Sunday, May 14, 2006

As reported by the Times-Picayune: ". In 1991, he was an eager-eyed
24-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour, about to tee it up in the USF&G Classic
at English Turn. ". Daly was on his way to a Rookie of the Year season. Five
months later, he won the PGA Championship. "Now it's 15 years, two major
championships, four wives and four children (he inherited two) later. If you
believe what Daly tells us in a book just off the press, 'My Life In And Out
Of The Rough,' it's $55 million later, what he claims are his net losses
shooting bogeys inside one casino after another. ". When Daly showed up in
St. Andrews to play, and win, the 1995 British Open, he owed various casinos
close to $4 million.

"'Gambling,' writes Daly, 'is the only thing that gets my juices flowing
like golf does, or whiskey used to. Playing slot machines is like being
completely alone, on my own, like a cross-country drive. All the noise in a
casino? I don't hear it. I'm in a zone, all by myself. I check my watch and
maybe 15 hours have gone by. Scary how far away I get.'

"What Daly did last year, after closing out his golf season by finishing
second to Tiger Woods in the AmEx Championship, and picking up a $750,000
runner-up check, was real scary. Instead of going home, he visited Las Vegas
and those $5,000-a-shot slots. In 90 minutes, he says, he lost $600,000. He
went from one casino to another, from $5,000 machines to $100 machines, and,
in less than five hours, he says he lost $1.65 million.

". And that's only part of the story.

". In the past five years, 'my father pulled a gun on me, my mother died, my
best friend since first grade walked out on me and my wife was convicted of
a felony and sent to prison.'

"That's all in the past, says John Daly.

"As for the immediate future: 'I'm planning on making the Ryder Cup team.'