Tale Of Two David Feherty Profiles

This week's Golf World cover story by Franz Lidz looks at the life and times of David Feherty, the same week John Garrity files an SI Golf Plus feature on the life and times of...David Feherty.

Both are worth reading if you are a Feherty fan, or even if you are not. Lidz wins the prize for keeping Feherty's daily pill regimin straight.

The vial Feherty keeps in his pants pocket harbors his daily regimen of anti-depressants (Cymbalta), anti-psychotics (Abilify, Klonopin), stimulants (Adderall, Vyvanse), mood stabilizers (Lamictal), cholesterol (Lipitor) and blood pressure meds (Avalide), and sleep aids (Ambien). "I don't like sleeping pills," he allows. "I don't like sleeping, period."

And Lidz gets to the heart of Feherty's affection for Tiger Woods.

Since then, he and Woods have remained friendly -- engaging in innumerable if barely audible on-course farting duels -- though not especially intimate. "I've been accused of being so far up Tiger's ass that he can barely make a full swing," says Feherty. From his privileged redoubt, he maintains he's seen a facet of Woods that the public seldom does: an immense vulnerability. "Tiger got so famous so quickly that he had little or no control over the firewall that was built around him," he says. "As a result, who he really is vanished for most of us overnight. I imagine it must be hard for him to live a life in a manner that he may not have chosen, and I think he struggles with it. Just a theory, but he's so much nicer than the general perception of him."

Garrity also got some tag-along time and shared this about wife/saint Anita:

Waiting in an idling limousine while David shakes a few last hands after the show, she says, "He's in a happy place now, but it's still a battle. David's head is full of cobwebs, he hears voices. When he's stumbling around at 3 a.m., he's dealing with those voices. But at least now he recognizes what's happening, and he can deal with it."

Staying on his meds is critical, she emphasizes, but equally important are his pursuits. Riding bikes, interviewing celebrities, teasing their 14-year-old daughter, building custom hunting rifles for wounded vets, leaping from an airplane, watching raw video for an ordnance-heavy Feherty spinoff called Sniper Golf, raging against religion -- it's all therapy, Feherty style.

The problem -- there's that word again -- is that Feherty, like this article, is mostly present tense. He can't plan, he won't remember. Having turned off his voice mail, he communicates by the most distilled medium available -- text. He relies on his agent, his producers and Anita -- mostly Anita -- to coach him through his day.

Staring at the diffuse glare of headlights flowing across the tinted windows, Anita considers her husband's plight. "One of his book titles," she says, "was Somewhere in Ireland a Village Is Missing an Idiot. Well, it takes a village behind David to keep him going."

Anticipating the next question, she says, "Yes, it's challenging. But it's my job."

Lidz talks to Ryan Herrington for this week's Golf World podcast.