Date: December 10, 2008
Author: Steve Orme, Sportal

Daly: Discount me at your peril

Larger than life American John Daly may have missed consecutive cuts leading into this week&aposs Australian Open at Royal Sydney, but the big-hitting American has warned against writing him off just yet. “Every guy out here wants to be in contention on Sunday and I still believe I can do that,” Daly said on Wednesday. “Just because I&aposm missing a few cuts here and there it doesn&apost mean anything in my world.” “I know exactly what&aposs wrong and it&aposs the putting, it&aposs not the ball striking it&aposs the putting which is good because if I&aposm putting bad and hitting it bad – I&aposve been there too and that&aposs no fun.” While the two-time major champion has diagnosed the problem, he admits the solution remains a mystery. But Daly remains hopeful some friendly advice from two home-grown stars on Tuesday will help his cause on the lightning fast Royal Sydney greens. “I played with Brett Rumford and &aposPamps&apos (Rod Pampling) yesterday and they showed me some things I need to work on,” he revealed. “It&aposs just weird, it&aposs something I know I&aposve got to do, try to open up my stance a little more maybe and my head&aposs moving back off the ball which is causing a lot of bad strokes.” “It&aposs like studying for an exam in college and knowing you don&apost know what the hell you&aposre doing, it&aposs frustrating but I feel like I can get through the ball better now which might help a little bit”. But the 42-year-old is not expecting miracles. “If you don&apost feel comfortable over the ball you can&apost get a good confident feeling of what you want to do or how the ball&aposs going to come off the putter,” he explained. “That&aposs my problem … I&aposm not confident over the ball when I putt which means you&aposre not going to really make a lot of putts,” Daly said. “It&aposs frustrating, yeah, and it&aposs being going on probably for two or three years now … these greens are awesome but they&aposre very undulated so you&aposve got to play for a lot of break which, when you&aposre not putting so good, is not the best of things.” Asked if he is feeling added pressure to perform Down Under having not made it to the weekend, a straight-shooting Daly played down the weight of expectation from Australian golf fans that simply can&apost get enough of him. “I&aposm just going to go out and do the best I can and if it works it works,” he said. “I know what I need to work on and hopefully the wind will keep blowing because I think it&aposs a better chance for me if the wind blows really hard here because (then) par is a good score.”