Daly Takes 18 Shots On One Hole

Golf

John Daly shot an 18 while playing 36.

Daly had to write “18” on his scorecard after putting six balls into the water while playing the par-5, 543-yard sixth hole Sunday at the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando, Fla.

Daly was 2-under for the tournament, which featured 36 holes on the final day, when he came to No. 6, a dogleg left with water down the left side.

“Driver in the water, 3-wood in the water, 3-wood in the water, 3-wood in the water, 3-wood in the water … how many was it, anyway?” he said.

After his first drive went into the lake, he moved to the forward tees and tried to cut off even more of the dog-leg, a shot of some 300 yards.

“He annihilated it. It was right on line, it just didn’t carry,” said playing partner Paul Goydos, who had the awesome task of keeping Daly’s card.

So Daly tried it again. And again. And again.

After the third ball in the water, the gallery started yelling, “Tin Cup,” the movie about a driving range owner who has a chance to win the U.S. Open before hitting one ball after another into the pond on the 18th hole.

“I still say they made that movie after me,” Daly said.

Daly cleared the water on his seventh shot, but it plugged in the hazard. He took a drop, and his 6-iron into the green landed in the rocks and ricocheted into a bunker. He blasted out and two-putted for an 18.

“I would have bailed out a little sooner,” said Tom Watson, who was also in the threesome. “It’s both a tragedy and a comedy when you do something like that. One guy in the gallery said, ‘Play it safe.’ He couldn’t stand to see him suffer.”

But it wasn’t the old John Daly.

Daly, a recovering alcoholic, is playing the most consistent golf of his career. His 68 in the first round was the 20th time in 22 rounds he had shot par or better this year.

Standard Register Ping

Liselotte Neumann sank a 3-1/2-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole Sunday to beat Rosie Jones and end Laura Davies’ four-year run at the Standard Register Ping tournament in Phoenix.

Neumann started the final round with a four-shot lead on Jones and needed all of it, shooting a 1-over-par 74 while Jones closed with a 70.

After completing 72 holes at 13-under 279, the two went back to No. 18 for the playoff to determine who earned the $127,500 winner’s purse.

Neumann mishit her second shot on the hole for the second time within minutes, pulling it left into a bunker, but pitched out to 18 inches and tapped in for par. Jones missed a 10-foot birdie putt.

After both players parred the next hole, Neumann’s 8-iron approach shot stopped close to the pin, while Jones left hers short and could only watch Neumann win.

Cathy Johnston-Forbes shot 69 and was third at 280.

Tracy Hanson of Rathdrum, Idaho, finished nine shots back.

Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf

Dale Douglass’ 25-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole gave him and partner Charles Coody the win at the best-ball Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf tournament in Amelia Island, Fla.

The Coody-Douglass team edged out Hugh Baiocchi and David Graham after the two teams finished the 54-hole senior event at 24-under par 194.

The win enabled Coody and Douglass to become the first golfers to capture both the Legendary Division (ages 60-69) and the overall Legends title since the tournament went to three divisions in 1987.