Kiawah Killah
PGA Championship 2021: John Daly, cigarette in mouth, McDonald’s Coke in hand, knows how to warm up for a damn major
Is there another player more synonymous with the PGA Championship than John Daly? Rhetorical question. There isn't. 30 years after his out-of-the-ether victory at Crooked Stick in 1991, Daly has made the PGA Championship his annual Eagles farewell tour, showing up in some ridiculous pair of pants to serve up entertainment and controversy in equal measure. So far, 2021 is no different.
5/20, 7 a.m., Kiawah Island Ocean Course.
Ladies and gentlemen, you’re looking at a pure athlete. And lest you think we’re joking, how many 55 year olds do you know who could crush a Coke and suck down a Pall Mall (or a golf tee standing in for a Pall Mall, believe what you want to believe) for breakfast and then go out there and do this on the opening hole of one of the hardest courses in recent majors memory?
For a brief and glorious moment, that chip-in birdie put Daly atop the leaderboard. It’s probably all downhill for Big John from here, but it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.