OT: golf John Daly...ride or walk....you be the judge | The Boneyard

OT: golf John Daly...ride or walk....you be the judge

Blakeon18

Blakeon18

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The PGA tournament....a major...is being played at Bethpage Black next week.
John Daly has qualified for it. He now plays on the Senior tour where you are allowed to ride a cart.
He applied to do the same at Bethpage and has essentially gotten a 'doctor's note' to do that...due to osteoarthritis.
It is very very rare the PGA grants this exception...I don't think they 'have to' even with the note.

They have given it the OK.

Would you permit him to ride?

I would vote 'no'. I suspect quite a few players could doctor-shop and get notes themselves...without a ton of certainty I think the Daly OK would lead to a slippery slope.

What say you?
 
I'd approve a pro golfer riding a golf course as long as the illness/injury was permanent and/or degenerative in nature. If the injury for example was a sprain, muscle tear or broken bone that would heal and not be an impediment in the future, then I wouldn't approve using a cart while the injury healed. Injuries are part of the game.
 
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Also Bethpage Black only allows players to walk outside of tournament time - no carts allowed. So allowing him to ride is a total head scratcher. He amuses me, I do not dislike him. But IMO no carts for any players. Going on Friday to walk the grounds.
 
Sommercamp said:
Also Bethpage Black only allows players to walk outside of tournament time - no carts allowed. So allowing him to ride is a total head scratcher. He amuses me, I do not dislike him. But IMO no carts for any players. Going on Friday to walk the grounds.
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This. No one rides there, neither should Daly.
 
I was at the PGA championship at Wing Foot back in the late 90's, right when that player with phlebitis in his legs so bad that the doctors told him he would be in a chair a some point was trying to be allowed to ride. It was a hot story then, injunctions filed and lawsuits brought and Jack came out against giving the guy a break. "The game is meant to require walking", said Lord Jack and the golfing world nodded. Riding would give him an unfair advantage said Jack. So I was shocked when, on a hole I was watching, Jack duck-hooked a tee shot into an overgrown area and couldn't find the ball. For those unfamiliar, he then had to go back to the tee and hit another ball with a penalty. Well Jack was having an issue with his hip or knee and had been holding up the field so a rules official drove him back to the tee. He hit his shot, meaning his ball was in play again and then jumped into the cart and took a ride out to his ball. Now if that wasn't riding in a tournament then the moon is an illusion.
It's easy to pick on the Daly's of the world.

And as long as I'm picking on Jack, I remember when there was all the controversy over the Ping Eye 2 irons back when then dominated the market due to their (totally legal) groove design. The other manufactures were dying and the USGA tried to save them by banning the clubs by rule. While this was going on, Jack, who had been an owner of Macgregor, a then well known manufacturer, came out against the Ping clubs. His complaint was that they replaced skill, meaning that they made players better. He even went as far as to insult Mark Calcavecia(sic), who played the Eye 2's by saying he wouldn't even by on the tour if not for the Eye 2's unfair advantage. (When mark won the British Open a few years later Jack was nowhere to be seen). That was his objection. Of course for years and years we had seen Jack's face on the MacGregor ad's with the caption: "Play Macgregor clubs, they will make you a better player". The PGA community missed the hypocrisy. After all, Jack is Jack. The fact that he was either lying or else the irons he was touting should have been banned.



Frankly I don't think riding in a cart gives anyone an edge. Walking benefits relaxation and in golf 99% of the 4-5 hours of a round is spent walking or standing, waiting to shoot. Stress is a problem and walking helps.
 
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Professional sports are simply just that! No way no how anyone gets to play on a different level.
In golf the walk is part of the talk, not fair or even sensible for any participant to have the advantage.

Having said that, he is a personality that draws (which really is not needed here) he should just settle for what they pay him in the pro-am. If the integrity of the sport is going to be down graded they may as well go full monty....Put his oversized back side in a Shriners car and let the show begin. ;)

 
Still no

43054
 
Woof 101 said:
Professional sports are simply just that! No way no how anyone gets to play on a different level.
In golf the walk is part of the talk, not fair or even sensible for any participant to have the advantage.

Having said that, he is a personality that draws (which really is not needed here) he should just settle for what they pay him in the pro-am. If the integrity of the sport is going to be down graded they may as well go full monty....Put his oversized back side in a Shriners car and let the show begin. ;)

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Without looking it up, he is a past PGA champion, so he may have a lifetime exemption.
 
TheFarmFan said:
There's something odd about a "sport" where some players are petitioning to be relieved of the burden of walking. I worked at a golf course growing up and the attitude I developed from observing our members, and which has stuck with me ever since, is that if you can play it half decently while p*iss- drunk, it's is not a real sport. Great recreational activity, but not a real sport.
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It’s a real sport. And you really can’t perform drunk for 4 days and 72 holes.
 
uconnfan68 said:
It’s a real sport. And you really can’t perform drunk for 4 days and 72 holes.
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Why not? I've been doing it for close to 50 years now. You do have a point, though. It's not for everybody. "Roy McAvoy" shot an 82 at the US Open in that condition.
 
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UConnNick said:
Why not? I've been doing it for close to 50 years now. You do have a point, though. It's not for everybody. "Roy McAvoy" shot an 82 at the US Open in that condition.
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Win much money those 50 years?
 
cohenzone said:
Casey Martin wasn’t allowed to ride. Let them all ride as far as I care.
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May 30, 2001 - The Supreme Court ruled decisively today that Casey Martin, the disabled golfer who has been battling the PGA Tour over its walking rule for the last four years, has the legal right to ride in a golf cart during tournament play.
 
HuskeyinSC said:
May 30, 2001 - The Supreme Court ruled decisively today that Casey Martin, the disabled golfer who has been battling the PGA Tour over its walking rule for the last four years, has the legal right to ride in a golf cart during tournament play.
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The PGA resisted. That’s why he had to sue. Nicklaus didn’t favor it.
 
HuskeyinSC said:
May 30, 2001 - The Supreme Court ruled decisively today that Casey Martin, the disabled golfer who has been battling the PGA Tour over its walking rule for the last four years, has the legal right to ride in a golf cart during tournament play.
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The 4 year wait might as well have been a life sentence. He got worse every day.
 
Time for a Daly story. In the days when Dunlop was sponsoring John and when they were located in town, A coupe friends of mine who worked with Dunlop arranged to play a round with John at Wicked Stick in Myrtle Beach. They told me he showed up 20 minutes late, drove a taxi to the first tee. Jumped out in cutoffs, flip-flops, grabbed a driver and hit his tee shot off the deck 300+ yards down the middle. They said it was the most fun round they ever had.
 
HuskeyinSC said:
Time for a Daly story. In the days when Dunlop was sponsoring John and when they were located in town, A coupe friends of mine who worked with Dunlop arranged to play a round with John at Wicked Stick in Myrtle Beach. They told me he showed up 20 minutes late, drove a taxi to the first tee. Jumped out in cutoffs, flip-flops, grabbed a driver and hit his tee shot off the deck 300+ yards down the middle. They said it was the most fun round they ever had.
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Sounds like a scene from "Caddyshack".
 
.-.
UConnNick said:
Sounds like a scene from "Caddyshack".
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Weelll, I wasn't there so they might be exaggerating. You know how golfers and fishermen are. "It was at least a 45 foot putt...."

But my answer to the OP is the game was meant for walking. Except the other day I was walking and dragging my bag on a very hilly course. It was upper 80's and at #15, I quit. I was looking for someone to rescue me. So walking aint as easy as it used to be
 
HuskeyinSC said:
Weelll, I wasn't there so they might be exaggerating. You know how golfers and fishermen are. "It was at least a 45 foot putt...."

But my answer to the OP is the game was meant for walking. Except the other day I was walking and dragging my bag on a very hilly course. It was upper 80's and at #15, I quit. I was looking for someone to rescue me. So walking aint as easy as it used to be
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I like to walk the course for the exercise. Once we were on a tee and a young guy with his girlfriend walked up behind us and asked if we would mind if he played through. Only he was playing, she was just walking with him. We said sure and he hit a tee shot like none I've ever seen before or since. It still may not have landed.
 
HuskeyinSC said:
Time for a Daly story. In the days when Dunlop was sponsoring John and when they were located in town, A coupe friends of mine who worked with Dunlop arranged to play a round with John at Wicked Stick in Myrtle Beach. They told me he showed up 20 minutes late, drove a taxi to the first tee. Jumped out in cutoffs, flip-flops, grabbed a driver and hit his tee shot off the deck 300+ yards down the middle. They said it was the most fun round they ever had.
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That's a typical Daly story. I like John. He was good to have on tour. He may have been an embarrassment to some of his fellow golfers but hey, people such as John are what makes the world go round.
The Wicked Stick was the John Daly signature course, in MB. It was shut down a few years ago. I played it the first year it opened and a couple times after that. It was not a particular favorite of mine, it didn't have much "character" and was quite open, as courses go. Unfortunately, numerous courses have closed in Myrtle Beach and some that remain are on the brink.
 
cohenzone said:
The PGA resisted. That’s why he had to sue. Nicklaus didn’t favor it.
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The point is that Martin ultimately was allowed to ride a cart on the PGA tour because he was handicapped by a terribly debilitating disease. While Nicklaus didn’t favor it, Martin’s former Stanford teammate did support his request. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. Fellow by the name of Woods.

While I supported Martin’s request, I don’t support Daily’s. Daily is not handicapped. He’s just old, like many of us here on the BY.
 
oldude said:
The point is that Martin ultimately was allowed to ride a cart on the PGA tour because he was handicapped by a terribly debilitating disease. While Nicklaus didn’t favor it, Martin’s former Stanford teammate did support his request. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. Fellow by the name of Woods.

While I supported Martin’s request, I don’t support Daily’s. Daily is not handicapped. He’s just old, like many of us here on the BY.
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I’m not sure what the magic is in walking especially if all ride. I kind of don’t care one way or the other. I think touring pros using equipment that increases length is more of an issue. Too many guys are hitting the ball insane distances to where middle irons are used pretty much only on par 5s where a middle iron for a second shot on a 550 yard hole is also ridiculous. .


As you point out, Woods was his friend. The PGA was against it and Nicklaus was a pretty influential opponent.
 
I can see it now as the CBS cameras pick up John Daly as he's riding up to the 18th hole...hoping for nice sunset for this Kodak moment.
 
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