AVONDALE, La. – In an interesting twist of personalities, Boo Weekley has withdrawn from the Zurich Classic of New Orleans due to medical reasons and was replaced by John Daly.
He was a sponsor’s exemption, so Zurich was able to chose the player to replace Weekley.
John Daly nearly holes his approach shot on the par-4 16th hole then makes the 8-foot birdie putt coming back.
The tee times for the first round of this week’s RBC Heritage have been released. CLICK HERE for the tee times. Use the space below to comment about the pairings at Harbour Town.
Here’s a look at some of the notable groups in the first two rounds:
Luke Donald/Kyle Stanley/Brandt Snedeker
All three players have won on the PGA TOUR this year, but the
real story is the Donald/Snedeker rematch from last year's playoff
at Harbour Town. Or it is the Snedeker/Stanley rematch from this
year's playoff at Torrey Pines?
Bill Haas/Ernie Els/Padraig Harrington
Haas, the reigning FedExCup champion, is paired with two
international superstars in the midst of career comebacks.
Harrington has two top-10s in six starts this year, while Els has
three top-fives in his last four starts.
Webb Simpson/Zach Johnson/Bud Cauley
This group
almost spans three different generations. Cauley, a
22-year-old rookie, was one of the hottest players on TOUR before
the Masters. However, rookies almost never do well at Harbour Town.
Simpson, 26, has been under the radar after an epochal 2011, and
still has three top-10s already in 2012.
John Daly/Rickie Fowler/Ricky Barnes
With Daly's pants and Fowler's hats, there will be lots of
colorful clothes in this group. Barnes nearly won here last year
before fading into a tie for fourth. Fowler has two starts here,
one of them a tie for eighth in his first try in 2010.
Lucas Glover/Matt Kuchar/Geoff Ogilvy
Glover and Kuchar, a pair of Sea Island, Ga. residents,
consider Harbour Town a local event. They will be paired with
Ogilvy, who added Harbour Town to his schedule for the first time
since 2007.
Now, it’s your turn: Which groups are you most interested in following this week?
Jim Furyk holes a 13-foot birdie putt on the par-5 first hole.
John Daly holes a 38-foot putt for birdie on the par-3 15th hole.
The charities of four PGA TOUR players received a total of $60,000 on Tuesday thanks to a program funded by DePuy Mitek, the Official Mobile Health and Fitness Provider of the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour.
Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink and Jonathan Byrd were on hand to accept the donations from the ORTHOVISC® PGA TOUR Player Charity Program, where thousands of fans voted for their favorite participating players.
John Daly, who is playing in Portugal this week, received the most votes so his charity, the Boys and Girls Club of River Valley Arkansas, will receive $25,000. Furyk earned $15,000 for the Jim and Tabitha Furyk Foundation while Cink's charity, The Healing Place, and Byrd's foundation, the Jim Byrd Memorial, each receive $10,000.
The Jim and Tabitha Foundation raises charity dollars and
awareness for groups that provide services such as hospice care,
hospital and nursing services, counseling, mentoring and food and
shelter services to those children needing it the most.
Cink's charity, The Healing Place, helps provide education
and support programs for grieving children, adolescents and their
families or guardians. Byrd created The Jim Byrd Memorial to honor
his late father and raise money for local charities.
Fans were able to view information about a player's charity at a kiosk at nine PGA TOUR events and send them a personal “shout out” or text message. DePuy Mitek sponsors the state-of-the-art fitness trailers at TOUR events in an effort to educate golfers and fans alike on the importance of keeping their knees healthy and free of pain.
A week after his first top-10 in six years, John Daly is headed home from The Greenbrier Classic, where he missed the cut after a second-round 75 to finish at 5 over, well off the cut line at The Old White TPC.
Friday’s round got away from Daly quickly. Starting on the back nine, he hit his tee shot well to the right on Nos. 12, where he took a drop and hit back into the fairway only to miss the green to the right on his approach before taking three more to get it in the hole for a triple-bogey 7.
Daly then bogeyed each of the next three holes, missing the green in regulation on all three. He did bounce back with two birdies on Nos. 4 and 5, but it was too little too late for Daly, who gave those right back with bogeys on Nos. 7 and 8.
At 189th in FedExCup points coming into the week, Daly’s chances of making the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup will be slim. He’s not in the field for next week’s World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, which means he’ll have just the PGA Championship and the Wyndham Championship to play his way into the top 125. It was 20 years ago this year that Daly won the PGA at Crooked Stick. By winning he is granted a lifetime exemption into the tournament.
John Daly, like many pro golfers, travels all around the world to play in tournaments. In the last eight months alone, he's played in events in at least 10 different countries.
Last week in finishing tied for ninth at the RBC Canadian Open, Daly played for the third consecutive week in three different countries (having missed the cut at the John Deere Classic and the British Open in the previous two weeks).
Now he's back on American soil at this week's The Greenbrier Classic, where he will play the first two rounds with Sergio Garcia and Davis Love III in one of the notable groups at the Old White TPC course.
Daly doesn't mind flashing a bit of patriotism in his attire. Here's a look at some of his recent flag-inspired golf pants ( all photos from Getty Images).
For John Daly, success doesn’t necessarily come in winning. At least it didn’t at the RBC Canadian Open, where he got his first top-10 finish since 2005 with a tie for ninth after a 72 on Sunday.
”It's been a struggle,” Daly said of his last few years. “You cannot play good golf out here when you're hurt.”
Daly said his groin bothered him this week but that overall everything felt pretty good. That’s especially true of the positives Daly will take from the week.
“Oh, a ton, a ton,” he said. “There's no doubt about it. I love the way I chipped the last two days. Under the heat today, I know I was kind of out of it there with four or five holes to go. But I made one heck of a par on 15, 17 and 18.
“I got them down a lot today. Probably in the past I would have shot an 80 or 82 today.”
Instead, Daly played well enough to finish at even par for the week -- something he’s done only three other times in 13 previous starts this season.