The PGA Tour is a walking tour.
The world’s four major championships are walking events for the competitors.
Bethpage Black is a “walkers only” golf course for those who want to play during the New York golf season.
So why is it that obese, cigarette-smoking John Daly will be in the field of the 101st PGA Championship this week with a golf cart to haul his fat carcass around the championship layout?
“My knee is screwed. I had the meniscus cut out. I have osteoarthritis so bad — I can walk up a hill, I just can’t walk down one,” says the man who has likely lost more money gambling and probably consumed more alcohol than any player on today’s PGA Tour.
Daly also said recently that he has also been suffering from dizzy spells and that those spells forced him to withdraw from last week’s Regions Tradition, the first senior major of the year.
Why is Daly even in this week’s field? The PGA of America, in all its wisdom or lack thereof, gives winners of the championship a lifetime exemption into the event. Daly won back in 1991 at Crooked Stick.
Seriously?
So why aren’t Paul Azinger (1993), Nick Price (1992), Steve Elkington (1995) or Mark Brooks (1996) teeing it up this week? Because they have some common sense.
Seems Daly, in his ongoing struggle to maintain some relevance in the golf world, filed a request under the Americans with Disabilities Act and will become the first player to ride a cart in a major since Casey Martin in the 2012 U.S. Open.
Surely the PGA of America finds this totally embarrassing and needs to re-think that “lifetime exemption” for winners thing. Most guys like Price, Azinger, Elkington and Brooks know they can’t compete on a track like Bethpage Black, yet there will be Daly, bad knee, huge gut and ever-present cigarette, tooling around the course in a cart.
Shameful.
Then Daly came up with this gem:
“I hope I don’t get a lot of grief from the fans,” Daly said, contemplating those merciless New York sports fans who can get a bit rowdy when they’ve had north of a half-dozen beers.
So Daly will be out there, but who knows for how long.
Will he make the 36-hole cut? Improbable.
Could he withdraw before 36? Plausible.
Is his presence in the field laughable?
Absolutely.
6 Comments
phuketkenny
Oh, come in Tom, why don’t you tell us what you really think?
Tom Edrington
And the Blob will be driving his cart on a wet golf course, making tire tracks…..PGA needs to get with it…
baxter cepeda
Past champions should play as long as they like, even wish the Masters wasn’t coaxing guys to retire. Little kids seeing the legends play majors is part of the beauty of golf.
But this JD situation is ridiculous. Embarrassing even.
First, I believe Casey Martin had a case.
JDs only case is in his belly.
I’m increasingly at odds with the pga.
I already shared my junior league take.
Where we live the pga runs their junior pga qualifier in this wired wAy:
The kids are already competing in a pricey (but well worth) 2 day img jr worlds qualifier (not pga); then the pga count that second day as the first day of their two day qualifying event.
But here’s the thing: the pga charges $150 for that 1 extra day of golf at the local level.
Btw Many of the age groups in this qualifier don’t advance anywhere but still get charged the same. Also, the girls who advance need to choose between the junior pga and Img, last year the girl chose IMG.
Previous years Many families did not even partake in our local pga event, and that’s when it cost $100. Despite the low numbers our pga raised the price 50%.
I mean cmon; all That revenue and these are their prices for their grow the game initiatives.
And now this with JD, which seems like a money move more than a progressive one.
Golf is slow and has other problems but the biggest issue is money. The golf world could use the pga being a little less concerned with it.
Tom Edrington
The PGA has inherited the Greed gene from the PGA Tour and the USGA. As for Daly, he was going to use the ADA as a basis to sue if he wasn’t given a cart….
baxter cepeda
Call that bluff.
Love tigers take:
That he walked on a broken leg.
Tom Edrington
Daly is a fat slob….I’m sure he’s pushing 350, his cart may get stuck in the mud somewhere…