenal but most of the golf tournaments I played, I hardly ever hit driver,” Daly said. “I hit 1-irons. I’d fly that thing 300 [yards]. I’d cut it 280 into par-5s.”

On Thursday, let the record show, Daly hit plenty of drivers. DeChambeau, not so much.

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John Daly, for a few minutes after his PGA Championship first round, was listed among those scheduled to talk to reporters. Then he wasn’t. Daly had work to do. 

Daly, as you may know, has done things with a golf ball that few men or women ever have. JD has won two major championships, the first of which gave him a lifetime exemption into the one being played this week. He’s also golf’s everyman. He’s a Diet Coke drinker. And a smoker. He’s a Hooters spokesman. And a casino player. While you may not be able to hit a 300-yard drive, his pleasures are relatable. 

With that in mind, Daly was in his element form Thursday evening, after a PGA first round that saw him flirting with the top of the leaderboard for a while before signing for a two-over 72. There he was, taking a photo with a half-dozen Hooters waitresses outside the restaurant’s Tulsa location — a 15-minute drive east of the course, Google maps tells you. Then it was on to the casino — there are four in town; River Spirit Casino Resort is 10 minutes south. A salad and physio visit this was not.  

“Happy to stop by and see my Tulsa @hooters family and grab me some wings on the fly,” Daly’s Instagram account said, with the man pictured outside of the joint in a St. Louis Cardinals T-shirt, Nike athletic shorts and sandals. The restaurant’s Instagram account also shared a slightly different version of the photo and alerted fans that his son, John Daly II, would be there “later” Friday.

Daly’s casino appearance was shared by the Old Row Sports Twitter account, which appeared to show the 56-year-old in the same shirt, shorts and sandals, sitting at a slot machine. Next to him was a brown paper bag, two packs of smokes, an ashtray and a Diet Coke.

Say what you will, but we’ll add this: There have been four other major championships played at Southern Hills in the Daly era — the 1994 PGA, the 2001 U.S. Open, the 2007 PGA and last year’s Senior PGA — and there have been reports of Daly casino visits at two of them. At the 2007 PGA, he told Newsday that he played the slots at Cherokee Casino and that he “didn’t play a practice round” during the week “because it was too hot.” (Temperatures that year were near 100 degrees.) At last year’s Senior PGA at Southern Hills, he was pictured again at a casino. 

With a 2:25 p.m. Tulsa time tee time for Friday’s second round, is it possible Daly was just sticking to the game plan on Thursday?

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He four-putted his final hole. He played his final three holes at four-over.  

And then, despite being toward the top of the leaderboard, John Daly was gone. 

In a strange sequence during the Regions Tradition, the first major on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, Daly shot an even-par 72 during Friday’s second round at Greystone Golf and Country Club in Alabama, sat in a tie for 16th at the halfway point, then was disqualified for failing to sign his scorecard. It was a breach of Rule 3.3b (2), which states: “The player must certify the hole scores on the scorecard and promptly return it to the Committee after which the player must not change the scorecard. If the player breaches any of these requirements in Rule 3.3b, the player is disqualified.”

Why Daly failed to sign remains a mystery. At four-under overall, he was seven strokes behind leader Steve Stricker entering Saturday’s third round, and in 102 Champions starts, Daly had never been DQ’d. 

During Thursday’s first round, Daly shot a four-under 68 and was three strokes off the lead. On Friday, he remained in contention, birdieing the 13th, 16th, 18th and 2nd holes (he started on the back nine), before a disastrous finish. 

On the 207-yard, par-3 7th, according to the Champions’ online scoreboard, Daly hit his tee shot into the rough, then took three additional shots before finishing with a double-bogey five. He parred the 448-yard, par-4 8th. Then on the 429-yard, par-4 9th, Daly found the green in regulation, before the four-putt and a double-bogey six. 

Over the first two days of the tournament, the Champions Twitter feed twice shared highlights of Daly’s play, and after Thursday’s first round, he was among those who talked to reporters afterward. 

“The second hole, I missed a good opportunity for birdie, and then the third hole, I hit a good sand wedge, it just wasn’t long enough and I made bogey,” Daly said. “Other than that, it was pretty solid. I gave myself a lot of chances, I left a lot out there, got a couple of good breaks, too. It was a good day for me.”

Daly’s next start could be another major championship. The 1991 PGA Championship winner is currently in the field for next week’s PGA, to be played at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla. 

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ORLANDO — If the PNC Championship that wrapped up here teaches us anything, it’s that families, like putting strokes, do not come pre-packaged, one-size-fits-all.

Consider the winners here, the John Dalys, the original and his namesake son. Nobody is confusing them with Davis Love III (aka Trip) and Davis Love IV (aka Dru), despite the shared affinity for country music and camper living and their success in this fathers-and-sons-and-others event.

But when the John Dalys hugged in victory on Sunday night they looked pretty much like the Davis Loves did when they hugged at this event three years ago.

Asked Sunday what keeps him in the game, the elder Daly skipped right over money — you know, it’s gauche to talk about money as a motivator — and said instead what Davis Love has said, what Jack Nicklaus has said, what every past and future headliner winner of this event has or would say: “I think it’s love for the game, but it’s also love for my son — to be able to play with him — and love for family. Whether we win or lose. I enjoy being out here. Competing. Being on his team.”

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It’s a powerful idea, the concept of family as a team. It’s been around for 10,000 years.

Part of what makes this event work is its mid-December dates, Thanksgiving turkey finally gone, more holidays coming, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in the VCR. (The movie came out in ’89. As Steely Dan is best played on a turntable, NLCV is best played on a VCR.) Home for the holidays, indeed.

Man, that JD2 can roll his golf ball. John Daly1, in his brief and exciting prime, was a spectacular glove on, very wristy, full release, see-ball, hit-ball putter. Maybe the last great one we’ll ever see in that style. But his son, who plays at Arkansas, has a classic, modern, semi-robotic, dependable putting stroke that Stan Utley would show his pupils on the heading Do This. It’s perfect.

They won because of the father’s chipping and wedge game and the son’s putting.

It’s odd to think that there was once a popular American TV show called “Father Knows Best” and people bought into it. The nuclear family, dinner at six, mom in her apron. John Daly didn’t grow up with that and his kids didn’t grow up with that. But father taught son, by deed if not by word, that chicks do dig the long ball, but you putt for dough.

The winning team gets $200,000. The son cannot collect his now and stay amateur but if all goes well he’ll get it eventually. It’s a USGA thing, and an NCAA thing. For now.

John Daly, with the life he’s led, could be dead. He has bladder cancer. He smokes like a chimney. (Nelly Korda, who played with Daly in Saturday’s first round, looked at him dragging on a cig on the course with a hint of I’ve never seen that before.) He’s massively overweight. But he of course is not dead.

His backswing is still outrageously long. His Loudmouth duds, announcing his arrival-by-cart from some distant tee, is another form of proof-of-life. He can still make his wedges perform the kind of greenside magic that Bob Jones and Bill Casper and Mickey Wright would have stopped to watch.

Little John Daly dressed like the college kid he is. And he spoke like a certain touring pro who, like his father, won a British Open on the Old Course.

Asked by a reporter about a possible future in professional golf, John Jr. said, “I have plenty of time. I’m still young. So just trying to get more reps in the college field and in amateur events.”

Reps! We all know who introduced that gym word into Standard Golf English.

Tiger Woods his own self.

Woods and his son, Charlie, 12, finished second here. Given Woods’s own brush with mortality this year, on the side of a Los Angeles road early on a weekday morning in late February, it is absolutely astounding that he was able to play here at all, let alone play as well as he did.

Tiger’s family life, as a kid growing up in Cypress, Calif., and as a grown man in Florida, has been dissected to death. As the best player in the world, he married a woman from Sweden, Elin Nordegren. They had two children, a daughter (Sam) and a son (Charlie). They divorced. They share custody of the children. Like millions of other American families, the parents are surely doing the best they can for their children.

But here’s another kind of family that became evident over the course of Saturday and Sunday, here at the PNC. There was a gray electric golf cart marked Tiger Woods. And sometimes Tiger Woods was in it.

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And at other times three other family members were squished across its front seat: Rob McNamara, Tiger’s close friend and confidant, behind the wheel; Tiger’s girlfriend, Erica Herman, riding shotgun; Tiger’s daughter, Sam, sandwiched between them.

A conventional family? No. But a family of a kind. You could tell by the devotion to Tiger’s golf — and to Charlie’s. Erica brought Tiger’s patented red-and-black Sunday outfit to new heights for the finale: a black sundress, red high-top basketball shoes, stamped not with the name Converse but with Christian Dior.

Sam Woods is an eighth-grader who plays soccer for her school team. Tiger is often at her games. Jack Nicklaus had a granddaughter on the same team, and the two golf legends would see each other on the sidelines. This weekend, Sam was on the sidelines, watching and rooting (quietly) for her father and brother.

“Our whole family is very, very, very competitive,” Woods said on Sunday. “We don’t like losing.”

They didn’t lose, here at the PNC. They won, by the rules Tiger established. Have fun, don’t make bogeys. As a team, a father-and-son team.

One father-and-son team finished ahead of them, the John Dalys. JD had a big hit with “All My Exes Wear Rolexes.” Well, one of those exes, the fourth, Sherrie, gave birth to John Daly Jr. And father and son formed quite a team this week. There’s more than one path to the championship belt and there’s more than one way to define the word family.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com.

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The post Team Daly holds off charging Team Woods, wins PNC Championship by 2 shots appeared first on Golf.

The post Team Daly holds off charging Team Woods, wins PNC Championship by 2 shots appeared first on Golf.

Team Woods was easily the most popular duo at the PNC Championship, but in the end it was Team Daly that took home the hardware.

With a birdie at the 18th hole, John Daly and his son, John Daly II, capped off a record-setting weekend at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, finishing at 27-under for the tournament to win the parent-child event by two strokes over Team Woods.

Their 27-under total is a record for the PNC Championship.

“It’s just one of the highlights of my life,” Daly said said. “To be able to play in a PGA Tour event with your son and win, it’s pretty daggone special.”

Playing two groups ahead of the Dalys, Tiger and Charlie Woods did everything they could to put pressure on the eventual champs. Starting with the par-4 7th hole, Team Woods reeled off 11 straight birdies to get to 25 under for the tournament heading to the 18th tee.

“We had a little run there,” Woods said.

But needing an eagle at the par-5 finisher to put pressure on Team Daly, Tiger and Charlie could only muster a par to finish off their round of 57. Their 25 under total was good for a solo-second finish. Team Woods did not make a bogey over 36 holes after making two bogeys in their debut in the event last year.

“We made 11 in a row, and on the last hole we knew on the tee box that we needed three to probably get into a playoff or at least make it interesting for the Dalys’ back there,” Woods said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t chip-in and we didn’t make the putts, either. But it was fun.”

Team Daly made 13 birdies (plus an eagle) of their own during their final round, shooting a final-round 57 to set the tournament scoring record. And though they had the tournament well in hand standing on the 18th green, the duo finished in style with a birdie to put a punctuation mark on the week.

“We both just played great,” Daly said. “He played unbelievable yesterday, but I played a little better today, so I made him happy.”

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The post WATCH: John Daly threw an absolutely bizarre first pitch at the St. Louis Cardinals game appeared first on Golf.

The post WATCH: John Daly threw an absolutely bizarre first pitch at the St. Louis Cardinals game appeared first on Golf.

The PGA Tour Champions is in St. Louis this week for the Ascension Charity Classic, so the Cardinals took advantage of some top pros coming into their backyard.

First, the team decided to have a John Daly bobblehead giveaway for fans. It also asked Daly, a longtime Cardinals fan, to throw out the first pitch before Wednesday’s game against the LA Dodgers. And of course, with Daly, it was nothing like your typical ceremonial first pitch. Daly, wearing a Cardinals jersey with the number 91 — the same year he won his PGA Championship — had no intention of gingerly throwing this to home plate.

“We’re going to throw it as far as we can, brother,” he said, walking out to the mound.

And he wasn’t kidding. Daly cocked back and released his ball into the sky, trying to throw it over the netting and into the crowd behind home plate. But that’s no easy toss. Big John didn’t make it.

“Ah, I didn’t get it over it!” he said. “It slipped.”

Daly, closer up this time, tried again and got it to a fan.

“Now I know why you need cleats on that mound,” he said.

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