Our insiders on Jerry Kelly's win in New Orleans, John Daly's return and the LPGA's struggles
Every week of the 2009 PGA Tour season, the editorial staff of the SI Golf Group will conduct an e-mail roundtable. Check in on Mondays for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors.
Damon Hack, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Lots to chew on this week, including the first PGA Tour win by Jerry Kelly since 2002, a remarkable shootout in Mexico between LPGA titans Lorena Ochoa and Suzann Pettersen (that nobody saw) and the imminent return (again) of John Daly, minus 40 pounds or so. What does everybody expect from Long John in Spain this week? A win? A top 30? A made cut? A WD? A DQ? Is the erstwhile big man ever going to be a factor on the PGA Tour again?
Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: A successful week for Daly means not getting arrested, suspended, subpoenaed, punched-out, passed-out or otherwise making a further embarrassment of himself. Who cares how he plays?
Hack: Joe PGA Tour fan seems to. Other than Tiger and Phil, is there a more popular player on the PGA Tour?
Jim Herre, editor, Sports Illustrated Golf Plus: Just so you know, Daly is Twittering.
Shipnuck: I can only imagine: "A dozen Twinkies for breakfast...Yum...Two pack of Ho-Hos at the turn, feeling frisky. Maybe tonight I can find the next ex-Mrs. Daly at Hooters."
David Dusek, deputy editor, Golf.com: I love that Daly write his Tweets the way he talks: "wow am i beat today just exhausted" and "done with practice n packin for europe--i do not want to fly"
Farrell Evans, writer-reporter, Sports Illustrated: By his own admission, Big John has always been a streaky player. I hope that he can at least return to respectability as a professional, minus the tantrums and the drinking. He can WD or win next week. It's up to him.
Shipnuck: I think Daly has lost a lot of fans and goodwill in recent years. When he was winning tournaments he was an original. Now it's just sad.
Herre: Daly can't chow down with that belly band. He's actually looking pretty good.
Shipnuck: Somehow I bet he'll find a way to put the weight back on. He's got a can-do attitude when it comes to his vices.
Cameron Morfit, senior writer, Golf Magazine: Yes, but there's something about eating only what you kill that makes a guy play better. Todd Hamilton is in the last year of his British Open exemption, and suddenly he's on the leaderboard again. Is that a happy coincidence? It's conceivable that desperation will help Daly's game, too.
Hack: I think Big John has another run in him. Seems like it was just yesterday when he was knocking heads with Tiger in San Francisco at Harding Park. One of the best non-major events I've ever seen.
Morfit: If Daly would start playing well again, people would come back on the bandwagon with their Marlboros and Diet Cokes in a heartbeat. He's "relatable" and all that.
Dusek: Uh oh. Daly is onto us. He just Tweeted: "1 thing? can anyone tell me that site that posts the constant update when my name is mentioned on twitter? twzd? something"
Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: I've been mocked for saying this before, but I'll say it again: as a pure, natural golfing talent, JD's the best I've ever seen in person. He is a golf savant.
Shipnuck: Jerry Kelly is one of the good guys and this will be a popular win in the locker room, press room and caddie yard. But to me the real story is Charles Howell letting a tournament get away for the third time this year. I think he's too nice a guy for tournament golf. I hope he's somewhere trashing a hotel room. If you do it once it means you care. If you do it monthly, it means you're Daly.
Bamberger: I don't think the problem is that he's too nice — I think his desire to win is fierce — but he's got so much going on in that head. What makes him great for us (as writers) might be hurting him as he gets closer to the hole and there are more and more shot options.
Morfit: The thing that struck me about Kelly's win was how much of the Tour is a mind game. It's painful to watch Charles Howell try to close out a tournament. He's obviously very talented, and a nice guy, but man, something is way off between the ears. That par putt on 17 was pitiful, and the birdie effort on 18 was only slightly better. The only time that guy looked like a serious player was when he beat Phil at Riviera a few years back.
Hack: I like how the CBS crew questioned some of Howell's strategy coming home (laying up and relying on a shaky short game). Some good back and forth there between Faldo and McCord.
Rick Lipsey, writer-reporter, Sports Illustrated: Choke of the week to Ian Baker Finch for patting Howell on the back for his great shots down the stretch. Uh, Ian, what great shots? With a bogey at 15, a three-jack bogey at 17 and a pedestrian par at the cupcake 18th, Howell further cemented his reputation as golf's richest choker. Why can't golf announcers, save Johnny Miller, just speak the truth?
Herre: Howell played lights out on the front, then you could see him start playing defense on the back, when he needed to stay on the attack. He did play great — for nine holes.
Dusek: His team, headed by GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teacher Todd Anderson, needs to convince him to put the hammer down when he's in the lead. Maybe he should talk to Brian Gay?
Morfit: He needs to see GOLF Magazine's resident mind-game guy, Dr. Dick Coop.
Hack: I do think that Charles will keep knocking on the door. He played great in Tampa this year, but it's pretty clear that he doesn't quite have the trust on those little feel shots (and the flatstick) that make all the difference late Sundays.
(From Website : http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1894021,00.html)
