Patient Daly Irons Out Drives To Stay In Touch
The Age
Friday February 2, 1996
Perth.
Once regarded as a one-major wonder who had all the finesse of a circus bear on roller-skates, John Daly proved again yesterday that appearances can be deceptive.
For the entire first round of the Heineken Classic, he kept his Killer Whale driver concealed beneath its furry cover, preferring to negotiate the spindly fairways at the Vines with his two-iron instead.
At times, Long John was just itching to give into temptation and let fly with his favorite club, but great restraint and strength of mind, the same qualities that have seen him win his three-year battle against alcoholism, came to the fore.
The result was a one-under-par 71, on a course that clearly does not suit him, nine shots better than his corresponding effort here last year. He trails Kiwi Greg Turner and local boy, Wayne Smith, by five shots.
Daly's playing partner Greg Norman said he had noticed a change in the American's attitude in the past year, including at St Andrews six months ago when his patience in the wind won him the British Open.
``He played very, very well and very much within himself today," said Norman, who used the driver only three times himself. ``That's a theme John has tried to work on in the past 12 months, that I've seen. It took a lot for him to do that today.
``He went around 18 holes without hitting a wood. I know he's long enough to do that, but I don't think that's the way he'd like to play."
Daly and Norman started their rounds spectacularly, both making eagle threes at the par-five 10th hole, their first for the day. Norman sank a three-metre putt to move straight into red figures but it proved to be the longest putt he holed all day, on the way to a slightly disappointing 73.
``I'm not firing on all cylinders because I know my flat stick's not working the way I want it to," said Norman, who identified the problem on Wednesday and tried without luck to sort it out on the practice putting green. ``I could have shot four or five over the way I was feeling, but I hung in there well."
The difficulty of the course made for painfully slow play.
Ian Woosnam, with a 69, walked off the 18th after five-and- a-quarter hours and said it was about time someone was fined for the tardiness.
``It's too long, that's just ridiculous," said the straight- talking Welshman. ``People are fiddling and farting about too much. It's not getting any better either, nothing ever seems to be done about it. It's a good job I'm not on the rules committee or I'd penalise the lot of them one shot."
A Canadian, a New Zealander, two Englishmen, a Scot and a lone Australian gave the leaderboard a distinct Commonwealth of Nations look after the first round in this joint European- Australasian tour production. Smith, who lives in Perth, has finished runner-up here in the past two years - to Michael Clayton and Robert Allenby - and yesterday was one of the few to hole some putts.
Extreme, dry heat made life miserable for the afternoon groups, and many Europeans dropped by the wayside. Today is expected to be worse, with a forecast of 38 degrees, and that - more than the tightness of this course - may be Daly's toughest test.
LEADERBOARD
66 W Smith (WA)
G Turner (NZ)
67 R Gibson (Can)
68 M Davis (Eng)
G Evans (Eng)
A Hunter (Scot)
© 1996 The Age