Daly: 'I feel like I let Arnold down' at Bay Hill

text size

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- John Daly woke up on Wednesday to read that swing coach Butch Harmon fired him. Then he got a phone call letting him know he had been kicked out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard for missing the pro-am.

John Daly has made three cuts in 2008. (WireImage)

"Hasn't been a good day," Daly told The Associated Press. "This is the last thing I needed in my life. I feel like I let Arnold down."

The wild ride of golf's most unpredictable character took another hairpin turn when Daly said he was given wrong information that caused him to miss his tee time, starting a bizarre chain reaction that knocked out two other players from this week's tournament.

The PGA TOUR has a policy that anyone missing the pro-am is ineligible to play in the tournament.

Daly, who received a sponsor's exemption, played a Monday pro-am at Bay Hill and said he was asked to play the Wednesday pro-am, too. He requested a morning start, then called on Tuesday to find out his tee time. A woman in the tournament office told him 9:47 a.m., which instead was his starting time for the first round.

"I didn't even know that was my Thursday tee time," Daly said. "I should have looked into it. It stinks for me. I want to do anything I can for the tournament as a sponsor exemption. I wanted to meet the people I was playing with in the pro-am. I love Arnold Palmer to death. I called and talked to him and apologized and he said he feels just as bad about it.

"And the thing that upsets me is I cost Nick O'Hern and Ryuji Imada, so now I got these guys mad at me, too."

Imada and O'Hern were alternates for the pro-am, and both thought they were assigned to the afternoon group. Instead, they were the first two names called when Daly didn't show, and when neither was around, they also were ineligible from the $5.8 million event.

O'Hern lives only five minutes away at Isleworth and was furious to learn he would not be eligible.

"When I should have been on the tee, I was giving my girls breakfast," O'Hern said. "I thought common sense would have prevailed. This is a tough one to take. Unfortunately, we got caught up in John's snowball effect."

The snowball is starting to look like an avalanche.

Daly lost his full PGA TOUR card two years ago and relies mainly on sponsor exemptions. In seven events this year, he has missed the cut three times and withdrew from the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, where he was spotted at several after-hour parties.

His best finish was a tie for 60th in Mexico, an opposite-field event.

The Bay Hill mix-up comes one day after Harmon, one of golf's most renowned swing coaches, said he was done working with Daly because the two-time major champion appeared more interested in drinking than working on his game.

"My whole goal for him was he's got to show me golf is the most important thing in his life," Harmon said. "And the most important thing in his life is getting drunk."

Harmon said Daly's behavior last week at the PODS Championship was enough to end the short-lived relationship.

Daly spent a two-hour rain delay during the first round in a Hooters corporate tent behind the 17th green at Innisbrook. He was 3 over, and when play resumed, he had NFL coach Jon Gruden caddie for him. After missing the cut with rounds of 77-80, Daly spent his free Saturday at the Hooters tent drinking beer, mingling with fans and signing autographs, including one on the back of a woman's pants.

"I just wish Butch had called me before getting slapped in the face," Daly said. "I love Butch to death. I still think he's the greatest coach out there. I just told him, 'Don't always believe what you read in the paper.' I texted him, 'All I wish you'd done is call me.' It was a shock to me."

Daly has been on a downward spiral since losing a playoff to Tiger Woods in 2005 at Harding Park in a World Golf Championships event. He injured his ribs last year at The Honda Classic when he tried to stop his powerful swing upon hearing the click of a fan's camera, and Daly recently said he was contemplating a lawsuit against the tournament, which gave him a sponsor's exemption.

"My life is upside-down right now," Daly said. "No matter what I do, it's wrong. I'm thinking of writing a new song. I'll call it, 'I guess it's my fault, even when it's not my fault.'"