The Wild Thing lashes out at drinking slur

JOHN Daly yesterday made what some might say is his biggest impression at an Open since he won the title in 1995 when he advised his former coach Butch Harmon to keep his distance at Royal Birkdale this week.

This might be easier said than done, with Daly and Harmon, neither of them inconspicuous figures, both sharing the same patch of links land for the next two days at least. But Daly is adamant that Harmon, who dropped the golfer in March after an incident during the PODS championship in Tampa, had better make himself scarce should he see his former charge coming, otherwise there could be a rumble in the, er, rough. "I don't know what his problem is, but he needs to stay as far away from me as he possibly can," said Daly, a two-time major champion.

The problem, as far as Harmon is concerned, remains Daly's. And it revolves, chiefly, around drink, although Daly himself disputes this. "I am eating too much, but I'm not drinking hardly at all, and I never go out," he claimed yesterday. Daly's definition of "hardly at all" is likely to differ from Harmon's, and it must be recalled that the golfer has made a name for himself by doing nothing by half. He has, by his own estimation, gambled away more than $50 million. "Most people would be drunk for a month on what I had before dinner," he also recalled of his days when JD – Jack Daniels – and JD – John Daly – got along a little too famously.

Daly, who has missed the cut in seven of his ten Open appearances since lifting the Claret Jug at St Andrews, remains a major draw in the galleries and is equally adored by journalists. Yesterday he let no-one down.

It is doubtful whether the Wild Thing is able to pack a punch since his doctor has only just removed a cyst from his hand. This is just the latest mishap to befall a player who can always be counted on to deliver an entertaining summary of his year prior to each Open. He used his last appearance on Merseyside, at Royal Hoylake two years ago, to launch his autobiography, entitled My Life in and Out of the Rough. It was a frank rummage through the then 40-year-old's life, and did not stint on tales of his drinking exploits. Indeed, it almost revelled in them.

His box office appeal was also helped by his appearance at the Cavern Club in Liverpool to sing some songs based on his experiences, and which included the classic title All My Exes Wear Rolexes. Another fractured relationship was left exposed for all to see yesterday.

The source of the fall-out with Harmon is a tournament in Florida in March, when Daly is alleged to have spent a rain break imbibing at the tent belonging to his sponsors, Hooters. What is certain is that Daly re-emerged sporting a new caddie – the coach of the American football side Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jon Gruden. After missing the cut, Daly apparently returned to enjoy the hospitality of the Hooters tent. More recently he used a beer can as a golf tee when playing alongside the American musician Kid Rock in the Buick Open pro-am in Michigan.

All this, according to Harmon, amounts to behaviour unbecoming of a top-ranking golfer, but then Daly is some-way from that at present. He is 229th in the US money list having made only $29,000 this year. He is currently 643rd in the world and becoming ever less marketable. For this predicament he appears to blame Harmon, who has worked with Daly on only three occasions this year.

"His lies (about drinking] kind of destroyed my life for a while," said Daly, who claimed it was only cans of Diet Pepsi he had sunk during the rain break in Tampa. His on-the-spot recruitment of an American football coach as a caddie came only after Daly's own caddie dropped out with a neck problem.

Harmon has never hidden his dislike for Daly's lifestyle, arguing that it simply does not equate with that of a top sportsman. It is an argument based on sound reasoning and Tiger Woods, another of Harmon's now former charges, spoke of the importance of keeping in shape in order to play golf after his win in sweltering conditions at the US PGA last year. His win last month at the US Open also proved how pure fitness, allied to genius, can overcome even a broken leg.

Proving how hard it will be for Daly and Harmon to avoid one another at Royal Birkdale, the latter was not difficult to find yesterday. He was at the practice range having spent the morning working with Phil Mickelson, the world No 2 golfer.

Daly claimed his former coach had apologised during the course of a phone call a few weeks ago, but if there was any contrition on the lips of Harmon yesterday it was immediately snatched away by the wind and replaced, instead, by defiance. Harmon clearly likes Daly as a person, for even at his worst there is something attractive about the golfer. Daly has, after all, convinced four different women to be his wife, although, illustrating how chaos governs his life, the most recent of them, Sherrie, has been on the verge of becoming an ex with a Rolex for the past two years.

"I never said I would retract anything," said Harmon. "I told him (Daly] I was sorry he was having problems in his life. For me, you just consider the source. I feel bad for John. I like John. But I think John has a lot of personal problems and a lot of demons in his body. This is just another case of John never wanting to look in the mirror and take responsibility for his actions. He's always looking to blame somebody else. "I will talk to him," continued Harmon. "If I see him in a place where I know it's going to be just him and me, I'd be more than happy to talk to him. It's just sad that he would go down this road and say that."

Daly has travelled a whole lot of different roads since lifting the title in unforgettable fashion at the Old Course 13 years ago. At least then it was only play-off rival Constantino Rocca he left flat-out on the floor.