By Dan Rapaport
ORLANDO — A natural villain emerged on a balmy Sunday afternoon in Central Florida. Tiger and Charlie Woods were hard-charging toward the feel-goodest of feel-good victories at the PNC Championship. Their only obstacle: two large men with the same last name and the same preternatural speed. The Dalys.

Golf fans found themselves in a tough spot. Tiger and his mini-me are golf royalty, and the elder Woods was playing his first (semi) competition after a horrific car accident that nearly claimed his leg. Easy to root for. But rooting for one team means rooting against another, and no one roots against John Daly. This, then, was a no-lose situation. If Tiger and Charlie won, perfect. If John and John II—he’s no longer Little John Daly, for such a moniker wouldn’t fly on an SEC golf team—only slightly less perfect.

The Dalys, playing for the sixth time in this event, did indeed take the PNC title, surviving 11 straight birdies from Team Woods thanks in part to the play of the original John Daly. At 55, he is the same man he’s always been: minimal warm-up, cigarettes on cigarettes, Diet Coke to wash it down and a hugely talented golfer. He was quick to note after Sunday’s round that he made seven birdies on his own ball after being a no-show with his putter on Saturday. Pair him with his son, equally long but free of the vices, and you’ve got a father-son powerhouse. Their 27-under two-day total, after a Sunday 57, in the scramble format set a new PNC record at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club.

“I’ve always told the media for years the greatest days of my life were seeing my kids born,” Daly the senior said. “You can’t top that. To be here and win a big tournament like this with my son, nothing can beat it.”

John Daly II was a junior Rolex All-American and is now a freshman at Arkansas, his dad’s alma mater. He has played just one event for the Razorbacks, shooting an eventful 83-68-78. He is still 18 and has plenty of time to develop into a professional-calibre golfer, if that’s his thing. What is certain is he has enough power. Daly II lipped out for an ace on a par 4 during a pro-am round and summoned the shot of the tournament, a long iron from a fairway bunker on the par-5 third, over a not-small lip, to 15 feet. His dad brushed in the eagle.

Big John has battled bladder cancer over the past few years but remains competitive on the PGA Tour Champions, where he had three top-10 finishes over the 2020-21 wraparound season. This victory, he said, will occupy a special place in the memory of his golfing life.

“Holidays everything and, just playing golf with my son every day when I can is just awesome. To watch him grow up to do the things he could do with a golf ball and a swing that’s so perfect, but saving my you know what from putting yesterday, and he played phenomenal and I helped him with a few shots here and there. But it was just an awesome weekend.”

Sam Greenwood
It was Team Daly’s sixth start in the PNC Championship before finally coming out with the win.

The post At long last, Team Daly comes out on top at the PNC Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By GolfDigest.com
The unique family atmosphere baked into the PNC Championship makes the two-day exhibition stand out in the minds of most participants. The event is about having fun and making memories. But it got interestingly competitive on Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando when Tiger and Charlie Woods made a seemingly improbably charge on the back nine.

Team Woods made 13 birdies and an eagle for an all-time tournament record 15-under 57, but it wasn’t enough to fend off John Daly and John Daly II. The father-son team shot matched the Woods score to take the title by two shots, posting a tournament-record 27-under 117.

While playing for pride, there was also a financial reward on the line for the victory. The overall prize money payout at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando is $1.085 million with the professional on the winning team earning $200,000 for the victory.

Here’s the prize money payout breakdown for every team at this week’s event. Come back shortly after the tournament end and we’ll update the results with names and individual payouts.

Win: John and John II Daly, -27 $200,000

2: Tiger and Charlie Woods, -25, $80,000

T-3: Justin and Mike Thomas, -24, $53,625

T-3: Stewart and Reagan Cink, -24, $53,625

T-5: Vijay and Qass Singh, -21, $48,500

T-5: Tom and Sean Lehman, -21, $48,500

7: Matt and Cameron Kuchar, -20, $47,000

T-8: Mark and Shaun O’Meara, -19, $45,500

T-8: Henrik and Karl Stenson, -19, $45,500

T-10: Rich and Michael Beem, -18, $44,500

T-10: Gary and Jordan Player, -18, $44,500

12: Nelly and Petr Korda, -17, $43,500

T-13: David and Brady Duval, -16, $42,750

T-13: Bubba Watson and Wayne Ball, -16, $42,750

15: Padraig and Paddy Harrington, -15, $42,000

T-16: Tom and Michael Watson, -14, $40,812.50

T-16: Jim and Tanner Furyk, -14, $40,812.50

T-16: Nick and Greg Price, -14, $40,812.50

T-16: Nick and Mathew Faldo, -14, $40,812.50

20: Lee and Daniel Trevino, -13, $40,000

The post The prize money payout for Team Daly after a surprisingly memorable PNC Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
It’s been a tumultuous few months for John Daly, who revealed in September he has bladder cancer. A different kind of announcement by his son on Wednesday, though, was certainly a welcome sight for the two-time major champ.

John Daly II, better known as “Little John,” will follow in his famous father’s footsteps by playing collegiate golf at the University of Arkansas. Not surprisingly, Big John, who played for the Razorbacks from 1984 to 1987, was delighted by the decision.

It’s Official!!!!??‍
Proud of my son and so happy he became a #Razorback today! Today is their day! ?? #signingday #signingday2020 #UniversityofArkansas #Hogs #WPS pic.twitter.com/6d2NStDD6k

— John Daly (@PGA_JohnDaly) November 11, 2020

Pretty cool.

And in case you aren’t familiar with Little John’s game, well, let’s just say he subscribes to the same grip-it-and-rip-it philosophy of his dad. Little John has stolen the show at the Father/Son Challenge in recent years and he can absolutely bomb it.

Of course, there’s more to his game than just power and Loudmouth clothes. Three days after his dad’s cancer reveal, Little John, 16, fired a final-round 68 to win the International Junior Golf Tour’s Fall Kickoff event. And earlier this year he finished runner-up at the Dye National Junior Invitational at Crooked Stick, where Big John won the 1991 PGA Championship.

In other college golf news, Preston Summerhays, the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur champ, signed with Arizona State. Summerhays is the son of former PGA Tour pro turned instructor Boyd Summerhays, and his uncle Daniel earned more than $9 million on the PGA Tour.

In other words, it doesn’t hurt to come from a golf family. But with great genes come great expectations. Good luck to these two young men at the next level.

The post Why John Daly’s son made his dad particularly proud on national signing day appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
It’s impossible to watch John Daly’s son take his long, powerful swing and not recall his dad’s grip-it-and-rip-it approach to playing golf. But now the pair’s career paths in the game may be starting to mirror each other.

On Tuesday, John Daly II grabbed a share of the lead at a national junior tournament—and it couldn’t have come at a more fitting place.

Crooked Stick Golf Club is best known for Daly’s breakthrough major victory at the 1991 PGA Championship, but it nearly became site of Little John’s own major triumph. The younger Daly found himself in a five-way tie for the lead after 36 holes at the Dye National Junior Invitational.

He then shot a final-round 76 at the Carmel, Ind., course on Wednesday to finish in a tie for second with a four-over 220, four back of winner John Marshall Butler.

“I played great,” Daly II told the Indianapolis Star. “It would have been cool to win, but I still have time. Just a couple bad three-putts both days, but other than that I played great.”

Ahead of the inaugural tournament—named in honour of famed golf architects Pete and Alice Dye with a field of 33 of the top male and female juniors golfers in the country—the 16-year-old high school junior in Clearwater, Fla., said he caught a replay of the 1991 PGA.

“I watched it every night before the tournament,” Daly said. “[Watching him] walk down the 18th with all of the fans everywhere was pretty cool. … For him to win, it was a ridiculous story. He loves it.”

Daly II first drew attention in the golf world by pairing with his dad at the PNC Father/Son Challenge. A clip of him sinking the winning putt at a junior golf tournament in 2017 also went viral.

Big John became an instant sensation when he won the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick as the tournament’s ninth alternate. Needless to say, he’s been cheering on Little John all week as he literally follows in his dad’s footsteps.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CArmJiqnhV6/?utm_source=ig_embed

And, yes, follows in his dad’s sense of style. Regardless of what happens on Wednesday, this won’t be the last we see of Little John.

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