Posts from the Golf Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

It's been almost eight weeks since Butch Harmon dumped John Daly. The relationship lasted just four months, which was hardly enough time to salvage Daly's in-the-crapper golf game.

Harmon cited Daly's fondness for getting drunk as the primary reason for the split, and last week, the teacher and pupil spoke for the first time since their very public parting of ways.

Daly, dispensing with the formalities, got right down to it:

"John called me last Thursday," Harmon said. "His opening line to me was 'I've lost all my contracts because of what you said. Can you please go on the Golf Channel and make a retraction?'

Harmon's response?

"I told him that he had no one to blame but himself, that 'Until you start realizing that you're the cause of all this and get some help, you're going to continue to have problems.' I told him I would be glad to help. But I wasn't going to retract anything that I said."

And by "glad to help," Butch really means, "yeah, I won't be helping you at all -- but, man, you've got a great rack!"

Maybe I'm misremembering, but hasn't Daly been without sponsors long before Harmon trashed him? Whatever, this is all very sad.

Watching Daly's life careen to it's inevitably tragic conclusion doesn't make it any less depressing. Ideally, he'd focus on golf long enough to earn his card or win a freaking tournament, but apparently, he's not wired that way. That's cool too -- having a tour full of Tiger Woodses would be extremely boring -- but I'm not ready to read the obituary of a 40-something gluttonous two-time major winner either. I'd settle for something in between.

I'm guessing the PGA isn't going to be happy with the above YouTube of an interview of John Daly. He's playing golf wearing just blue jeans. (post-breakfast warning: video shows Daly without a shirt on).

Daly just recently had surgery to repair a torn muscle in his stomach, and says in the interview that he feels much better swinging the club. I can't say I've ever played topless golf, but I have played barefoot before, and it is actually pretty fun. I guess if you have your own golf course, you can play wearing anything you want.

Previously at FanHouse:
Video - Followup: About John Daly's Chest Massage

(HT: Deadspin)

Tiger Woods is currently peg-legging it around Orlando, recovering from knee surgery that obviously had everything to do with him not winning The Masters. Between grueling afternoons lounging by the pool staring at his wife, and spending some QT with his daughter, Eldrick took time out of his busy rehab schedule to talk to FOX Sports Radio's Steve Czaban last week.

After some friendly banter, Czaban asked Woods why he hates Phil Mickelson.* And then the conversation turned to the network's golf coverage:

Czaban: "Do you TiVo tournaments you're in, then go back and look at them afterward, maybe take notes, notice something, listen to what the announcers are saying?"

Said Woods: "I usually have my secretary get a copy of the telecasts from the PGA Tour and I'll take a look at it just from the swing standpoint, yeah."

Czaban: "Just the swing, though. You really won't sit down and . . . "

Woods: "Listen to the commentators? No, never."

Last August, Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship for major victory No. 13. Something interesting happened on the way to the clubhouse though, something that might explain his current stint on the DL. Here's what I wrote at the time:

"[The win] seemed a formality after a [Woods] birdie on the 8th. But Eldrick looked like he tweaked his left knee after an uncharacteristic fist pump (see the action shots here) -- he hasn't really executed a full fist pump in some time, and instead, usually goes with the half-hearted wave to the gallery as he retrieves his ball out of the cup (or an awkward high-five with caddie Stevie Williams).

In fact, after the right hook (his go-to fist pump is an uppercut), Tiger was noticeably limping as he walked toward the hole [to retrieve his ball], and the next five holes were a struggle."

And today, GolfDigest's Tim Rosaforte offers this:

This might be the worst fundraising idea ever. The only saving grace is that it's for a great cause, although the Dick Vitale Gala for Cancer Research organizers should consider taking out extra personal-injury insurance in case the way-too-obvious eventuality is realized:

As part of his yearly fundraiser for cancer research, Lakewood Ranch resident Dick Vitale is offering the opportunity for a round of golf with Bob Knight and John Havlicek on May 16 at the Lakewood Ranch Golf & Country Club.

Bids for two threesomes will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. Saturday for nine holes with each basketball legend.

Bids start at $10,000 and include 18 holes of golf in the morning, a pre-gala party and the third annual Dick Vitale Gala for Cancer Research that evening at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota.

I suppose nine holes is in everyone's best interest; if nothing else, it'll minimize the chances Knight wraps a putter around some guys head for a seemingly innocuous comment about chairs or something. To be fair, Knight has mellowed since retiring, although, as FanHouse's Chad Rich suggests (via Knight's cat, via MJD), that may have more to do with the mind-numbingly awful Digger Phelps and his highlighter.

So here's to hoping Doug Gottlieb is the high bidder. Not only would the money go to a worthy cause, but there's a better than 50 percent chance that Knight maims Gottlieb before the third hole. That's a win for cancer research and college basketball.

UPDATE: FanHouse reader Johnny leaves moving-pictures proof of what Gottlieb can expect. Which makes me think pay-per-view is the way to go.

Hat tip: Larry Brown Sports

It was a little less than a year ago that the NHL suffered through about 72 hours of abject embarrassment after NBC switched away coverage of an Eastern Conference Final playoff game between Buffalo and Ottawa to air pre-race coverage of the Preakness Stakes.

And just a few minutes ago, the NHL dodged a scheduling bullet on NBC that could have been almost as lethal. At 3:00 p.m. U.S. EDT, NBC was scheduled to begin airing coverage of Game Six of the Western Conference quarterfinal series between Detroit and Nashville, with the Red Wings having a chance to clinch the series. Unfortunately. with time ticking down to 3:00 p.m., it was clear that the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am already airing on NBC could very well go down to a playoff.

The final round in Tampa started with Mark Wiebe in the lead, but after posting a final round +5, he fell out of contention as Tom Watson's -1 put him on top of the leaderboard and waiting in the clubhouse. Still, Scott Hoch, playing in the final pair with Wiebe, had a chance to tie Watson on the final hole and force a playoff.

Standing over a put on 18 of about 2.5 feet for par and a tie with Watson, it seemed that a playoff hole was a near certainty. But somehow, inexplicably, Hoch missed the put, giving the win to Watson and giving the NHL a much welcome reprieve. And even though the tournament spilled over past the 3:00 p.m. U.S. EDT start time, NBC still had plenty of time to switch to Detroit to air the opening faceoff.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader jkrdevil for pointing out that NBC announced that any playoff past 3:15 would have been transferred to the Golf Channel. Which, ironically, means that a PGA Senior event would have gotten the same treatment that the deciding game of an NHL playoff series got a year before. Certainly something to think about.

I'm guessing Sky Sports' Tony Wrighton laughed his ass off when he heard that two days after his second-place Masters finish, Tiger Woods went under the knife:

Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee for the second time in five years and will miss at least four weeks while he recovers. ... "He's been having a lot of trouble," swing coach Hank Haney said. "He doesn't talk about stuff like that. He doesn't want to use excuses, you know? I don't think it affected his play. It affected his practice a little bit."

During his 12-year professional career, Tiger's biggest challenger has been ... his balky knee. How demoralizing must that be for the rest of the tour? Woods expects to miss a month, which means that he won't defend his title at the Wachovia Championship, and could miss the unofficial fifth major, The Players Championship.

Assuming everything goes well, Tiger hopes to return for Jack Nicklaus' tournament, the Memorial, on May 29. Which is just two weeks before the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

The bad news: that's not a lot of time to prepare for a major, particularly one that requires precision tee shots. (Especially when second shots out of shin-high rough can be taxing on recently repaired knees.) The good news: Tiger owns Torrey Pines and has cleaned up there in recent years, winning the Buick Invitational on six occasions.

In the meantime, Woods will have to sit around the house and stare at Elin for five weeks. Tough break.

Before the Masters, Tiger Woods was listed at even odds to win. Those are absolutely incredible odds -- in sporting events that involve dozens of competitors it's almost unheard of for one athlete to be considered to have a 50-50 chance of winning it.

As it turns out, he didn't win. So what has that done to his odds for the next major?

Not much. The odds at Bodog still have Woods as a substantial favorite to win the U.S. Open, although not quite at even odds. Woods is listed as a 5-4 favorite to win; next is Phil Mickelson, listed at 10-1, and no one else is at better than 20-1.

Richard Gardner, the sports book manager at Bodog, explains what the odds say about the public perceptions of Woods:

"Bodoglife.com had Tiger as a 3/2 favorite for the US Open but has already moved him to 5/4 after his loss at the Masters. We are expecting to see more action than ever on Tiger at the US Open because of his surprising Masters result. Considering his closest competitor is currently Phil Mickelson at 10-1 odds, we expect Tiger to continue his dominance over Torrey Pines and the rest of the golfing world at the US Open."

There's also the little matter of how many majors Woods will win in 2008. Before the Masters, the odds of him winning all four were 9-1. Now the odds of him winning the remaining three are 7-1.

In an appearance that is guaranteed to turn Immelmania into a household word (OK, not really), Masters winner Trevor Immelman appeared on Late Show with David Letterman last night:

Immelman said he trademarked the word "Immelmania," that President Bush congratulated him on "winning Wimbledon," and that he had to console Tiger Woods afterward.

Immelman's appearance was a good one, but I still prefer the No. 1 item from Zach Johnson's list last year.

During the third round of The Masters, I noticed that Tiger Woods' caddie, Steve Williams, wasn't wearing a hat. Not a big deal, really; plenty of golfers -- and those tasked with carrying their bags -- prefer the look, but it seemed out of place at Augusta National because, well, it's out of place at Augusta National.

[Williams] incurred the wrath of Masters officials on Saturday when he worked part of the third round without wearing the official green tournament cap. According to other caddies, Steve Williams was approached by an official on the back nine and instructed to put the cap back on, after going hatless for several holes...

Ah, yes, a tradition unlike any other. One caddie, who in no way could be jealous of Williams' good fortune, had some thoughts on the matter:

"If I've got to wear the cap, everybody's got to wear the cap," said one caddie, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Every caddie has heard about what he did and nobody approves of it. Some of these people forget they're just a caddie. "It should be an honor to come to The Masters. If you don't want to wear a hat, don't come. Believe it or not, the tournament will still go on without you."

Duly noted, anonymous angry guy.