Daly - Harmon Saga Continues

JD on video in his finery at his Murder Rock Golf & Country Club.

John Daly told reporters today at the Spanish Open that Butch Harmon has apologized to him for ending their short-lived working relationship and saying the most important thing in Daly's life is getting drunk.

Reached today at his golf school in Henderson, Nev., Harmon had a slightly different version of their conversation.

"John Daly called me last Thursday, saying that he had lost all of his endorsement contracts and that it was my fault," Harmon told GolfDigest.com. "I told John I was sorry he lost all his endorsement contracts, but that he had no one to blame but himself. I then said to him, 'I'm glad you're back playing again and I hope you play well, but the only person you can blame for your shortcomings is yourself.'

"He asked me if I would go on the Golf Channel and make a retraction for my statements, and I said, 'Absolutely not.' I said I hope he gets some help and gets his life in order. That's what I told him."

Harmon split with Daly in early March after hearing reports that Daly had been drinking in the hospitality tent at the PODS Championship. Daly said he had been in the hospitality tent promoting one of his charities, not drinking.

"I called [Harmon] the other day and he said he realized he didn't get his facts right and he felt bad about it," Daly told a news conference on the eve of the Spanish Open in Seville, Spain. "He has apologized to me.

"After what Butch said . . . my marketability went right down. I told him 'you cost me quite a bit of money through the stuff that you said, I wish you would have called me, then you could have got the facts straight.' "

Daly said reports of him partying and drinking were "a bunch of lies."

"When you're playing badly they want to make up rumors," said Daly, who celebrated his 42nd birthday Monday. "People around me know the good I'm doing."

Daly said he and Harmon, who coaches several top players and used to guide world No. 1 Tiger Woods, would not be working together again in the future.

The Spanish Open and next week's Italian Open will give Daly a chance to focus on his game again.

After recently undergoing keyhole rib surgery he hopes to turn around his putting fortunes, his malaise for several years, but doubts whether he will try to qualify for the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in June.