Rose Leads As Daly Fades

Golf

John Daly missed the 36-hole cut in the Greater Milwaukee Open in Brown Deer, Wis., Friday after he shot a 4-over-par 75 for a two-day, 5-over total of 147, 14 shots off the lead.

“I didn’t get anything going. It was just two bad days,” said Daly, who blamed his poor performance on his switch from graphite irons to steel ones.

Daly’s departure left a hodgepodge of mostly unknowns contending for the $1.3 million purse, including a top prize of $234,000.

Leader Clarence Rose shot a 5-under 66 for a two-day total of 133. Rookie Spike McRoy was a shot back after firing an 8-under 63, one stroke shy of the Brown Deer Park Golf Course record.

And Jim Thorpe, who won the event in 1985 and is just 18 months shy of joining the Senior Tour, was among six golfers at 7-under.

If Daly’s fans are looking for somebody else to cheer, they might want to follow Thorpe, involved in a comeback of his own.

He said he hasn’t played well since his parents died in late 1995, the same year his oldest daughter was sexually assaulted “when a couple of football players busted into” her dorm at Virginia State.

“The thing you want to do is grab a gun and blow their heads off,” Thorpe said. “But you realize your girl needs you more than you need to be doing time.”

Pittsburgh Senior Classic

Bob Duval, who entered only after Orville Moody withdrew with a broken wrist, shot a 4-under-par 68 to tie four others for the first-round lead at the $1.1 million Pittsburgh Senior Classic in Midway, Pa.

He shared the lead at the Quicksilver Golf Club with John Rech, Kermit Zarley, Dan Wood and John Jacobs.

Duval, the father of PGA Tour pro David Duval, played in a qualifier Monday but finished fifth and was the first alternate as play was set to begin. The phone rang Thursday afternoon, after Moody fell and injured his wrist while playing in a pro-am outing at nearby Rolling Hills Country Club.

Duval, who gave up a job as a country club professional to take a shot on the Senior Tour, will try to build on Friday’s play, which included an eagle on the 557-yard, par-5 No. 4 at Quicksilver, a hilly course with slick greens.