John Daly Can’t Walk — Then He Does At Senior Open

So we’ve had about a month of John Daly whining about how his knee is sore, can’t walk,  it hurts, I need a cart — you’ve heard all that.

Daly lambasted the USGA for not providing a cart for him to haul his fat carcass around last month then he withdrew from the Open Championship last week, maybe a huge dose of common sense hit him and he figured Carnoustie would give him an old-fashioned Scottish ass-whoopin.

Yet there was the Lord Of Lard, out there on the hallowed grounds at St. Andrews Thursday, actually walking and playing his way around the Old Course, golf’s true Holy Grail.

And guess what?  Old Fatso was playing really well.  So well in fact that he’s in the hunt after the first round of the R&A’s Senior Open Championship.

Perhaps it’s time to take a quick trip back in our Golf Time Machine to The Open Championship in 1995.

With its wide fairways, the Old Course invited Daly to use his “Grip It And Rip It” style of golf.  By week’s end, the porky kid with the mullet haircut had himself a Claret Jug, beating Constantino Rocco in a crazy playoff.

The late Seve Ballesteros was mystified by Daly.

During that Open Championship Daly drove six of the par-fours at the Old Course — 3, 9, 10, 12, 16 and 18.  Big John easily reached par-fives with irons for second shots.

“He play spectacular,” Seve said. “There are no par-5s for him.” Pause. “Well, there are no par-fours for him either.” 

Yeah, that was John Daly back then.

The 2018 John Daly has more ex-wives than Tiger Woods has majors, not really, just seems like it.  The 2018 John Daly is about 100 pounds heavier than the 1995 John Daly, who was by no means a lightweight.

Yet there was Daly, out there getting re-acquainted with the old girl of a course that set him on the path to super-stardom so many years ago.

The  Count Of Chicken Wings  fell into the scoring pattern for most of the elderly lads out there on the Old Course.  Keep in mind they played downwind going out, against the wind coming in and it was up there a tad maybe around 15 miles per hour, gusting more, certainly enough to get one’s attention.  Daly romped going out — 32 but coming home, took 37 shots.  Still, that was good enough to put him there  in the company of America’s greatest links player — Tom Watson.  Sixty-nine was the number for Portly John and his aching knee.

That put Watson and Daly four back of first round leader Kirk Triplett who fleeced the Old Course with seven birdies on his way to a 65.

It really comes a no shock that Daly sucked it up for this one, probably slugged down a half-dozen Advils (John has always loved excess) and made his way around the Old Course.

Paul McGinley, a long-time stalwart on the European Tour explained it best, telling us what the Old Course is all about:

“I don’t think golf can be any better than this.  There’s something mystical, something magical about this place.”

And yes, McGinley was spot on.

Once you’ve played the Old Course, you know exactly what he’s talking about.