Is The Wild Thing Ready To Become The Mild Thing?

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

ALL those 50-year-olds who have been enjoying a quiet life on the Champions Tour had better get ready to dig out the earplugs and don the sunglasses because things are about to loud.

John Daly, the Wild Thing, is about to shake things up - and how!

There are many who thought Daly would never see his 50th birthday - Fuzzy Zoeller once said that he would give the big fella $150,000 if he made it. But JD does not intend to call in the bet.

"Fuzzy said I'd never make it to 50. He said, 'I'll give you $150,000 if you make it to 50.' I told him I'd have to take that bet. I told him I wouldn't be able to pay him if I was dead. I called him the other day and he said: 'That's right. I do remember making that bet.' But I'm not going to make him pay," Daly said. "I told him he could give me a free bottle of his vodka.”

Daly has, of course, made and lost millions during a colourful career. He won two majors (the US PGA in 1991 and The Open at St Andrews in 1996) but would be the first to admit that he wasted his talent. He has suffered suspensions, been dumped by sponsors, fought with wives, spectators and cameraman, struggled to pay alimony, drunk huge amounts of beer and bourbon, stormed off golf courses, argued with sponsors, smoked tens of thousands of cigarettes, lost millions at the gaming tables, trashed hotel rooms, become addicted to M&Ms and has even been asked to move on by the powers-that-be at Augusta after setting up a stall at the end of Magnolia Lane to sell clothing from his Loud Mouth range.

He also surprised us by turning out to be a decent musician who could hold a note. Sadly, he focused his lyric-writing on what he perceived to be the money-grabbing behaviour of his various ex-wives. There was a time when Daly seemed unable to accept responsibility for his behaviour, when it was all too easy for him to blame everybody other than himself. But he was the one opening the beer cans and bottles of bourbon.

At last, however, it seems that he has grown up and now realises that he has a rare opportunity to make a fortune in prize money on the Champions Tour and will make his bow this week at the Insperity Invitational at Houston, where tournament officials are expecting attendance to double. Hopefully, he can do so with a huge smile on his face, make golf fans happy and his bank manager even happier.

"I'm going to enjoy it," Daly said. "It's going to be fun. I don't know how I'm going to play — good or bad, we never know that. But just to be out there, having a schedule, that's going to be awesome knowing where I can play."

There has been talk of Daly been inducted in golf's Hall of Fame - for all the reasons listed here that can never be allowed to happen. Yes, he won a couple of majors, but next to nothing else, and he has hardly been an inspirational figure or a good example for generations of young golfers, has he?

But now he has the opportunity to show us that he can still do it. I find it almost impossible to believe that Daly is 50, and I can't wait to see what impact he has on the Champions Tour.

He is certainly living proof that you don't have to spend your life in a gymnasium and if he does require any dietary advice then he might want to have a word with Colin Montgomerie, another who proves that it is difficult to separate fitness from fatness on the old boys' tour. He may no longer be the Wild Thing (we can only live in hope that the Mild Thing becomes a more apt moniker), but let's hope he can go out there, enjoy it and make piles of money.