Shooting 90 isn’t Daly’s biggest fear
John Daly has gone 17 consecutive years on the PGA Tour with at least one round in the 80s.
He didn’t even manage that Friday in the Valspar Championship.
Daly (Dardanelle, Arkansas Razorbacks) missed a 4-foot putt on the last hole at Innisbrook and shot a career-high 90.
“I didn’t give up,” Daly said. “I tried.”
He used up 12 of those shots on the 16th hole - tied for his fourth-highest score on any one hole - but was more concerned with the putting yips. Daly, 47, said the yips began last Sunday in Puerto Rico and reached a low point at Innisbrook.
He took 70 putts over two days, including a four-putt on the second hole of Friday’s round.
“You’re going to have big scores on holes. That’s just the way golf is,” Daly said. “But when you’ve got the yips, that’s no fun.”
It was the 16th time on the PGA Tour that Daly has made at least a 10 on a hole.
Daly, who has been playing on sponsor exemptions for the past eight years, wasn’t sure where he would play next. He said he was supposed to play in Indonesia in a few weeks for the start of the OneAsia circuit, but the missing Malaysian Airlines flight shook him up.
“I ain’t about to fly on a plane right now,” he said. “It’s a sick feeling. I’d have to go right there.
I canceled it. I said, ‘No way I’m getting on a plane to fly overseas.’ A 777? One of the nicest planes in existence? It’s scary.
“There are more important things in life than a round of golf.”
Maybe a 90 isn’t so bad.
Smile
The Kalamazoo Growlers, a summer college baseball team in Kalamazoo, Mich., announced plans last week to design a game jersey using their fans’ selfies.
For the uninitiated, a “selfie” is loosely defined as a picture someone takes of himself, often with a cell phone or digital camera.
Fans’ selfies will be collected through April 1, at which point the Growlers will build a “mosaic-style” jersey assembled from the selfies entered in the promotion,” according to a release by the team. As an added incentive, the fan who exhibits the most “Growlers spirit” will receive a featured and prominent location on all jerseys.
The jerseys will see the field during only one game before being auctioned off to the highest bidders.
Gifted player
Professional tennis player Sloane Stephens wasn’t too bummed about losing a recent match. She’s already looking ahead to her 21st birthday party March 20 in Los Angeles.
Stephens has registered for gifts from Target, using the store’s online wedding registry.
She had to sign up with her name and someone else’s, so she chose her mother, Sybil Smith.
“She’s very strange,” Smith said in an email to guests.
“Known her since she was little.
Just buy her a gift.”
Stephens is asking for 31 gifts, with the most expensive being a $306 indoor cycle. The world’s 18th-ranked player has yet to win a WTA Tour title but surpassed $1 million in prize money last year.
Stephens said what she really wants is a 12-person, three-room tent that costs $299.
Quote of the day
“It’s going to stop somewhere. It stopped here.” UALR women’s basketball coach Joe Foley after Friday’s loss at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament
Sports, Pages 20 on 03/15/2014