Whoose There? Is That John Daly? The Shooting Star?

The Professor: Higher Intellectual Golf Analysis and Stimulation

Whoose There? Is that John Daly? The Shooting Star?

On August 11, 1991 I was at Pheasant Valley Country Club in Crown Point, Indiana watching the final round of the PGA championship being played at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana. After completing an inept round of golf at the “Valley” with fellow softball teammates, we quickly ignored our usual post-golf hyperbole and became engrossed with the phenomenon know as John Daly, the leader in a major after 54 holes from Dardanelle, Arkansas transplanted from Carmichael, California. Who was this guy with a mullet, a ninth alternate masquerading as a tour professional leading the PGA championship without the benefit of a practice round? A perfect storm in the making, John, don’t you know that you are a shooting star?

Being a Hoosier (whoose there/old farmer saying of how the name evolved) for over 40 years and an avid golfer with a penchant for White Castles and Strohs beer, this character Daly struck a chord with many simple working class individuals from Indiana. During his four day run at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana, he was the main topic of discourse everywhere you went and in my small town of Highland, Indiana. Who is this individual who hits the golf ball into the stratosphere with hands delicate like a surgeon?  We would soon find out all the complexities this man had to offer.

John, don’t you know that you are a shooting star and all the world will love you as long as you are………………   

John Daly’s character and career has had more ups and downs than the stock market recently. After winning the PGA championship at Crooked Stick in 1991 Daly won the British Open in 1995 at Saint Andrews. In all, Daly has five PGA tour wins officially, his last being the British Open in 1995. Since then Daly’s career and personal life has been a malady of questionable judgments, duplicitous behavior, and actions centered on just plain incorrigible. With his non-country club persona, rough and tumble personal life, he is the proverbial pariah, the type A personality that many introverts live vicariously through. Through his pure omnipotent reputation on the golf course, fans have woven a transparent attachment to his James Dean personality. John a truly gifted player, with abundant character flaws, is an antithesis of what the game of golf supports; strong ethical values, good sound moral judgment and professional behavior on and off the golf course. Currently, Daly has sculptured and created an existence kindred with the adjective enigma, a puzzling character.

If you listen to the wind, you can still here them say…………..

Daly now meanders around golf tournaments through exemptions and sponsor invitations. Last year, Daly played overseas for a six month period due to a suspension incurred for conduct unbecoming of a professional golfer. Still a larger than life presence with the adoring galleries, Daly still has an innate charm and innocent playful demeanor, at times. Sponsors know the appeal of Mr. Daly, tour officials know the production capacity of this man to lure and entice a crowd for a weekend of golf entertainment, especially when his name is etched on the leader board. His personal and professional behavior rather inexplicable at times, still fills a void for the public which is still enamored with those lengthy drives and precision-like skills around the greens.

John, all the world will love you, just as long……………….     

God bless you John, for that four day weekend in Carmel, Indiana in 1991, you created dreams, added value to lives, delivered hopes, stirred visions, and ignited deep suppressed rooted feelings and passions for golf enthusiasts not only in Indiana, but surrounding the globe. Not since Jack’s amazing come from behind victory at the Masters in 1986 have we seen a shooting star, like Mr. Daly. Your true “grip it and “rip it” mentality resonated with the pedestrian people of Indiana and those four days of triumphant golf will be indelibly etched into the minds of every bearable witness. Your aura and audacious manner for attacking the Crooked Stick golf course with reigns in one hand and a full display of emotionally charged theater in the other hand, you were the epitome of everything that embodies hope. You were the John Wayne of Golf for that frozen moment in time.

Don’t you know that you are a shooting star, and all the world will love you just as long…………

I hope you may find solace someday from your inner demons, lack of impulse control, and the ineffective scripts that you have chosen to embrace throughout your life.

Watching the world go by, surprising it goes so fast. Johnny looked around and said I made the big time at last. Yeah, John, you made the big time at last, unfortunately you are a shooting star, a streak of light in the sky at night that results when a meteoroid hits the earth’s atmosphere and air friction causes the meteor to melt, vaporize, or explode, or implode.

Enough said, analysis delivered.

Robert Needles