By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Aug. 12, 1998

REDMOND, Wash. -- The feeling around John Daly is as explosive as any of his 300-yard tee shots leading up to the 80th PGA Championship this week.

Buzz

Related Links Official Championship site Complete GolfWeb coverage

around the Sahalee Country Club layout, and it has the tight feeling of a putt-putt course. It isn't exactly suited to the powerful game of Daly, the winner of the PGA at Crooked Stick seven years ago. True to form, Daly says he's going to let it fly come Thursday -- which means he might shoot 65 ... or 85.

"Let's hope it's in the 60s," Daly chuckled. "I'm going at it. I'm going to be aggressive ... aggressive off the tee. There's a lot of pins you can't go at, no matter where you're hitting it from. At least if I hit my driver, I'm giving myself the best opportunity to win on this golf course. I feel like I'm cutting myself short if I'm hitting irons off the tees and I'm hitting 7-irons to the pins."

IN OTHER WORDS, HANG ON FOR A WILD ride many fans hope will lead to contention well into Sunday afternoon. Daly said not only will he use his driver on this tight course, but he's even going for the green on the 377-yard 16th hole by attempting to fly the dogleg. He has made it clear, while continuing his trek toward permanent sobriety, he's playing for the huge gallery that continues to follow him through the good and the bad.

"It's awesome, really," Daly said. "I think a lot of the fans relate because a lot of them go through what I'm going through. I love 'em. I love playing for them. It could be a funny show this week. I could end up knocking down 2,000 trees or I could be just knocking through air. Who knows?"

It has been a "who knows?" kind of year for Daly. He's 52nd on the money list, having won $389,174 in 20 events. But most of that money came in the first four months of the year.

Since then, he has struggled to keep it together. His storied Tin Cup hole at Bay Hill in March, where he attempted to hit the ball over a lake continually like Kevin Costner in the movie, only to end up with an 18 on the hole, will be talked about for years. He also had a 10 when he lost his head in a sand trap at the British Open, and at Memphis, he broke his 5-iron and refused to sign his scorecard.

Dull, he is not.

"I expect more out of myself than other people do, and things haven't been too positive," Daly said. "You know for the past year and a half, not signing my scorecard is about the only thing I've done wrong. So that's pretty good for me. I played my guts out. What's the use of playing tomorrow ... that's the attitude I can't have.

"My problems are golf. This is the first time in my life on tour that I can concentrate on golf. I have to concentrate on sobriety every day, but as long as I'm not drinking, it gives me the opportunity to concentrate on golf. Right now, the only thing that frustrates me, other than my nerves when I have to go to an (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting, is when I have a bad day on the golf course."

Daly, 32, has not won since the 1995 British Open. In March, he tied for fourth in both the Honda Classic and the Nissan Open. His brilliant 18 at Bay Hill prevented another top-10 finish right after Honda, and he tied for 16th at the Players Championship. Then came a decent 33rd at the Masters the second week of April, and he hasn't been in the top 50 since.

"I'm just not making the putts," Daly said. "I'm hitting the ball better now than I was the first part of the year and all through the Florida swing. I was making some 25-30 footers than just kept me in it. I'm hitting the ball well, hitting a lot more greens, just not scoring."

JOHN DALY NEVER WANTED TO become one of those "drive for show" kind of guys. A circus act in golf duds isn't what he had in mind. In some ways, his victory at Crooked Stick was a novelty show in itself, and the victory at the 1995 British Open was just as unexpected. His other tour official victories came at incredibly tight courses in Vancouver and Atlanta. But he can't draw positive vibes from any of that.

They

John Daly will play a game that's anything but sleep-inducing this week at the PGA Championship. (AP)

were different courses during a different time of his life that was laden with abusive behavior. He drank himself into blackouts and abused his first two wives and anybody else in the way. This is the first time in his professional life that he's at least trying to do things the right way.

"I won that (PGA) major drunk off my ass," Daly said. "I didn't even know the feeling I had. After I played, I was drinking, so I didn't know what the feeling was. The British Open when I won, I wasn't very happy. I was dry for (almost) 4 1/2 years, but I wasn't going to the meetings and doing what I was supposed to do, so I was miserable. So that's what I've told the media. If I was to ever win from this day on, whenever I win (if it happens), it will be the most special, I've done everything right to get there -- physically and mentally. I don't care what tournament it would be, whatever the next tournament. Some ways, yeah ... I don't feel like I've ever won."

Maybe that will happen Sunday; probably not. This course really isn't conducive to Daly's game, which has gone from great putting early in the year with erratic ball-striking to consistent ball-striking and inconsistent putting. He's got a new putter now, claiming it gives him more confidence. He's going to attack this par-70 Sahalee layout in a manner that makes him the anti-Leonard.

Never will you confuse Daly with Justin Leonard, the calculating, steely-eyed 25-year-old whose face hurts when he smiles. His sense of humor is so dry, people swear his arms have the same texture as cactus.

Daly has the subtlety of a flying water balloon in the middle of a poker game. So the answer to the obligatory question is, no, Sahalee is not set up for Daly the way Crooked Stick was, but really, who cares? If a Leonard or Lee Janzen win on this conservative course, so be it. Daly is going to live or die in his own style of play.

"I mean Crooked Stick was made for me," Daly said. "If I was to design a golf course, I would want to design it exactly like that -- make the doglegs a little longer to carry and make the fairways about 75 yards wider. That would be a perfect John Daly golf course. I'm not gonna say I'm not going to win on a tight golf course. Granted, I'm gonna have to hit the driver pretty much perfect, but I've got confidence in it, so why not hit it? It's me, basically."

The odds are as long as his drives. Then again, those are just the kind of odds that fit Daly. It seems so unlikely he could win here, it would top off his first full season of sobriety in perfect fashion. He's still smoking too many cigarettes, but at least he's off the chocolate and ingesting not quite as much caffeine. Progress is all he can imagine at this point in his life and nothing could be better for him right now than a clear-headed, brilliant four rounds of golf for his third major victory.

"That would be great, wouldn't it?" Daly mused. "It's just the kind of situation I like. Let's see if I can pull it off."

Today's other columns

Fran Blinebury on Pro Football
At the press conference announcing Chan Gailey as coach, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones promised the return of discipline to a team rocked by scandal. So much for that. Only three weeks into training camp, Michael Irvin and the 'Boys are once again the center of controversy.

Ian Browne on Baseball
Trading All-Star second baseman Chuck Knoblauch to the Yankees wasn't a popular move in Minnesota. But Todd Walker has stepped up in a big way. In fact, his numbers this season far exceed those of his former mentor.

Dennis Dodd on College Football
Notre Dame's image makers might say their hallowed program is still standing strong after a tumultuous summer. But all the spin-doctoring in the world can't hide that the team's talent level has fallen right alongside its mystique.