Columnist Dean Juipe: Bad habits or not, Daly perseveres

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Oct. 14, 1999 | 11:03 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

The women in his life may come and go yet John Daly has his constant companions.

Cigarettes; he's never without them and all but lights one off the other.

Smiles; he's forever enjoying a laugh, often at his own expense.

Crowds; he's a magnet for attention, on or off the golf course.

Felt-tip pens; he keeps one in his pocket, in order to satisfy the many autograph requests that come his way.

And, some would insist, liquids; he's a professed beer drinker, although Wednesday during his opening round of the Las Vegas Invitational at the Desert Inn he drank heavily, albeit from one water bottle after another.

Daly has been in the news quite a bit in the past month, although, regrettably, not for his golf. But after his first-round 67 at the D.I. and the possibility he could contend for this weekend's first prize of $450,000 in the LVI, maybe that will change.

At a distant No. 163 on the money list (with a mere $165,565 in 20 events), he needs his golf game to come around. It would be mentally therapeutic as well, given the stress he has to feel as people with no right whatsoever to criticize his lifestyle have felt the need to do just that.

Daly's recent admission that he's off the wagon has become an obsession with reporters and analysts, as if they want to see him fail. He says after trying to go cold turkey (at least twice) and not liking it, he's allowing himself to drink within moderation.

Who's to say he can't do it? Who's to say he's still a candidate for an alcoholic binge? And who's to judge whether drinking affects his game, or, even if it does, isn't it his career, his life, that is at risk?

He's a grown man, a large grown man. If he wants to drink -- and gamble, another vice he seems to cherish and one he's proud of in a way, given that he said he stayed out until 5 a.m. before catching a few hours sleep Wednesday -- then he and only he is fit to judge the consequences.

Perhaps there won't be any, aside from a peace of mind that evaded him during his Betty Ford stays and days.

Little sleep or not, Daly was endlessly agreeable with those around him and perfectly at ease during a first round in which he made every putt on his front nine and all but missed every one on the back. His five-under total left him six behind early leader Craig Barlow.

The possibility exists that he can improve on his best finish of the year, a tie for 14th at Phoenix. If so, if he can remain in contention through Sunday, it would be good for both him and a golf tournament that's a little short on star power.

Those who followed him at the D.I. were amazed not only by his mammoth tee shots but by his casual demeanor. He talked with everyone, encouraging his amateur playing partners even after their worst shots, and kept the mood light even when a few in the gallery were expecting him to explode.

He draws some fans the way Mike Tyson and auto races draw others: To see the train wreck. Yet the anticipated meltdown never occurred, Daly reacting with a sarcastic "oh boy" after his lone bogey of the day, at No. 6.

No clubs were thrown, no tempers flared.

He looked good and he was having fun.

What he does in his private time simply isn't relevant.