All the focus in the lead-up to John Daly’s first tournament in Australia in six years has surrounded his controversial departure in his last trip Down Under and his slide down the rankings amid personal turmoil.
The wayward American wants people to pay attention to his golf.
Daly, 42, whose problems include drink, injury, his weight, multiple divorces and a night in jail last month, said his personal life was not as bad as media reports suggested.
PHOTO: EPA
“I’m just trying to do the best I can, trying to get my golf game back,’’ Daly said yesterday, the eve of the Australian Masters at Huntingdale. “Everybody goes through ups and downs in life, unfortunately mine are more publicized than most.”
Daly’s return to Australia has dominated the buildup to the tournament with local newspapers covering his every move, chronicling his choice of meals and even the number of cigarettes he smoked during his practice round.
Daly, who won the 1991 US PGA Championship and 1995 British Open, said fans tended to put high-profile athletes on a “big pedestal” and were surprised when those athletes failed or had personal problems.
“Well, everybody has problems and I’m a fighter, I’m a survivor and I’ll get through anything people can throw at me,” he said.
“I’ve done a lot of stupid things I take responsibility for but a lot of it came upon me.” It’s just life. We’ve got to live it and get through it,” he said.
Earlier in the week, Australian golfer Stuart Appleby described Daly’s life as a “train wreck.”
Daly’s reaction: “Did anybody survive? I’m still surviving the train wreck.”
He comes to Melbourne on an incline after a final round 62 on Sunday at the Hong Kong Open moved him into a tie for 17th, his best result of the year.
“I like the way I’m hitting the ball, I’m trying to feed off last week, I hit the ball really well,” he said. “I’m playing again and getting my swing back.”
Daly is also playing at the Dec. 4-Dec. 7 Australian PGA in Coolum, venue of his stormy exit in November 2002.
Playing a week after his mother died, he threw his putter and ball into the lake on the 18th green after a 78 in the Australian PGA, where he received a US$200,000 appearance fee.
He was disqualified for failing to sign his card and fined US$5,600 and ordered to write an apology to a tour official he verbally abused.
He’d had trouble earlier in Australia.
In February, 1997 at the Heineken Classic, Daly shot a third-round 83 and then played the final round in just 2 hours, 10 minutes, angering tournament officials who had paid him a large appearance fee.
Daly has also had his problems off the course in the US this year, spending a night in jail on Oct. 27 after being found “extremely intoxicated and uncooperative,” police said, outside a Hooters restaurant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
He has not had a PGA Tour card since his 2006 and made only five cuts in 17 starts on the PGA Tour this year earning US$56,000.
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