Daly has finishing touch
ORLANDO, Fla. -- For all his relentless power and fury, the most impressive part of John Daly's game remains his deft touch around the green.
His effort yesterday at the closing hole of the Bay Hill Invitational's first round, for example.
Having just missed a 6-foot birdie putt at the 17th, Daly was 4 under par and standing over a 167-yard approach to an 18th green that is protected by water in front. He hit what he thought was a good shot, only it had too much juice and Daly's ball came to rest on the back fringe.
Not good, because the green sloped back-to-front and with the pin up front, it was possible to get the ball rolling hot enough that it would run through the putting surface onto the rocks. As a matter of fact, Todd Hamilton proved it.
Put everything together and you had a volatile recipe for disaster, only Daly was hardly shaken when he watched Hamilton's attempt at a flop shot. The ball came out smoking, rambled down the sloping green, and came to rest on the rocks at the water's edge. He made double bogey to fall from 3 under and tied for 16th to 1 under and joint 36th.
"I've done what Todd did," said Daly, who instead chose a putter. Playing it off the toe, Daly was the model of patience, barely hitting the ball to get it through the fringe. Once it did, however, it trickled to 4 feet and when he made the putt, he had shot 68 to settle into a share of eighth place, two off the lead.
"It's a luck shot," said Daly.
He wore a smile as he said those words because he was satisfied with his round and he knows how much is riding on this week's effort and next week's -- The Players Championship. Sitting eighth on the money list, he has to be inside the top 10 as of March 29 to earn an exemption into the Masters (April 8-11).
"It's definitely a goal," said Daly, who last month earned his first PGA Tour win since 1995 when he triumphed at the Buick Invitational. "You've just got to think positive."
Daly made birdie on his first three holes, was 4 under through six, but bogeyed the par-4 ninth and par-4 11th. It seemed to be slipping away, but birdies at the par-5 12th and par-4 15th put the gleam back in his eyes.
Wrong army
There was a buzz around Bay Hill Club & Lodge when the scoreboard showed that Palmer was 2 under through eight holes. Alas, it was Ryan Palmer, not Arnold Palmer. The Palmer few people know ended up shooting 71, while the Palmer everyone knows came home in 88, his worst score in the tournament he hosts . . . Billy Andrade was 1 over at the turn, but came home in 35 to finish at even-par 72, tied for 50th . . . Ah, those fun-loving bombers were in their glory. At the 395-yard third hole, which wraps left around a lake, Daly (316), Sergio Garcia (307), and Hank Kuehne (327) all took it over the water, each one left with a flip wedge. Daly was the only one to make birdie. Garcia made par and Kuehne knocked it to 18 feet, then three-putted for bogey.
