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A train wreck to the rescue of Australian golf

Roar Rookie
24th November, 2008
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The first time Stuart Appleby played a round of golf with John Daly he came away confused, bewildered and envious.

In the 16 years since, Appleby’s view has changed so little that he is wondering if the man he describes as a “walking train wreck” will be viewed as a drawcard or a “freak card” at this week’s Australian Masters golf tournament at Huntingdale.

In 1992 Appleby played in the same group as Daly in the first two rounds of what was a first Masters for both of them.

“It was just crazy,” Appleby said at Huntingdale on Monday.

“The marshalls weren’t watching the crowd and the crowd was carrying on.

“It was very nerve wracking for me because it was my first time at the Masters.”

Daly had arrived in Australia as the previous year’s US PGA champion and the biggest hitter the game had ever seen.

He was also becoming renowned for his gambling, drinking and wild indiscipline.

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The 21-year-old Appleby didn’t know what to make of it.

“John came to Australia because he was the PGA champion … he was the golfing freak,” Appleby said.

“No-one else played golf like John Daly.”

After 10 holes of the tournament, Appleby figured out there was more to the American than he aware of.

“That was when I first got the idea that he had some sort of drinking problem,” he said.

“I just got this feeling that he drinks, he really drinks.”

The fresh-faced Victorian farm boy also discovered that the champion golfer he was playing with also had some peculiar dietary habits.

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“I asked him what he’d done for dinner, and he’d been to McDonalds,” he said.

“I’m trying to live the cleanest, straightest life and this is one of the world’s best players, and I was really confused by what he was telling me.”

Adding to Appleby’s confusion was Daly’s uncanny golfing ability.

“I’m seeing him hit these shots and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t get this’,” he said.

Daly went on to make a young man’s muddled impressions of championship golf complete by leaving the course after the second round without bothering to sign his card and driving straight to Melbourne airport.

Since then, Appleby has become one of the world’s best players and Daly has become one of the worst performing professionals on any world tour.

Until last weekend when he produced his best performance of the year to finish 17th in the Hong Kong Open, Daly had been ranked 788th in the world.

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He comes to Huntingdale ranked 603rd – an odd position for a player who is likely to attract the tournament’s biggest galleries.

At least for two rounds.

To Appleby, and many others, the decision by organisers to pay Daly to play in the Masters is clearly questionable.

“His game hasn’t been at the level he wants it to be,” Appleby said.

But that’s about as far as his diplomacy stretches.

“I don’t think John’s here because of his world ranking,” he said.

“He’s a walking train wreck and I guess people turn their heads to watch a train wreck.

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“You’d like to think he’d be a drawcard, not just a ‘freak card’.”

For all that, Appleby retains a sneaking admiration for a player whose two major titles are two more than he possesses himself.

Appleby describes Daly as “unique” and “gifted” and wishes he would practice enough that his talents could be revealed more often.

“He is so gifted it’s a joke,” he said.

“Whenever I play with him I hardly ever walk away and say this guy is overrated.

“All the players wish that he’d put a little more time into his game and less time into ruining his personal life.”

Appleby admits that if he was running the Masters, he probably wouldn’t take a risk on Daly.

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But like so many who have given the hard-drinking, thrice-married, overweight, chain-smoking, golfing genius chance after chance, Appleby can’t help liking him.

“The saving grace for John is that he’s a good man,” Appleby said.

“He’s a nice guy.

“His heart has got him so far.”

If it gets him through 72 holes at Huntingdale this week, it will have exceeded its perceived limits.

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