PGA Championship’s Early Issue Is John Daly In A Cart

John Daly Uses A Cart Due To Medical Condition

For the average golfer, a cart is the only way to from hole to hole in the course. Walking slows the pace of play, so the cart transports the golfers to their next shot.

On the PGA Tour, there are no carts. Endurance counts and the players walk the length of the course.

And that applies to all but John Daly, a ruined shell of the golfer he might have been. He’ll be riding in a cart as play commenced Thursday at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York. He says an arthritic knee swells up badly after four holes and the Americans With Disabilities Act became his way to a waiver and use of a cart.

He played a practice round on Wednesday and spoke afterward about how it was actually a disadvantage. Very grateful. Conscious of his I’ll health, Daly talked to the media while enjoying a cigarette. As we all know, smoking has long been a cure for arthritis.

Daly normally plays now on the senior circuit, where carts are permitted. No one has used a cart on the Tour since Casey Martin in 2002, and he was born with a disease that interfered with blood flow in his leg. He won a bitter fight with the establishment to gain the use of a cart.

At this point in his career, Daly is a sideshow, a sad reminder of what a life gloriously misspent with booze and smoking can do to budding talent. He had choices, where Martin did not.

So we cannot wish Daly good fortune in the opening round and we would not expect him to make the cut. After all, he hasn’t won on the Tour in 15 years and his act has worn as thin as his attention span.

Hey, a sideshow is a sideshow. But the PGA Championship is no place for a three-ring circus.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman