John

Daly

The 1991 PGA Championship winner has nothing better than a T38 in five tries on the Champions circuit this season. He twirled a T65 last week at the Regions Tradition. He’s also missed the cut in eight straight attempts at the PGA Championship. He was far off the fantasy radar but gamers should certainly take a look at his replacement, Stephan Jaeger, who arrives fresh off a trio of top 30s.

After making one birdie and shooting 3-over 75 in Day 1 fourballs, Daly and Duval shot 11-over 83 in Friday foursomes at TPC Louisiana. The two sponsor’s invites tallied four double-bogeys, four bogeys and one birdie to record the worst-ever score in this event’s alternate-shot format (dating to 2017). At 14 over par, they were alone in last place, 14 shots removed from the next worst team.

In the 24th playing of the PNC, John, 55, and son John II, 18, claim victory in their sixth appearance, birdieing two of their final three holes for the final margin, including a walk-off birdie-4. Their prior best was T2 three tries ago in 2018 (59-62), and signed for rounds of 60-57 this week. The Daly’s, who began the day in a two-way T2, one short of playing competitors Team Cink (61), rang up 13 birdies and an eagle en route to the victory. In all, they totaled 23 birdies and two eagles versus no dropped shots, eclipsing the previous tournament scoring record of 26-under 118 by Davis Love III and Dru Love in 2018, which was three clear of the Daly’s aforementioned runner-up. See link below to post-round comments from the winners.

John, 55, and John II, 18, are one shy of leaders Stewart and Reagan Cink, who they’ll be with in the final group on Sunday, scheduled out at 11:12 am ET. Their best finish among five prior visits is T2, three back, in 2018, after being the 18-hole leaders by one (59-62). John II, who played in one event as a freshman at Arkansas in the fall of 2021, did the majority of the heavy-lifting today, particularly on the putting surfaces, including canning the eagle at the par-5 last, setup by dad’s most memorable approach shot of the day.

In four other starts in the 36-hole event at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla., the Dalys were T-8 in 2016, T-9 in 2017, fifth in 2019 and eighth in 2020. In 2018, they finished three strokes behind winners Davis and Dru Love. “I just love playing with my boy, and he’s been working so hard on his game,” said Daly. “It’s a fun event and they set it up to where really every team has a chance to win.” Daly II is freshman golfer at Arkansas, his dad’s alma mater, where he played one event this fall and finished 49th in the Blessings Collegiate Invitational as an individual. “Right now I’m just learning what I can and experiencing playing tournaments with stronger fields,” JDII told PGATour.com. “It’s tough just to get into tournaments at this level. … We’d both get a kick out of winning (the PNC). The first years I was a bit younger, but from 2018 to now we’ve been up there. We always hit it great. It’s just making more putts, more of those 7- to 10-footers.”

Daly missed the cut this year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and PGA Championship, but he’s made 22 of 23 cuts in PGA Tour Champions action with one podium finish and one top 10. He was T-2 at the Insperity Invitational, where he was tied for the lead entering the final hole of the 36-hole, rain-shortened event, but he hit his approach shot into the water for double bogey to finish two shots back of winner Mike Weir. He was T-10 at the Regions Tradition. The 55-year-old Daly, the 1995 Open Championship winner, along with Jason Dufner and Charl Schwartzel make up the major championship-winning contingent playing this week at Keene Trace GC in Kentucky. In one previous appearance at the Barbasol, he shot 71-72 to miss the cut in 2019. He chose to play in the event that year after his request to use a cart in the Open Championship was denied by the R&A.

He hit 20 balls in an attempt to drive a ball from one side of Niagara gorge to another, teeing it up from Table Rock platform in Niagara Falls, Ontario. He never cleared the 346-yard carry, but came close on his second shot, coming up just short. Maybe we should start calling him ''Evel.’'

CBS is reporting that he didn’t break his putter, he’s just chosen not to use it. If you were counting on big things from JD this weekend, this is not good news. However, it does make for good television.

He blamed a bad back as his reason for shutting it down after Thursday’s round. Rotoworld.com pointed out on Tuesday that he has more W/D’s this year than top-25 finishes, and that number just got higher (3 W/D’s).

He won the tournament in 2001, but was taken to a Munich hospital on Thursday morning and doctors advised him not to play this week. He should not be used in most fantasy leagues the rest of the year because of the way he’s been playing. Hopefully, his illness is nothing serious.