Grouchy Golf Blog
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 at 8:15 PM
Who's Head is Looser? John Daly or His Putter?
While few things about Daly appeal to me, we do have one thing in common - our misery with the putter. Daly 3-Jacked it whenever it mattered at last week's WGC-American Express Championship to gift-wrap the tournament to Tiger. Like Daly, I have a habit of coughing up a 3-putt or two at the worst times on the golf course. I don't know whether I'm a horrible putter because I hate putting or I hate putting because I'm a horrible putter. Either way, putting is the bane of my golfing existence.
At least I know that it's the swordsman and not the sword. However, Daly is quick to point out that his putting woes are largely due to equipment failure.
In an interview after his 1st round last week, Daly claimed that the hosel on his putter came loose late in his round. He also had the putter's lie measured and found that it was off by about 3 degrees.
But if I remember correctly, that's the ninth time this year that Daly has claimed to be playing with a defective putter. Daly ran into similar problems at this year's PGA Championship at Baltusrol and he had to putt with his Lob wedge for the last seven holes. Daly explained, "...the... putter I was knocking it 10 feet by. My putter came loose again. We made a replacement. I'm tired of replacing it. That's happened a few times this year where the head has fallen off. Dunlop has been working really hard to try to make a putter, and it still keeps coming off...I'm not getting another putter. I've had it. I'm just going to putt with my L-wedge. I'll figure something out tomorrow. I may have three or four putters in the bag tomorrow."
Dude, if you consistently experience problems with your flatstick, why don't you try something else? Is Dunlop forcing you to play their putter? No amount of endorsement money is worth playing equipment that you're not 100% comfortable. I'm sure that Dunlop isn't fond of you telling the world that their golf equipment falls apart. I know that I would never, ever consider buying a Dunlop golf club (to be fair, I felt the same way before Daly's diatribes). Dunlop would much rather have you play with something that would bring you success.
I know that if I worked at Dunlop, I'd be pretty PO'ed. I would probably try to "borrow" Tiger's backup Scotty Cameron Circle T and secretly disguise it as Daly's Dunlop Redneck and swap it with Daly's gamer when he wasn't looking. The next time Daly complains about his putter losing him a golf tournament, I would issue a press release saying, "Mr. Daly would have won, but his Scotty Cameron putter came loose!"
mediaguru @ hookedongolfblog.com said...
What does he do to his putters to make them fall apart? Or are they built that bad? I've got 25 putters in the garage and have owed at least 50. NONE has ever fallen apart.
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said...
Putters are not built like your 5 iron. I put together one and the insertion depth is barely half an inch. Which means very little epoxy gets in there. Which is ok because it's not supposed to be used to hit 250yards, or hold up a heavy set guy like Daly. My suggestion, stop leaning on it, throwing it, abusing it. Or get dunlop to weld the sucker shut and it won't come off. You'd still mess up the loft and lie by leaning on it, but the head won't come off.
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said...
Yeah....right that's why he's cashing the 2nd place check and we're here telling him what he should be doing.......
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Craig said...
I've been using that Dunlop Crazy Long 450cc titanium driver for about six months now. I bought it new for less than fifty bucks and couldn't be more pleased with it. It's got a big margin for error.
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dave said...
I saw him do that drive thing with a putter once. Could that be the problem?
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woundedduck said...
People like Daly because he doens't look like the rest of the robots on Tour. Woods--robot; Mickelson--robot with man breasts; Veejay--robot with a big mole on his forehead. Daly may not be a role model, but his problems with booze and many wives are are closer to what the average person experiences. Pros have every right to keep their off-course lives private, but when one of them doesn't, and fans identify with him for it, is that his fault?
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drcjd said...
john daly is responsible for the nascar element and bowling crowd that now populate the links. he made golf popular to these folks.
these people like phil because they think he's classy.
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said...
josh
i heard daly say in a press conference after he found that his lie had changed 'i must have left it under the baby carrier' - worst excuse ever!!!shouldn't pros be carrying bachup putters anyway?
btw, daly is loved for being able to hit a ball very far with his bizzare overswing
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