Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

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UPDATE, 2:25 p.m. Friday: John Daly ended up not in the lead after all when he teed off at 2:05 p.m. this afternoon, mainly because Oklahoma State product Scott Verplank had the round of his life in a major with a 4-under 66 to zoom to the top of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa.

No matter. Daly gave the TV commentators and the mass of fans around the 10th tee, his first hole of the day, drama unlike anything else golf can offer.

His group included 2003 PGA winner Shaun Micheel of Memphis. While Daly had the honors, he let his two playing partners tee off while he waited for the No. 10 green to clear ahead. It's a 336-yard par-4, and the pin is up front, just behind a bunker on the left side.

Yes, John Daly was pulling out the big lumber and going for it. The TV commentators hinted as best they could, without saying it was stupid to use driver on the dogleg right, that it wasn't the best play, but it was the play you'd expect from Daly. The smart move would be iron to about 120 yards out, and the pin accessibility didn't favor going for it anyway.

Daly is playing a fade/cut these days, rather than his power draw, and he's still hitting that cut about 320 yards. After all the build-up, Daly's drive went close to the direction he wanted, but got caught up in the trees right of the green. He chipped across the green, came up short on a chip to the hole, then missed a 6-footer for par.

Yes, he could have made 5 with a putter off the tee. Probably. He could have made 4 with a 6-iron, sand wedge, the way the current young big-hitter of the game, Bubba Watson, played it.

No, John has his way, and not even Jack Nicklaus or anyone else is going to convince him to do it some other way. (By the way, did you know John's new book coming out will be titled "Golf My Own Damn Way," and will be Daly's version of a Harvey Penick, "Little Red Book" style of witticisms and golf anecdotes and ways he goes about getting the ball around the course?)

So, starting out the day one shot behind, he left two behind after his first hole.

Tiger Woods, meanwhile, birdied the first hole, playing 2-iron to the middle of the fairway, short in to 6 feet and sinking the putt. A 464-yard starting hole and he hits 2-iron. A 336-yard starting hole for Daly and he hits driver.

The TV commentators ate it up, more than a couple saying: "It's going to be great today, watching the controlled precision of Tiger versus the reckless abandon of John Daly."

They're on opposites sides of Southern Hills; oh what is a fan to do, besides keep hydrated?