The Scorecard Always Lies by Chris Lewis

Author:Chris Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Nowhere was there a man more different from Earl and Tiger Woods than John Daly. It therefore made a ridiculous kind of sense that on the afternoon before Earl’s death, Long John and his tell-all autobiography were the center of attention.

Thanks to review copies and magazine-published excerpts, most of the reporters on hand in Charlotte had already read at least part of Daly’s book. It stated, almost boastfully, that his gambling, over the years, had cost him $60 million. Other lowlights included Daly’s father pulling a gun on him, stretches of weeks during which John consumed a fifth of Jack Daniel’s a day, and a girlfriend not only visiting a strip club with him, but suddenly deciding to disrobe and do a little pole-dancing.

The most outrageous episode involved a trip to Las Vegas immediately after Daly lost to Woods in a playoff at the 2005 AmEx Championship in San Francisco. Emboldened by his $750,000 payday, Daly went right from the plane to the new Wynn Casino, stood in front of a $5,000-a-pull slot machine for an hour and a half, and lost $600,000. Discouraged, he went to another casino, Bally’s, and won $175,000 on the slots. What next? A return trip to the Wynn and another $600,000 marker. He proceeded to lose that, too. All told he lost $1.65 million in less than five hours.

When Daly appeared on the range on Tuesday, a few days before the book’s release, the scribblers made a beeline for him. When he finished hitting balls, they pounced.

Puffing on a Marlboro Light, Daly said the book had already resulted in a fifteen-minute face-to-face with Tour commissioner Tim Finchem in Charlotte, just a day earlier.

Conduct unbecoming a professional?

“My life is unbecoming a professional, basically,” Daly shrugged.

“He’s just concerned,” he continued. “He thinks gambling is an issue. Our conversation is sort of confidential, but he said he’s concerned.”

Asked if Finchem told him not to gamble, Daly shook his head. “No,” he said. “He said he thinks I should have counseling. But he said, ‘I won’t make you.’”

Will you be seeking counseling voluntarily?

“I’m not really into that,” he said.

Daly was candid about the financial motivations behind the book, confessing that he perhaps should have made it clear that his gambling losses were offset by $20 or $25 million in winnings. What was clear was that he was keen on the idea of other, similarly profitable projects.

‘’Hopefully, there’ll be a sequel or a movie,” he said. One could only imagine what a sequel would be like.

That night Daly appeared onstage at a local bar as the featured attraction at an annual party thrown by Quail Hollow founder John Harris. With his guitar resting on his belly, he belted out a version of Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Peyton Manning, a club member, was in attendance, as were NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. The year before, at the same party, Sergio Garcia had offered up the weirdest-ever version of “Mustang Sally.”

Daly’s beers were on the house, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t tipping.

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