"He's like Randy Moss"

In the latest installment of John Hawkins' Agnostic Golfer column, he buries this lede on John Daly:

I called several tournament heads last week to get a read on whether Daly's ability to sell tickets is worth the headache he has become. Kennerly didn't return my phone call, but others were quick to reply, and there remains little doubt that Long John Seismograph moves the needle more than a hundred John Sendens. "It's a pretty easy decision for us," says Clair Peterson, who runs the John Deere Classic and already has extended Daly an offer to join the field in July.

"He's like Randy Moss," says another. "He's a freak, he can be a huge burden, but in terms of what he brings you, it's a very unique dynamic. The NASCAR crowd, whatever you want to call it, is why 80 to 90 percent of the events will give him an exemption if he's anywhere near the top 100."

Or 531st, which is where Daly currently resides in the World Ranking, as if the NASCAR gang really gives a Hooters how well their man has been playing or whether he'll ever contend again on the weekend. The recent face-saving contest between PGA Tour brass and Westchester CC reminds us that every sputtering, non-Tiger event is a possible endangered species. Perhaps 15 to 18 tournaments are in excellent health; the rest lack significance or sound economics.

Make that two buried ledes: First is that tournament directors still want John Daly, and two, that the non-Tiger events are so desperate they will actually take someone totally unreliable and clearly melting down.