With Tiger Woods nowhere to be seen, the PGA Tour needs a presence and story line for this week's Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Why not an unlikely one — John Daly.
Friday arrived to find Daly, a two-time major winner and golf's weirdest man, among players atop the leaderboard. Seriously.
Daly, he of the loud, outlandish wardrobe, cigarettes sneaking and fiancée caddie, shot his best Tour round in a decade on Thursday. A 7-under 65 had him a stroke behind first-round leaders J.B. Holmes and Justin Hicks.
LEADERBOARD: Track Daly and the field at Pebble Beach
UPDATE: Daly found Friday much more difficult, with three bogeys to offset two birdies through the first 12 holes at Monterey. Pebble Beach is considered the easiest of the tournament's three courses; the other is Spyglass Hill Golf Club, where Daly plays on Saturday.
Brandt Snedeker led after his first nine holes on Spyglass, thanks to a 4-under. Hicks and Holmes were a stroke behind.
UPDATE 2: Daly is tied for 37th after a 1-over 72. He's six strokes behind Snedeker (67), who shares the 36-hole lead with Matt Jones (66). Hicks is still a stoke behind.
You're forgiven for wondering who the first-round leaders are, but nobody figured Daly would be a prime competitor for this tournament.
His Thursday round was Daly's best since a 64 at the Byron Nelson Championship in 2005. He hasn't won on the Tour since 2004 at Torrey Pines.
SquareJohn Loudpants hasn't made the cut at Pebble Beach in his past 10 tries.
Nice socks, Anna. (Getty Images)
So, naturally, he's in the thick of things after a terrific 18 holes at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Now Daly and his entourage, including bag lugger Anna Cladakis and celebrity partner Herm Edwards, head for Monterey Peninsula for Friday's second round.
"I've always loved playing Pebble Beach," Daly said Thursday. "If I drive the ball halfway decent here, I can usually score. I'm not a great putter, but I made a couple today."
Like an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to finish the day.
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OK, so Daly won a December tournament in Turkey on the European Tour. But the spectacle of Daly staking a claim among early leaders is just too wild.
Edwards admitted to being Daly's biggest rooter on Thursday. He dressed the part, in purple pants with pink flamingos. All that was missing was Al Czervik driving onto the course and dancing to Journey.
"I can't rub his back enough. I'm like his cheerleader," Edwards told The San Jose Mercury News. "I'm wearing his clothes, whatever he needs. He's tremendous. We spent a day yesterday playing nine holes, and you get a feel for what kind of guy he is. He's a wonderful guy."
By the way, Daly is 48 and 839th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
"I still feel like I got somewhat of the length to play somewhat long golf courses," Daly said after his first round. "Not like some of the guys, but I just hit it in good positions and I left myself those six or seven pins that were back that I left myself good uphill putts.
"I had about four or five gimme birdies — that always helps too. Didn't knock any over the green."
We expected wackiness from Bill Murray, whose pants fit the image.
If Daly stays among the leaders, there won't be enough adjectives to describe his performance.
Bill Murray (Getty Images)
Yeah, Caddyshack lives.
The amazing stuff about this is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on this stuff.