By AAP
December 1st 2009 @ 3:16am
Daly says golf needs Tiger to be okay
John Daly fears that golf will suffer if Tiger Woods sustains any long-term damage from the mystery car crash outside his Florida home last week.
“Tiger’s the biggest asset the tour’s had in a long, long time,” Daly said as he began preparing for this week’s Australian Open at NSW Golf Club.
“Whatever happened, as long as he’s OK that’s all that matters.
“Golf needs him badly … no doubt.”
Daly, the dual major winner, four-time divorcee and serial hell-raiser, managed to hide his bemusement at discussing someone else’s private life – let alone Tiger Woods’.
He could shed no light on the out-of-character episode that has dominated golf discussion in recent days.
“I don’t really care what happened between Tiger and … whatever happened. I’m just glad he’s OK.
“We need him probably more than anybody on the tour to keep things going, the way the economy is.”
Instead, discussion turned to Daly’s new slimline figure.
After a stomach band operation earlier this year, he is more than 50kg lighter than the angry hulk who smashed a spectator’s camera into a tree on his way to missing the cut in this tournament at Royal Sydney 12 months ago.
“I feel great. The game’s a little rusty,” he said.
There is one other side effect. He found himself getting knocked off balance in the brisk sou’wester sweeping across the course.
“This is the first time in a long time the wind’s ever pushed me around,” he said.
Daly, who missed three straight cuts on his swing Down Under last year, has no expectations for this tournament or next week’s Australian PGA at Coolum other than to play as hard as he can.
“I haven’t had a lot of success in Australia. That’s why I want to keep coming down here. Sooner or later I’m going to have a good week.”
Although he hasn’t played a tournament in more than three months, Daly says he has been working hard.
“It’s starting to come back,” he said.
If he was feeling the effects of a long flight from wintry Arkansas and a 6am arrival on Monday, Daly wasn’t showing it.
He had enough energy to play the front nine and practise his putting before holding an amiable greenside chat with reporters.
He was dressed relatively soberly – in orange shirt and vertically striped blue and orange pants. With a thinner face and a small grey beard, he looks older, and sounds even a little wiser.
He talked enthusiastically about the new love of his life – Hooters employee Anna Cladakis, who has come to Australia with him. He credits her with getting his life in order.
What hasn’t changed is his ability to grip it and rip it.
To complete his practice, Daly took out his driver on the downwind 340-metre ninth. His drive landed just short of the green, bounced up and hit the pin before careering sideways into a bunker.
Daly then learned that for the tournament the wind is forecast to blow from the northeast.
“One of yo’all said that this is the totally opposite wind, so that practice went to hell.”
