NEWS AND NOTES
DALY COMMITS CARDINAL SIN
There was John Daly last Friday morning, abruptly exiting
another golf course, leaving everyone wondering why. After
shooting 10 over par for the first 27 holes of the U.S. Open,
Daly hurried from the 9th green to the clubhouse and cleared out
his locker as his playing partners, Payne Stewart and Ernie Els,
and his caddie, Brian Alexander, stood on the 10th tee waiting
for him to return. Only later, after Daly had begun the 850-mile
drive to his home in Memphis, did he authorize Callaway Golf
officials to release a statement that he had withdrawn from the
tournament. The episode marked the third time during Daly's
seven-year Tour career that he has quit or been disqualified
before the completion of a round. "John felt that if he played
the back nine, he might have done something he would have
regretted," Chipper Cecil, the director of golf at Mission Hills
Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and a close friend of
Daly's, told SI on Friday night. "Maybe he would have hit a shot
in jest or thrown something and ended up injuring himself or
somebody else."
In his statement Daly, who was playing in his third tournament
in a row since completing a two-month alcohol-rehabilitation
program at the Betty Ford Center, explained that he was too
"physically exhausted" to go on. Neither that defense nor the
one offered by Cecil, however, excuses Daly's failure to
immediately inform Open officials and his playing partners that
he was withdrawing. "I don't know what's going on in his head,"
said Tom Kite, "but when you continually withdraw from
tournaments, it gets absurd. Usually you tell someone." Said
Corey Pavin, "Nobody should ever walk off the course unless he's
injured."
Daly has not said when he will return to the Tour. After hosting
a charity tournament in Memphis on Monday, he was expected to
fly to Palm Springs, Calif., where he owns another house, by the
end of the week. There he will work with a nutritionist and a
personal fitness trainer and attend AA meetings. Meanwhile,
Callaway, which signed Daly to a five-year, $10 million
endorsement deal last month, will not resume its Daly ad
campaign until he returns to the Tour. "He is really a sweet
person, and I care about him," says Ely Callaway, the chairman
of the company, "but he has a problem. I just hope he will
respond to the help that he's getting."
Until then, Daly should stay away from the game.
THE SHARK'S UN-EXCELLENT ADVENTURE IN D.C.
Given Greg Norman's warm relationship with U.S. fans and a
certain President, one might have assumed that the Shark's
two-week stay in the nation's capital for the Kemper and U.S.
Opens would have been a pleasant one. But by the time he lit out
of D.C. on Friday night, Norman had been overwhelmed by bad
press, bad golf and bad news from home.
Though Norman tied for third in the Kemper, his second-best
finish of the year, he gained more attention for a pair of
outbursts. At the start of the third round he upbraided starter
Bill McGuire, who, while introducing the golfer on the 1st tee,
made a joking reference to President Clinton's spill at Norman's
Florida house in March. The next day Norman misunderstood an
encouraging remark from a fan and responded with an obscene
gesture. Although Norman later apologized, Washington Post
columnist Tony Kornheiser wrote, "Greg, there are buses going
out of town every few minutes....Why don't you simply get on one?"
Norman probably wished he had. Before the Open, he learned that
his father, Merv, would have to undergo heart surgery in
Australia on the day of the first round. Norman offered to fly
home for the week, but Merv insisted that he play. Norman was on
the 2nd fairway last Thursday when he was handed a note saying
the surgery had been successful. Nonetheless, he shot a
14-over-par 154 for the first two rounds, missing the cut in the
Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year for the first time in
his career. After bogeying the 18th on Friday, he quipped, "I'm
just glad I made the four-footer to break 80."
On his way from the scorer's tent to the clubhouse Norman ran a
gantlet of fans pleading for autographs. Norman quietly obliged,
but before he entered the clubhouse, a man maliciously shouted,
"Break a leg next time, Greg!"
Norman disappeared inside without a word. His departure from
Washington occurred two days earlier than planned but perhaps
not a moment too soon.
ANDRADE GETS TIGER'S AUTOGRAPH...SORT OF
Last year at a fund-raiser for Charities for Children, an
organization sponsored by Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon, a
collection of golf balls that would be autographed by every
living Masters champion was auctioned off to a Massachusetts
businessman for $50,000. However, when Andrade asked '97 champ
Tiger Woods last month for a signed ball to add to that
collection, Woods declined, citing his concern that the ball
would later be sold on the open market for a profit.
When Drew Simmons, an eight-year-old from Narragansett, R.I.,
and his brother Dixon, 11, learned of the story from their
father, Dixon Sr., they decided to act. Two years ago, when he
was in nearby Newport for the U.S. Amateur, Woods had signed a
ball for each boy. "We have two autographed by Tiger," Drew told
his father. "We can give one to help their charity. That would
be cool."
Says Andrade, "It shows you how great an eight-year-old kid can
be. I'm touched."
LEHMAN'S CADDIE CALLS FOR RYDER CUP BOYCOTT
Caddying for your country, your man and virtually for free is
one thing. Having to fly economy class is another. Andrew
Martinez, Tom Lehman's longtime caddie, says he will not work
September's Ryder Cup at Valderrama, in Spain, if the caddies
are not allowed to fly for free with the players on a chartered
Concorde. "The Ryder Cup is the ultimate team competition," says
Martinez, whose man finished third at Congressional. "The
caddies are part of the team. It's time somebody stepped up and
said something about this."
The PGA of America will pay an honorarium of $500 and pick up
the caddies' expenses, including airfare. What burns Martinez,
though, is that the PGA sold many of the seats on the Concorde
to business, including SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's advertising-sales
organization. "Is that what the Ryder Cup is about, creating
revenue for the PGA?" he wonders. "Two years ago the Europeans
made sure the caddies came over with the team on the Concorde.
That was a class move. I think this reflects on the class of our
captain."
Martinez says he spoke with U.S. captain Tom Kite last Friday,
but "Tom says his hands are tied [by the PGA]."
Martinez's outrage is not shared by every caddie who might be
involved in the Ryder Cup. "If they charged us $1,000 to work
the Ryder Cup," says Jim (Bones) MacKay, who carries for Phil
Mickelson, "I'd pay mine and Andrew's." Says Joe LaCava, Fred
Couples's caddie, "I'd boat over if my man was going."
MINI-TOUR VET GETS HIS DAY WITH TIGER
As Dave Schreyer strolled down the 3rd fairway during the third
round of the Open, he spotted a familiar face. It belonged to a
fan he had chatted with during a practice round three days
earlier. "A lot more people than Wednesday," the man said.
Schreyer nodded.
Schreyer, a former NAIA champion at Huntingdon College in
Alabama, has spent only one full season on the Tour, in 1992,
and was making his first Open start. But after going 68-73 in
the first two days at Congressional, Schreyer found himself
paired with Tiger Woods and playing in front of a gallery that
went eight deep. That was a stark contrast to the 1,000 or so
fans he had played in front of the week before, when he won a
Hooters tour event in Normal, Ill. He finished the Open with a
12-over-par 82. "I might have gotten a little juiced up," says
Schreyer, who has spent the last four years playing on various
U.S. mini-tours and in South Africa. "I don't get around that
big a gallery too often."
Schreyer is less accustomed to playing in front of large crowds
than his sister, Cindy, who is 32nd on the LPGA money list.
Nonetheless he hopes his fast start at the Open--he finished
with a 74 and in 65th place--is a harbinger of bigger galleries
to come. "I think my game is very close," he says. "I see a lot
of my friends out here playing, and I've got just as much game
as they do."
THE SHAG BAG
One of the most impressive performances at Congressional was that
of rookie Stewart Cink, who came in 13th at four-over-par 284.
After finishing 16th at last year's Open, and first on the Nike
tour money list, Cink was regarded as a leading candidate for
1997 rookie of the year. However, he had missed eight of 15 cuts
before last week.... Perhaps the most moving scene from the
Open: Ben Crenshaw holing a birdie putt on 18 last Friday to
make the cut. Awaiting Crenshaw as he came off the green were
Jack Nicklaus and Hale Irwin, each of whom threw an arm around
their second-round playing partner.... In Maple Grove, Minn.,
Kelli Kuehne failed to make the cut in her long-awaited LPGA
debut, at the Edina Realty Classic, which was won by Danielle
Ammaccapane. For those keeping score, Tiger Woods, with whom
Kuehne has frequently been compared, finished 60th in his
professional debut at last year's Greater Milwaukee Open.
COLOR PHOTO: ROBERT BECK Pensive during a practice round, Norman (right) and Daly had regrettable Opens. [John Daly and Greg Norman]
COLOR PHOTO: J.D. CUBAN [Justin Leonard playing golf]
OPEN MIKE
Quips, commentary and repartee overheard at the U.S. Open.
"I wasn't going to say anything, John, but I've seen you like
that before."
"You've seen me a lot worse than that."
--Exchange between Fuzzy Zoeller and John Daly after Daly
stumbled in an attempt to catch a baseball that Zoeller and a
caddie were tossing back and forth last Wednesday
"I never saw anything this peculiar in my 10 years of working at
the Open."
--Stuart Reid, the USGA referee walking with the threesome of
Daly, Ernie Els and Payne Stewart, when Daly unexpectedly quit
midway through the second round
"Everybody on the Tour is married, basically, and I guess they
got to the L's, and there I was, single. That's the only
explanation I have."
--Justin Leonard (above) on why he was named one of the 25 most
eligible bachelors in the world by Cosmopolitan magazine
"He's a person like everybody else. He has to put on his pants
by himself. Well, you know, is he still doing that?"
--1996 Open champion Steve Jones on his first-round playing
partner, Tiger Woods
"Thought I was going to get pummeled for a second."
--David White, on being grabbed by a Secret Service agent when
he tried to shake President Clinton's hand on the 16th hole on
Sunday
THE NUMBER
1
Position Tiger Woods occupies in the World Golf Ranking despite
finishing 19th in the U.S. Open.
