On the Set with...Big John

The fans love him. Thick (fat) or thin, drunk or sober, win or lose, they can’t get enough of Big John Daly. A country boy who hit it big at the ’91 PGA Championship and who has been “four wheeling” it ever since.
 
A textbook example of the compulsive personality, Daly is always full throttle, constantly doing things to extremes whether it’s eating, drinking, gambling or turning new girlfriends into wives. Sherrie is wife N. 4, they met at the 2001 St Jude Classic and were hitched eight weeks later. She is carrying Daly’s third child.
 
During and after Monday’s Golf Talk, Sherrie spent her time backstage trying to corral her son Austin while keeping an eye on John’s oldest daughter, Shynah. This is John Daly’s life…a little chaotic, but always wild and fun.
 
John says he’s happy, and I wish that for him because he’s just what he appears to be: no pretending and preening like so many professional athletes. He doesn’t apologize for his past and is just now coming to grips with a tragedy that very recently turned his life upside down…again.
 
In November of last year, Daly lost the one person who could always make the pain go away and who loved him unconditionally. That person was his mother, Lou Daly, who lost a battle with cancer at age 65. “She got on me pretty good” Daly told me, but always with a mother’s love and caring. Lou lived just a short walk behind John in Dardenelle, Ark., and her kitchen with its biscuits and chocolate gravy served as Daly’s sanctuary.
 
His relationship with his father, Jim, is somewhat icy these days (he won’t divulge details), so it was with teary eyes that John paid tribute to “Mama Lou.” “The greatest person in my life and always will be,” he said. “She even kept my room in her house the same as it’s been for 12 years.”
 
Mama Lou admitted John picked up the gambling gene from her side of the family and often the two of them would travel to nearby Tunica, Miss., to play the slots “sometimes for 10 hours.” If John and Sherrie have a girl, they intend to name her Anna Lou.
 
As for his game, Daly has to know in his heart of hearts that the window of opportunity is closing. He’ll be 37 in April and his British Open exemption ends in two years. While John Daly will always be a draw at any tournament, he needs to win another PGA Tour event. It would be good for the tour, and great for him. A John Daly victory in 2003 would be one of the great comeback stories in all of sports. Daly is a notorious “feel player,” and can get scalding hot at any time, so who knows?
 
We’ll next see Daly at Bay Hill, along with his massive Prevost bus with his personal equipment trailer in tow. The setup allows fans to shop for golf gear he endorses, and see J.D. up close.
 
Oh yes, some quick Daly thoughts from Golf Talk. On Brian Kontak, who’s attempting to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open: “Get a life.” On Martha Burk at Augusta: “I’m not against her and I’m not against Augusta, but I would never come to her office and picket her, so please don’t do that to us.” And on the distance we see from the tee around the PGA Tour (Daly was the only player averaging over 300 yards in driving distance in 2002, this year 13 players averaged over 300 yards): “Build 8,000- to 8,500-yard golf courses, because I’m telling you, that is where the game is going”.
 
And where does John Daly think his game will go from here? He doesn’t know. But like the song he sang on the air entitled “I Found It” says, Big John is feeling better about himself and his life these days. I ended the show by asking John who will play him in the movie about his life story and he wasn’t sure. “Chris Farley is six feet under.”
 
Then he added we may need four to six actors at different weights. A script like Daly’s life is something not even Hollywood’s best writers could hope to duplicate.
 
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