Golfblogger

Does anyone plan to read this?  After Brandel Chamblee said the other night on tv that there were things in that book that he didn’t want to know, I’m not so sure I would read it.  I might like to know the occasional anecdote about some of the top players in the sport (and of course I always want to know who’s single and who’s in a relationship), but much of their personal lives is just that, and it’s just not my business.  I just hope Daly disclosed all those personal details for a good reason, like helping others who might have had similar problems, and not just to sell more copies of the book.

I think he’s out to sell books. Same reason for the 60 Minutes Interview tonight.

I like Daly—but I am not sure I am up for reading his book.  If I can get it on Audio or on iTunes, maybe.  It might be alright to listen to in the car, but if I am going to actually read a book (which a magazine or a Dave Berry book is usually all I ever read, sadly)- it will not be this one.  I think I might finish one of Mick Foley’s novels first.

I personally cannot stand Daly and wouldn’t read his book if I was paid to do it. I think he should be kicked off the Tour, or at the very least suspended.

I can’t stand Tiger Woods.  Not only is his caddie a bully, but he has the most foul mouth and has been fined too many times for him not to have learned his lesson.  For his blatant disregard of manners and rules of ettiquette, I think he needs to be suspended.

The only thing that I really don’t like about Daly is his unrealized potential. I hate the idea that someone with all of that talent—talent that I would kill for—is fully utilizing it.  Tiger certainly is no saint, but his on- and off- course behavior is not getting in the way of his playing (yet). I often wonder, though, with his temper, what he would do if (when?) he goes through one of those truly horrific stretches that all golfers go through.

Is John Daly really the person you want to represent golf and the PGA Tour to the non-golfing world? I don’t. He’s a Geraldo show on two feet.

First of all, Jerry Springer would be heartbroken to know that Geraldo has usurped him as the epitome of negative tv programming.  Second, there are troubled people representing every career in the world.  Why should John Daly and golf be singled out?  Just in pro sports alone you can name a bunch of people who shouldn’t be representing their respective sports but are.  I think it says more for the PGA tour that they allow him the opportunity to make a living while doing what they can to keep him out of as much trouble as they can.  The tour officials can only do so much and the rest is up to him.  But Daly shouldn’t be barred from making a living just because he drinks and gambles unless the drinking and gambling directly affects the tour.  And besides, you can’t tell me the fans and the media don’t encourage his behavior.  Brad Faxon wouldn’t have gotten his own show on the Golf Channel.

I forgot about Jerry Springer! I wonder if I owe him an apology…

The reason we’ve singled Daly out is because this topic is about him. I can also think of many athletes in every sport that I wish were not high-profile - Dennis Rodman comes immediately to mind. I agree that there are many more. Believe me, I rant about those people as well. When the Dallas Mavericks signed Rodman for a contract a few years ago, I quit going to the games until he was off the team. The reason I think it matters more for professional golf is because golf is a game far more tied to a person’s integrity than basketball or football is. Do football players go up to the ref after the play is over and say, “I think I grabbed that guys facemask”? Do basketball players call fouls on themselves? Heck, they don’t even do that in pickup games!

The fact that Daly has admitted he gambles doesn’t affect the tour? How do we know that? Let’s say Daly is three or four strokes up in a tournament after Saturday’s round… what’s to keep some gambler from approaching Daly and offering him more than the winner’s prize to miss a few putts or hit a few shots out of bounds? I mean, a million dollars is a lot of money, but I’m sure that gamblers could easily win that much by having a tournament thrown, especially if it’s a major. Sorry, but I think the possibility is there that it could/does affect the PGA Tour.

In an earlier post, you said that Tiger should be suspended for being rude, but you don’t think Daly should be suspended for gambling? Tiger might be rude and his caddie is a jerk, but do you have any doubts whatsoever that Tiger is in it to win tournaments?
Why should the PGA have to (as you say) do “what they can to keep him out of as much trouble as they can”? Isn’t he an adult? The tour officials shouldn’t have to do anything - all of it should be up to him. My place of employment doesn’t do “what they can” to keep me “out of as much trouble as they can”.

And I don’t think the fans and the media encourage his behavior (okay, maybe the media does because it sells paper) as much as just allowing it to happen without Daly paying any price for it. The problem is that he is never made to suffer the consequences of his actions. This is the problem I have with any famous person - they hardly ever have any consequences to their actions like you or I would. Brittney Spears drives a car with her infant in her lap and everybody laughs! CPS would have met me in the parking lot. Michael Jackson even has kids?

BTW, I might have watched a show about Brad Faxon but you can tell the Golf Channel for me that as soon as they started touting “The Daly Show” or whatever it was called, I quit watching the channel completely.

Whew! Miranda, I just realized I pretty much disagreed with everything your wrote in your post (except for the Jerry Springer part). Sorry about that! I just proofread my post and I think I’ll even concede your point about the fans encouraging Daly’s behavior. Everybody says he is popular although for the life of me I can’t understand why. To me, character is more important than personality. I thought before that Daly had little character and now I think he has even less. Sure, Tiger’s a rude person. Who would you let babysit your kids - Tiger or Daly? I would choose Tiger.

Not to defend the guy in particular, but I have thought for some time that the PGA Tour in general has a gambling problem. It is no secret that many players gamble enormous sums (by my teacher standards) among themselves on golf. Phil is famous for his football bets; I’m certain that others also visit Vegas on a regular basis. Not to sound apocalyptic, but the PGA Tour could be just a gambling scandal away from disaster.

I don’t believe I said that Daly’s gambling doesn’t affect the tour.  I said that unless it does, he shouldn’t be suspended.  We have no proof either way.  Tiger’s rude behavior happens on the course on tv very often. I have heard his foul language.  I have not seen any proof of John Daly’s gambling directly linked to the tour.  I don’t think Daly plays golf for the money.  If he did, he wouldn’t withdraw when things get tough.  I think he plays because he likes to play and if he isn’t liking the round, then he starts thinking of bailing out and doing something that he would get some enjoyment from.

As for babysitting my kids, Daly has kids and he’s taking his youngest on the road with him while his wife’s in prison.  I don’t know that Tiger’s ever babysat any children, so if you go on experience alone, then, due to the lack of babysitting references for Tiger, Daly would have the edge.  However, the PGA tour is not in the business of babysitting.  They are golfers.

With respect to my comment about the tour keeping Daly out of trouble, all employers have rules and policies to follow.  Most employers do not allow their employees to drink or do drugs during work hours.  I would think this would keep quite a few people out of trouble.  The PGA tour would be no different.  They are not giving Daly special treatment.  I merely suggested that the strict enforcement of the rules they have (which by the way did lead to a Daly suspension in the past) works to keep Daly on somewhat of a more responsible path when he’s playing. 

I’ll give you the Michael Jackson point - can’t argue with that one.  But Brittney Spears did have to meet with the police and CPS after the seatbelt thing and I think after her babysitter (not a gambling pro golfer) dropped the kid on its head. 

I wasn’t sure I was going to watch the Daly Planet show.  I watched the first episode and found it a bit boring.  But lately they have been showing Daly at charity events and that’s been interesting. 

My bottom line opinion on John Daly - unless his actions directly affect the tour (and it would appear that my view of ‘directly affecting the tour’ might not be the same as others’ views), then he’s just a tragic character who won’t straighten up until something drastic happens, if even then and he should be allowed to make a living.  At the least, parents can use John Daly as a teaching tool and talk to their kids about his life and his life choices. 

This line of posts seems to have focused a lot on the gambling, so I’ll throw out a non-golf, gambling related thought:  Pete Rose got screwed with the lifetime ban.  All these other baseball players can get caught for drug abuse again, and again, and again (Darryl Strawberry comes to mind) and they are given chance after chance.  Drug use is ten times worse than gambling.  They touted the ‘integrity’ factor then by claiming that it was the ultimate sin to bet on baseball, but where’s the integrity when they excuse Strawberry’s behavior? 

And Golfblogger, I’ve noticed that several players make their home near Las Vegas.  I’m sure that’s no coincidence.  I don’t see anything wrong with the famous Hair Bet between Sergio, Adam and Tim (even though I do think Sergio did get his trimmed during the bet) but it wouldn’t surprise me if there isn’t more to the gambling than we know.  It would be hilarious if when the scandal broke, Daly would be one of the ones completely not involved in it.  I did find it unusual that Wayne Gretsky’s wife was playing in a celebrity/pro-am event recently.

Okay, so I guess I was being too strict on Daly just because I don’t like him. It would be a dream come true for me to play golf professionally and, like Golfblogger said, it irritates me that some people, like Daly, have the talent to play golf professionally and it doesn’t seem to mean that much to them.

Although I think that drug use is a bigger problem for an INDIVIDUAL, gambling is a bigger problem for a SPORT. Baseball quickly recovers from all of the drug suspensions, but people still talk about the 1919 World Series (I think that’s the correct year, I’m not a baseball fan, but I’m talking about Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox) and, like Miranda said, the Pete Rose gambling. I believe the reason Rose was suspended for life is that he was betting on his OWN team while he was the manager of that team. I may be wrong, I never really read about it because I don’t follow baseball. Just for the record, btw, I think Rose should be allowed into the Hall of Fame for his accomplishments while he was a player, but he shouldn’t be allowed to be involved in professional baseball now because of the gambling on HIS OWN TEAM.

There is a bigger issue with gambling when you can help control the outcome than gambling when you have no control of the outcome. To me, Phil betting on football is way less concerning than Phil betting on the winner of a golf tournament.

You are correct, there is no proof that Daly has ever bet on a golf tournament, and until he does, he shouldn’t be punished for it. Hey, knee-jerk reactions are my only form of exercise!

Sure Pete Rose bet on his own team. But he bet on them to Win, not lose.  If Rose had bet on them to lose and then played the worst of the team while benching the best players and doing other things to make the team lose, I’d be right there with everyone else supporting a suspension.  Not so much a lifetime ban because I really do feel that the baseball commission people are sending out the wrong message - that it’s ok to do drugs but not ok to lose your shirt on a bet.  I don’t think anyone ever proved that Rose was doing things like encouraging steroid use to try to make his team win so he could win his bets.  I’ve never heard that anyway.  Even the players caught doing performance enhancing drugs aren’t banned for life. And they really should be because they have discredited many of the records that have been set in the last 5 years or more.  And an interesting postscript to the Rose story, I think I heard that his son, who plays in the minor leagues, is also in trouble for distributing a drug used sometimes as a steroid to his teammates.  So, a lifetime ban for his father by people claiming to uphold the integrity of the sport really taught the Rose family a valuable lesson.  I’m confident that Pete Jr didn’t bet on the outcome of his trial.

As for Daly not applying himself and not using his talent, I get the feeling that it isn’t his role on Earth to be a dedicated player like Tiger.  The tour and the world need all different kinds of players.  Maybe Daly’s lack of discipline will spur on some young player who feels like you do and that player will work that much harder and become one of the world’s best one day.  And maybe Daly’s trouble with drinking and gambling will inspire others who have those struggles to get help.  Byron Nelson quit the tour after he had earned enough money to buy a ranch.  Some would say that that was a waste of his talent, but a lifetime pro golfer wasn’t what he was meant to be.  And maybe Daly just isn’t meant to be a dominant force on the tour (which he could be if he used his talent and just worked harder at the game).