Daly News: Keeps Cool, Lead Long-Ball Hitter Known For Short Fuse Shoots 71 To Share Second-Round Lead With Tomori, Faxon

It sort of figures that it would be here, at the home of golf, the most traditional of British Open venues, that the modern game’s most unconventional golfer would toss aside the customary and blast his way into a share of the lead.

That’s just what happened Friday at the Old Course, on a bright, blustery and cold afternoon. This is where the new John Daly tamed some old demons and decided to show the world that he is a more mature golfer, a more patient player and a real threat to win his second major championship.

Daly’s round of 71 put him at six-under-par 138 after two rounds, tied with Brad Faxon, who shot 67, and Katsuyoshi Tomori, an unheralded Japanese player who shot 68.

This is the first time since early May at the Byron Nelson Classic that Daly has put together back-to-back rounds of sub-par golf, but more important than what he did is the way he did it.

He double-bogeyed a par-5 hole early in the round, and rather than lose his composure and his bearings, he fought back into the lead.

“It’s the second straight day I’ve been able to keep my patience,” said Daly, who is one stroke ahead of a group of six players that includes Ben Crenshaw (72), Mark Brooks (69), Constantino Rocca (70), John Cook (70), Ernie Els (68) and Corey Pavin (70). “On this kind of golf course, things are going to happen and you’ve just got to forget them and keep on going.”

Normally, referring to Daly as patient is like calling Pavin a long hitter. Well, guess what? Pavin drove the green at the 356-yard 18th hole - “I don’t want anybody calling me a short hitter again,” he said, only half joking - and Daly was Mr. Manners after his drive found the bunker at the fifth hole, he left a shot in, hit one out sideways and made double.

If Daly is to somehow keep things going until Sunday, that’s the attitude he’ll need.

There are 37 players under par and within five strokes of the lead. With the 10-stroke rule in effect, 103 players made the cut of four-over-par 148.

That group included Jack Nicklaus, who fought his way back from an opening round of 78 - which featured a 10 at the 14th hole - with a round of 70 Friday. Nicklaus’ extraordinary recovery after the quintuple-bogey 10 paid off. He played his last 22 holes in four under, without a bogey.

Els could have taken the lead alone had he played par golf from No. 14, where he got to seven under with a birdie. But bogeys at the 15th and 17th left him at five under and extremely irritated. Initially, he declined to discuss his round.

“After leaving the course I was quite annoyed,” Els said. “This could have been one of my great rounds, comparable to my third round at Oakmont last year in the U.S. Open.” He shot 66 in that round.

Els, who is very much in the picture, didn’t have much to be annoyed about. Neither did Nick Faldo, who stormed back from oblivion with a 67 that left him three strokes behind. Colin Montgomerie (75-150) and Paul Azinger (75-149), who missed the cut, did have a little fodder for frustration. Azinger accomplished the nearly impossible, in fact.

He chipped in off the road at the Road Hole for birdie to apparently make the cut, and then took four strokes to get down from the edge of the green at the 18th for a bogey to miss the cut.

As always, the 17th hole took its toll. Bill Glasson was tied for the lead when he stepped up to the tee. He hit a ball out of bounds, hooked his next into the rough, topped one, hit his next into the bunker short of the green, hit that to the front edge and two-putted for eight.

He went from first to 20th with that little expedition. Tom Watson took a double there, his third double bogey of the day, and struggled to a 76 that left him at 143.

While all this was going on, Daly was eating up - not to mention eating his way around - the Old Course. He was feeling a little hungry on the eighth tee, so he gobbled up four doughnuts. Two holes later, he inhaled a chocolate chip muffin.

Thus bolstered, he did what you have to do to succeed at St. Andrews. He “caned the loop,” or at least what was left of it.

The loop is the name the locals use for the seventh through the 11th, a group of holes that resemble the bend in a shepherd’s crook. Daly killed his drive at No. 10, leaving it just 20 yards short of the green on the 342-yard hole. He birdied that. He hit a 5-iron to 30 feet at the 172-yard 11th and made that, and then drove the green at the 316-yard 12th. With a 1-iron.

“I’m hitting the ball better than I have in I don’t know when,” Daly said. “And my short game is pretty good, too.”

Two years ago, when he first came to the British Open, Daly didn’t like it. Muirfield didn’t suit him. There were too many holes where the driver didn’t work, too many that called for half-shots and knockdowns.

He finished 75th, but he got a couple of words of encouragement from Gary Player, who just made the cut this week, at the age of 59, in his 40th British Open.

“Just you wait until you get to St. Andrews in two years,” Player said then. “You’ll love it.”

He’s here, and he does. Early in the week, Daly was actually spotted hitting some half wedges and knockdown shots on the practice range. Instead of taking his wedge back as far as he does his driver, then decelerating in the impact zone, he shortened his takeaway and hit some firm, low shots in.

Now he’s tied for the lead. The man they called Wild Thing has been anything but for two days. Whether that continues will be the most compelling question in what promises to be a fascinating final 36.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LEADERBOARD Scores from the second round of the 124th British Open on the 6,933-yard, par-72 Old Course at St. Andrews: Katsuyoshi Tomori, Japan 70-68-138 John Daly, United States 67-71-138 Brad Faxon, United States 71-67-138