What Daly needs is tough love

The 8:40 tee time in the pro-am arrived Wednesday morning and John Daly didn’t.

He stiffed three partners and Arnold Palmer, though that now qualifies as resume enhancement for Daly. The worse he behaves, the better his fans like it.

The downside is their hero was disqualified from the Arnold Palmer Invitational because he failed to appear for the pro-am. I normally wouldn’t joke that Daly picked a bad week to give up drinking. But a) he hasn’t given it up, and b) he’s proud of it.

Wednesday’s no-show came a day after Butch Harmon realized he can’t help somebody who won’t help himself.

With that, the renowned coach dropped his most talented client. If only Daly’s defenders would do the same, this perpetual soap opera might not have the sad ending that seems inevitable.

“My whole goal for him was he’s got to show me golf is the most important thing in his life,” Harmon told the Associated Press. “And the most important thing in his life is getting drunk.”

So why not try tough love? It’s obvious that unadulterated love isn’t working.

That only encourages Daly to give the masses what they want, which is a rowdy bull in the PGA’s china shop. I’m all for Everyman taking some of the stuffiness out of golf. But Daly is no longer a golfer, he’s a marketing concept.

The latest evidence came at last week’s PODS Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla. Daly showed up with three missed cuts and one withdrawal to show for seven tournaments this year. Rain interrupted the first round, so he retired to the Hooter’s Owl’s Nest, a hospitality tent where $69 got all the wings and beer you could ingest.

Nobody’s said Daly downed either product, but when play resumed his caddie was Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coach Jon Gruden. Say what you will about the value of caddies, but having an NFL coach read greens and give you yardages isn’t going to help your score.

Daly ended up shooting a 78. The next day he mailed in an 80, which left him free for the weekend.

He returned to the Hooter’s tent Saturday and spent hours autographing everything, including a woman’s rear end. It was all harmless fun and showed why the guy is so easy to love.

“It is on the one hand something that makes him very endearing to fans, because he is perhaps the ultimate come-from-behind, blue-collar, upstart kind of situation,” Commissioner Tim Finchem said. “On the other hand, we have certain conduct things we have to maintain.”

Among them are not acting like a 16-year-old trapped in a decaying 41-year-old body.

Between all the autographing and back-slapping, Daly downed quite a few mugs of beer and flipped off a photographer.

It’s all part of the image for someone who peddles “Grip It and Tip It” T-shirts on his website. And no doubt his antics were a big hit with everyone who could brag they tipped it with Big John.

Those people are always quick to say we have no right to judge, even though they certainly have.

They demand we respect John’s right to be John. But they never demand he respect his sport or fellow competitors.

Friends have tried to help him get his life together. Corporate benefactors have continually bailed him out. Like Harmon, they all ended up disappointed.

“If he’s not going to give 100%,” Harmon said, “it’s a waste of my time.”

At least he won’t keep enabling the train wreck. Palmer might have gotten the message too. Better to give a sponsor’s exemption to an obscure golfer who’ll appreciate it enough to at least show up on time.

Daly said he just got his tee time mixed up. The first three alternates also weren’t on site and were disqualified. The last one, Nick O’Hern, never figured he’d be needed.

“This is a tough one to take,” he told the Associated Press. “Unfortunately, we got caught up in John’s snowball effect.”

For what it’s worth, Daly said he’s sorry. No doubt, his fans will forgive him. And no doubt, the tournament would have been more interesting with him.

But if people really want to help him, they would stop treating Big John like such a hero.