Daly’s Scorecard Full of Black Marks

BETHESDA, Md. — He has stiffed the golf world again, walking out in the middle of its biggest party, with an excuse as thin as a tee.

The man famous for hammering golf balls and hotel rooms did a number on the U.S. Open on Friday, leaving two playing partners and one caddie standing open-mouthed on the 10th tee like victims of a sidewalk scam.

The players were Payne Stewart and Ernie Els, who spent the rest of the afternoon wading through the distraction.

The caddie was Brian Alexander, and it is here where our hero really showed what sort of man he has become.

That John Daly would drive out of town in the middle of a round in a major golf tournament without even telling his caddie proves he doesn’t even care about those devoted to carrying his baggage.

Which is just about everyone these days.

Which is probably why Daly is in this jam.

Everyone loves him. But no one loves him enough to tell him no.

It happened again Friday, when the troubled Daly cited physical and mental fatigue as the reason he could not walk the final nine holes of the second round.

Yet observers say the only symptoms he displayed were those generally associated with lousy golf. Watching him during a practice round this week, he appeared not sick, but lost.

Friday’s incident occurred shortly after Daly knocked a couple of shots in the rough while taking a bogey six on the ninth hole. His score increased to 10 over par, diminishing his chances of making the cut.

While the rest of his group walked around the clubhouse to the 10th tee, he sneaked away to the parking lot.

About seven minutes later, after Stewart had returned from a bathroom break, the players were ordered to tee off on 10.

It was then they realized that their threesome had become a twosome.

“Daly was nowhere to be seen,” accompanying USGA official Stuart Reid said. “Daly’s caddie was standing there with a panicked look on his face. I realized we had a problem.”

Reid picked up the walkie-talkie and called one of the tournament directors, who had no clue. But their conversation was picked up by an official in the parking lot.

“He broke in on the walkie-talkie and said that he had just seen Daly driving away,” Reid said. “I have been 10 years at the Open and never seen anything like it.”

Daly left behind more than tire tracks.

Because of his absence, his partners had longer waits during the final nine holes because they were a twosome following threesomes.

“We waited five minutes just on the fairway of 17,” Reid noted. “We had nearly an hour of waiting time, most of it on the back nine.”

He also stained the tour with another breach of protocol, less than one week after Greg Norman flipped an obscene gesture to fans.

“I don’t think anybody should ever walk out of a tournament, unless they are injured,” said Corey Pavin, who withdrew from a previous U.S. Open because of back problems. “You finish your round.”

So what happens shortly after he is discovered missing?

Daly’s major sponsor--Callaway Golf--promptly issues a press release expressing its support for him.

This is the same Southern California-based outfit that Daly said paid off his gambling debts when he recently signed a lucrative deal with it. It was a contract given shortly after Daly ended his second stay in an alcohol rehabilitation center.

Which was shortly after he trashed a hotel room during a Florida tournament.

Which was a little more than three years after he picked up his ball on the 11th hole and walked out of another tournament.

On and on it has gone, seemingly from the time Daly stunned the sports world with a PGA championship in 1991 after making the field as an alternate.

Daly admits he has a problem with drinking, a problem with anger. He has fought with a 62-year-old man, pleaded guilty to harassing a wife, been forced off an airplane after confronting a flight attendant.

Yet the PGA Tour--run by the players--can do no better than a three-month suspension in 1993 after his last quitting incident.

As long as he can drive a ball more than 300 yards, he’s welcome here.

As long as he can still maintain a shred of the innocent plowboy image, somebody will want to peddle him.

He had barely left his latest alcohol rehabilitation stint when he signed with Callaway and played in three consecutive tournaments.

That string ended, perhaps not coincidentally, on the 10th tee Friday afternoon.

On the bag his caddie was left holding were the words, “God. Serenity. Wisdom. Courage.”

Daly will need all of those in the coming months if he is to save what has been a remarkable life.

What he will not need is golf.

If only somebody would have the guts to tell him.