NBC on Yahoo SportsHello, 50! Daly excited to begin Champions chapter
It was quintessential John Daly, hair disheveled, at least a week removed from his last shave and chain-smoking Marlboros.
Just yards from the controlled chaos that is Washington Road during Masters week and the raucous revelry that is Hooters, JD is at home with the endless precession of guests – some more welcome than others.
“You know how this works, I’m looking for a place to cook some bacon and eggs,” announces comedian Ron White as he enters Daly’s RV, undeterred by multiple cameras and an ongoing interview with the two-time major champion.
Later that afternoon the crowds would come, they always do to get a glimpse of one of the game’s most iconoclastic players. They want autographs. By Tuesday of Masters week, Daly estimates he’s signed close to 5,000 items for fans.
“Somebody bought our merchandise banner for $300 and had him sign it,” says Anna Cladakis, Daly’s fiancée, sometimes-caddie and retail manager since 2007.
They buy Daly’s line of shirts, hats and head covers from sunrise to well past the nightcap hour, but this is more than just sports hero worship. His fans have been with JD through every peak and valley, vicariously celebrating his successes and enduring his many missteps every step of the way.
They want a piece of Daly, warts and all, like one fan who asked Cladakis for a specific signature.
“He said to sign it, ‘Bay Hill 18,’” she says. “I’m not sure what that means.”
The reference is to Daly’s misadventure on the sixth hole during the final round of the 1998 Bay Hill Invitational when he deposited six golf balls into a lake and signed for an 18 on the hole.
Daly signs the hat as requested, adding a “2” to the autograph.
“I made a birdie [2] on the next hole,” he says with a wink.
The buzz around Daly’s RV is nonstop for eight consecutive days and, true to his man-of-the-people persona, he embraces every rowdy minute.
“Guys will roll out [of the Hooters] at 2 a.m., yelling for autographs,” Daly smiles.
Daly could limit his time among the masses. He could stay in a hotel and adhere to a more structured schedule, but that’s not JD’s style.
Daly’s RV is his home, a rolling condo with multiple TVs, a king-sized bed, shower and, yes, even a stove to cook White his bacon and eggs.
“I relate to the fans,” Daly says. “You know I’ve made them happy and I’ve pissed them off a lot, but they’ve been good to me all over the world.”
Throughout the rollercoaster that has been Daly’s life, the major championships, stardom, multiple divorces, injuries and gambling, it has been the fans – not the media and certainly not the PGA Tour– that has never left his side.
Daly figures it’s the way he’s lived his eventful life that has kept his fans loyal, the brutal honesty he’s displayed under the most unforgiving spotlight. Others say it’s JD’s flaws that have earned him unwavering support from the masses.
Whatever the reason, a dozen years removed from his last Tour title Daly, and his “lions head” brand, remains one of the most popular players in golf, which makes this time something of a seminal moment for both Daly and the PGA Tour Champions.
Daly turns 50 on April 28 and will make his debut on the over-50 circuit at next week’s Insperity Invitational in Texas.
“Two years ago, when I took this job, I was stunned at how many players were excited about John coming out,” said Greg McLaughlin, the PGA Tour Champions president. “They feel John will be good for the tour, and what’s good for the tour is good for all involved.”
Every player views the Champions circuit as a golden parachute, but for Daly 2.0 it’s the ultimate mulligan.
“The camaraderie is going to be great,” Daly said. “The guys are still great, they’re competitive as hell and we still think we want to win. We challenge ourselves every day no matter how old we get.”
In many ways, Daly is viewing this next chapter in a tome that at times has read like a Hunter S. Thompson fiction novel much like he viewed his early years on Tour in the 1990s when he was just “an old redneck, blue-collar boy winning the British Open.”
Although his hair is still golden blonde, the stubble on his face gives away his years of hard living. Even in his RV adjacent the Washington Road Hooters, Daly seems somehow more subdued than he was in the early 1990s.
He’s cut back on gambling, although in true Daly style he admits it’s more an acknowledgment of his diminished cash flow in recent years than a desire to separate himself from his rough-and-tumble past.
