John Daly heads into this week’s Irish Open with a new lease of life having finished joint-second in the Italian Open. The 43-year-old American, who by his own admission came close to being destroyed by gambling, drink and binge eating, recorded his first top-10 finish since 2005, and all the news he has made since then pointed to someone going off the rails again. Until now.
Banned by the US Tour for six months last November after he was thrown in jail to sober up and down to 794th in the world, Daly was, in the opinion of many, done and dusted as a golfer.
But in February he underwent gastric band surgery and maybe the discipline he now has to show in his food intake – he has already lost considerable weight – is spilling into the rest of his life.
Bound to grab publicity the moment he set off for Europe two weeks ago with more than 20 pairs of the most outrageous trousers designed by a company called “Loudmouth Golf”, he has now hit the headlines in the way he really wanted to.
And the speed of his success has taken Daly by surprise. Before leaving Turin and heading for the Irish Open at the Baltray course in Co Louth, the former Open champion said: “I’m way ahead of where I thought I would be.
“I love the way I am hitting the ball. I’ve never really had a teacher, but Rick [Phil Mickelson’s former coach Rick Smith] has been keeping things simple.
“I’m making sure I finish the backswing [still the longest in golf] and the follow through. I’m very happy and Ireland should be a blast.
“I’m part-Irish and it feels like home there. Over the years I’ve had every drink they’ve got, but because of my surgery I can only sip whisky now and I’ll be staying off the Guinness.”
He will presumably also be avoiding a repeat of what happened the last time he finished as high as second.
Hours after winning nearly £425,000 at the WGC-American Express Championship in San Francisco in 2005 – he lost a play-off to Tiger Woods – Daly was in Las Vegas losing double that amount.
He said he blew almost £900,000, half of it on slot machines in just 30 minutes.
Overall he believes he has lost as much as £33m over more than a decade and when he appeared outside Augusta National last month, selling his own merchandise during The Masters, he did not deny he was in dire need of money.
Asked about that a week ago in Spain, where he finished 31st in his first event for four months, he said the only people he was in debt to was the US Government in taxes.
Daly did not say how much, but the cheque for more than £86,000 he received last night was welcome indeed.
He is staying on in Europe for next week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and the European Open at the London Club in Kent.
Then, with the suspension over in the States, he hopes to pick up things there – and his search for invitations from sponsors will certainly be helped by his performance in Turin.
Not that he was remotely close to winner Daniel Vancsik. The 32-year-old from Argentina, whose first European win in Madeira two years ago was by seven shots, lifted his second Tour title by six.
Joint second with Daly were England’s Robert Rock and Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin.
