Friday, Oct. 11, 2002 | 10:08 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
His celebrity is such that he had by far the largest gallery at the TPC at Summerlin in spite of playing as poorly as anyone in the Invensys Classic at Las Vegas.
Seventy fans followed John Daly around the course Thursday, not to see if he could make a move on the leaders but to see if he would implode.
But he isn't just a train-wreck kind of guy. Fans don't flock to him simply because he courts disaster or might take a double-digit score on a single hole.
For better or worse, he's more than that. He's an attraction.
He's a fellow who arrives at the first tee with a Coke in one hand and a cigarette in the other. And, some 10 Cokes and an equal number of cigarettes later, he reaches the 18th green looking just as he did when he started.
He's a big guy -- the PGA Tour media guide has him at 5-foot-11 and 220 pounds -- whose stomach hangs over his belt and whose hair will sometimes fly askew.
But it's this Joe Six Pack image that golf fans find endearing. Only Daly will continue hitting balls until he hits one over the lake, and only Daly will act as many in the gallery believe they would if they were in his position.
He drives to many tour events in an RV.
He gambles, impulsively in Las Vegas and probably everywhere else, too. A report this week had him winning and then losing big on a $500 slot machine.
Women troubles? He has had them.
Blow ups in public? Had those, too.
Alcohol episodes? He tried to dry out but later surrendered to the shortcoming and decided to drink as much as he pleased.
The fact is, Daly has been a bad boy at times. He has been known to make a spectacle of himself.
He has also been known to be abrupt and indignant, which is unfortunate in that he's largely a very personable, sociable and outgoing bear of a man with a cuddly side.
For these and perhaps one other reason, Daly draws a crowd. And it's that other reason -- the fact that no one in the history of the PGA Tour hits the ball as far -- that will forever assure him of an audience no matter the depth of his depravity or the disarray of his game.
Of course it's not that he hasn't won, as his four tour victories are highlighted by wins in two different majors: the 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 British Open. This year hasn't been as profitable but he does have $593,595 in official earnings and ranks No. 103 on the tour's money list.
But there haven't been any signs of stellar play of late, as Daly has shot 75 and 72 in his first two rounds in the Invensys and will almost certainly miss the cut here, just as he had in five of his previous nine events.
Yet he hits a long ball and his gung-ho approach invites applause. Tops on the tour driving stats with an average tee shot of 305 yards and first on the tour in eagles, Daly, at 36 years old, is only a raconteur, sword swallower and fortune teller away from having the complete sideshow.
But indifference overtook his second-round play and he began leaving putts and chip shots short.
He barely shrugged while others called out encouragement.
His mind was elsewhere and it almost showed, yet his fans hung with him and plodded along just in case something really dramatic was still to come.
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