What you just read could be the headline in the newspaper one day if John Daly doesn’t turn his life around. Last weekend Daly was up to his old tricks again, withdrawing before he had a chance to miss the cut fair and square. Turns out he was allegedly drunker than a monkey the night before and we are left to surmise that is the reason for the WD, not the mysterious “rib injury” that he reported. I know if I had a rib injury that was threatening my livelihood, I’d be getting treatment for it instead of getting loaded. The situation goes beyond this latest low-class withdrawal which, once again, will disappoint his legion of fans who have bought tickets just to watch him play. These are the fans he purports to love so much. Gee thanks, John. It’s even beyond the huge waste of talent that we are witnessing. Tiger Woods himself will tell you that Daly has as much talent as anyone he has ever seen.

Of a much larger importance is that Daly is slowly killing himself and fans of golf are giving him a big assist. It’s called enabling. If you are one of Daly’s fans, consider me your intervention counselor. You need to stop making excuses for his behavior. Daly has learned that as long as he tells you how much you mean to him and that he’ll do anything for you, you will look the other way when he acts like the immature child he has become. And because you won’t hold him to any standard of behavior, it’s killing him. Combine that excessive alcohol consumption with rapid weight gain and it’s a recipe for disaster. Have you seen him lately? He’s massive.

The most scary thing for Daly is that his income is drying up. That is the last thing of value that a drunk protects the most. Families and friends be damned but money supports the drinking and lifestyle habit, which is as important to the drunk as breathing. Sponsors are running away from him now. The sponsors exemptions into PGA Tour events are starting to dry up too, because they are tired of Daly’s antics. Who wants to invite him when he may not even play the minimum 2 rounds before the cut? He’s only made 18 of his last 49 cuts, and of those 31 missed cuts, he has either been disqualified or withdrawn an astonishing 12 times. Besides, there are plenty of guys long-knocking it past Daly now. We’ve even got a new Southern-fried personality on Tour in Boo Weekley. The difference is, he’s one of the better players on Tour.

Do the man a favor. Stop bailing out Daly. And he just might decide to save himself.

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