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Royal & Awesome golf apparel? Blame it on John Daly

John Strege — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:29:00 GMT

By John Strege John Daly helped popularize Loudmouth Golf's wild, colorful golf attire, which has now spawned a Scottish counterpart called Royal & Awesome that features "spectacular golf pants for the pars and bars," the...

Absent from Masters field, John Daly is an empty presence at Augusta

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:12:00 GMT

By Dave Shedloski

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He arrived here in his custom motor home late Saturday night and parked in his now customary spot in front of the entrance to Hooters restaurant a little more than a mile away from Augusta National Golf Club.

John Daly looks on during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Photo: Donald Miralle/Getty

John Daly once again is not in the Masters field, though he'll cash in on his absence, selling LoudMouth slacks, pin flags, T-shirts and other merchandise while the first major championship of the year goes on without him.

"I would love to go back there. How did it look?" Daly asked his visitor on Sunday night, sounding a bit empty. "I haven't even seen the new practice area. I bet it's awesome. It's Augusta. Everything is always done there first-rate."

Daly, the former PGA and Open champion, last competed in the Masters in 2006, missing the cut. In his 12 appearances, his best finish was T-3 in 1993, his only top-10.

As a former major champion, Daly would be among the players who receive an honorary invitation from the club, which would allow him to play the tournament course during practice rounds and compete in the Par-3 Tournament. But he doesn't go. Instead, he hocks his wares and poses for photographs with an endless stream of fans.

Business, he said, was surprisingly good on the day before Masters week officially begins. The traffic to his makeshift merchandise area is steady -- partially because the traffic into Hooters is brisk. He looks tired. A ballcap rests awkwardly on his head, shocks of unkempt blond-gray hair protruding from underneath.

Daly will be 47 later this month, on April 28. He has not been exempt on the PGA Tour since 2005, the year after he won his fifth and last tour title at Torrey Pines.

"I want to play again there in the worst way. I think I could do pretty well still with my length," he said.

It looked like he wanted to say something else, but a fan leaned across the table towards him, holding a camera, and asked for a quick photograph. Another gentleman, seeing an opening, did the same seconds later, and the thought was gone.

He waved to his visitor and then smiled weakly as the flash from the camera phone illuminated the pall in his weathered visage.

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The rise of the "obnoxious" golf pants

Derek Evers — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT

By Marty Hackel The first time graphic designer Scott Woodworth wore the golf pants he'd designed for himself, he ran into his office landlord, who declared, "Those are the most obnoxious pants I've ever...

McIlroy joins a list of other odd withdrawals

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:40:00 GMT

By Alex Myers

Rory McIlroy withdrew from the Honda Classic on Friday, citing "severe wisdom tooth pain." He might be the first World No. 1 to use that excuse, but he's certainly not the first notable golfer to bow out of a tournament in unusual fashion. Here's a rundown of some other recent, um, interesting reasons for failing to complete an event:

Sergio Garcia, 1999 St. Jude Classic -- Before "El Nino's" famous closed-eyes shot from behind a tree at the PGA Championship later that year, the 19-year-old needed surgery to remove an abscess above his left eye. Unfortunately, that happened the Thursday of the annual tournament in Memphis, forcing Garcia to withdraw before hitting a shot. The reason for the abscess? An outbreak of acne, according to his manager. So basically, Sergio was just a typical teen with pimple problems.

Tiger Woods hasn't had the best track record at TPC Sawgrass. (Getty Images)

Jim Furyk, 2006 Barclays -- Furyk withdrew before the start of the tournament with a bad shoulder. The catch? He injured it while brushing his teeth. Yeah. . . we're pretty sure he took a good ribbing from his fellow tour pros when he returned after that. Funny enough, Furyk had a freak disqualification from this same event -- when it was part of the PGA Tour's playoffs -- four years later when he overslept for the Wednesday pro-am. Incredibly, he bounced back to win the Tour Championshp and claim the FedEx Cup.

Tiger Woods, 2010 Players Championship -- In his third start since returning from his scandal at the end of 2009, Woods played decently at TPC Sawgrass until abruptly pulling out on the seventh hole of the final round. In recent years, Woods' WDs have become more common -- he withdrew at the 2011 Players also -- but for his various leg injuries. In this case, Woods cited neck pain. The 14-time major champion returned a month later for the Memorial, and hasn't seemed to have a problem with his neck since. Of course, nothing seemed to go right for Tiger that year. He had just two top 10s, didn't qualify for the Tour Championship for the first time, and couldn't even win his annual hit-and-giggle event at Sherwood when Graeme McDowell stunned him in a playoff.

Phil Mickelson, 2012 Memorial -- Lefty withdrew following a first-round 79 due to "mental fatigue." However, it later came out that he was protesting the PGA Tour's new policy of allowing fans to bring cell phones on the course. Specifically, Mickelson wasn't pleased about fans using their phones to take pictures while he played. Either tournament marshals have gotten better at controlling fans with phones or Phil has become less camera shy because he hasn't had a major issue with the policy since.

John Daly, pick a tournament -- The master of the WD, Daly has made a bad habit of taking a sponsor's exemption -- and sometimes an appearance fee -- and then walking off the course before the weekend. His best reason had to be when he withdrew from the 2012 Singapore Open due to fatigue. But his best flameout exit occurred at the 2011 Australian Open. After making a triple bogey to fall to seven-over par in the first round, he hit seven shots into a pond on the 11th hole before shaking hands with playing partners Hunter Mahan and Craig Parry and walking off. What got him to finally stop? As he later said on Twitter, "when u run out of balls, u run out of balls."

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Need a John Daly Fathead for your living room?

John Strege — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:17:00 GMT

By John Strege Who wouldn't want this, a bigger than life-size John Daly wall cling from Fathead for a wall in your living room or family room? Yes, Fathead has a golf section, offering...

Happy Valentine's Day

GolfDigest.com — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 05:00:00 GMT

We can't send you red roses, but we can deliver more than a dozen of the best kisses in golf.

Tweets We'd Like To Read In 2012

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 05:00:00 GMT

2011 was full of surprises, but we'd welcome these developments in 2012.

The John Daly Cocktail: Grip it and sip it

John Strege — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 13:26:00 GMT

By John Strege John Daly no longer drinks -- "4 years May," he wrote on Twitter -- but alcohol again will be part of his life with the introduction of The Original John Daly...

In not allowing shorts, pro golf is being, well, shortsighted

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:34:00 GMT

By Chris Millard

It used to be that if you had something to sell, you'd "show 'em a little leg." For decades that maxim moved everything from Chryslers to colognes to Broadway shows. But this week the Turkish Golf Federation raised eyebrows and inseams when it permitted PGA Tour players competing in its non-PGA Tour sanctioned Turkish Airlines World Golf Final to do just that: Wear (gasp) shorts during the competition. And if you think this is the kind of headline that can only emerge from a silly-season event in which the world's No. 1 and No. 2 players lost their first-round matches, you're correct.

There was shock and outrage among the white-belt set. "I'm not a big fan of it," said Chris Tidland, a guest on Golf Channel's Morning Drive. "I think it looks unprofessional, looks like you're with your buddies on a week off, playing at your local course." Local course? Eew. Oh, and Tidland happened to be sporting a short-sleeve shirt.

Photo by Getty Images

Guest host, veteran PGA Tour player Steve Flesch, agreed. "It's our work environment," he harrumphed, somehow stomaching Tidland's exposed arms. "As a golfer you're a professional; act like one, dress like one."

Dress like one? Wait a minute, have you seen some of the clothes these guys wear? I don't need Blackwell to tell me that a pair of khaki shorts on Dustin Johnson would sell the game a helluva lot better than a pair of Zubaz slacks on John Daly. And this is not a new problem: Remember that plaid adhesive coating in which Jack won the '86 Masters? We could do better if only the PGA Tour would relax its nonsensical insistence on long form leg-wear.

A short history is in order: It was only as recently as 1999, that in its beneficence the tour even allowed sweat-soaked caddies to drop trou, so to speak. Difficult as it is to believe, that was actually a hard-fought battle. The turning point came in July of that year when Garland Dempsey, caddieing for John Maginnes in the Western Open, collapsed. The heat index was 106 degrees. His heart had stopped. Initially the Tour, out of the goodness of its heart, agreed to test the usage of shorts by caddies, but only during hot days over the next three events. When caddies stopped toppling and the earth kept turning, the tour relented. The caddies donned shorts and guess what, no one cared. No one even noticed. And if no one's objected yet to Fluff Cowan in Bermudas, I think we can handle Matt Kuchar in a pair of Vineyard Vines. In fact, it may just be me, but I think a cooler, more comfortable player sells the game a little better than the pools of butt-sweat we get all summer on TV.

But the tour, in all its antiquity, still feels that shorts on players would diminish the image of its product (Pssst, Tim. Your biggest star ever was revealed as one of the sleaziest people on the planet. You think knobby knees could hurt your image?). Some of the greatest professional athletes in the world perform in shorts. Imagine Usain Bolt taking on the 200 meters in corduroys. Not cool. Literally. Shorts, even very short ones, served John McEnroe pretty well in the 1970s and 80s. Even the NHL, whose rinks are maintained at between 20 and 22 degrees, requires shorts after a brief and unpopular experiment in 1981 with long pants. In fact, aside from cricket and bowling, I'm hard-pressed to find another sport that's so beholden to pants. Do we really want to model ourselves after the PBA? Again, eew.

In a day and age when golf is desperate to attract new players and young athletes we should be encouraging an athletic image for the game. Have shorts hurt the LPGA Tour? The NBA, which enjoyed record TV ratings last year, seems to be getting by. The oh-so correct NCAA still allows shorts in NCAA play. Even the USGA is pro-choice (for select events). We should be proving to the next generation of potential players that golf is an actual sport, played by actual athletes with actual legs. Instead the tour is clinging to some bygone standard that's not only out of touch with ambient the temperature in July in Mississippi, but out of sync with modern times. Hell, Wimbledon itself finally got around to allowing shorts...in 1932.

Golf is funny. We say we're worried about bringing new people to the game in this 21st century and we then ban use of the era's most vital communications tool, the cellphone. We hope to bring youth to the sport by dressing our most gifted stars, our greatest athletes, like old men in the park. I know, it's a big leap, a bold step. Next thing you know, we'll be letting women into Augusta National.

Loudmouth Golf: Captain Thunderbolt in a windshirt

John Strege — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:31:00 GMT

By John Strege Loudmouth Golf continues to expand its colorful (to put it midly) line of apparel and is now offering windshirts with familiar color schemes, including the windshirt shown above in Captain Thunderbolt...