Give John Daly a minute or two, and he’ll let loose. Even if he’s genuinely attempting to show some restraint.
Despite an injury to his groin, the University of Arkansas product shot a 67 in Friday’s opening round of the Ascension Charity Classic at Norwood Hills Country Club near St. Louis. Daly used consecutive birdies on holes 15, 16 and 17 to finish the day just two shots behind co-leaders Padraig Harrington and Bernhard Langer.
This effort came despite an injury that nearly led him to withdraw from the 54-hole event, which is the 20th tournament on the circuit this season. Daly blamed slow play at Thursday’s pro-am for contributing to the ailment.
“I actually don’t want to talk about it, but the L-2, I guess I pinched it yesterday on No. 2,” Daly said. “The pro-am was so long and I waited and I kind of went at a drive and the L-2 kind of goes to your private parts and I’ve been hurting since then. I mean, the guys stretched me and gave me some pills to take.”
After a second or two of prodding, Daly finally explained the pain he suffered through.
“I feel like somebody kicked me in the nuts, is that the way I want to say it? Yeah, it’s been like that ever since I played the pro-am yesterday,” he said. “Painful last night, then I saw the guys this morning and they kind of stretched me a little. It was brutal.”
"Brutal" sounds like an understatement 😳 pic.twitter.com/NLn4wGFHCf
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) September 9, 2022
Daly has just a single top-10 finish in 14 starts on the PGA Tour Champions this year, a T-8 at the American Family Insurance Championship in Madison, Wisconsin, back in June.
In early August, Daly told Piers Morgan he begged Greg Norman to be a part of the LIV Golf Invitational Series, the breakaway league offering huge signing bonuses, giant purses, 54-hole tournaments and no cuts.
He went on to explain how much better he thinks the LIV circuit is compared to the PGA Tour or even the PGA Tour Champions, where Daly spends most of his playing time now.
“I played with Brian Harman in a practice round, and with some other guys in some of the practice rounds at the British Open and it’s like, we play pro-ams, we get it. OK. That’s what is the backbone of a lot of our tournaments. But, Brian Harman says, give us a box of chocolates for the effort.
“I play two to three pro-ams every week on the Champions tour and we don’t play for a lot of money on the Champions tour so I almost feel like, ‘OK, I’m not getting a lot out of this. What are we doing?’”
