Time and time again, America roots for the underdog in athletic competition. For baseball, maybe it was the Tampa Bay Rays last year. For college basketball, maybe it was George Mason making a deep run in the 2006 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Maybe it was rooting for Boise State to knock off Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl in college football. Maybe it’s whoever is playing the New York Yankees or the Dallas Cowboys, perhaps the two wealthiest teams in all of sports. In golf, America roots for John Daly.
In some ways, John Daly is just another regular John Doe. Yes, I know! John Doe doesn’t always have a checkered past littered with alcoholism, gambling additions, and ex-wives. But, many of us may have a friend who has tackled the same issues that Daly has, right? And we root for that friend to succeed, right? John Daly is no different.
John Daly burst onto the scene in 1991, going from zero to hero and winning the 1991 PGA Championship – one of golf’s four majors (as we all know). He was the ninth alternate to get into the tournament (as Sports Geek pointed out in his intro). He won that tournament without playing as much as a single round at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, who played host for the PGA Championship that year. Remember that little mini-mullet he had?
He wasn’t then, and isn’t now, a regular country club golfer. Close your eyes and picture a golfer… it’s tough to bring an image of John Daly to mind – admit it! I’ll admit it. I don’t! But, so what! Isn’t that what makes him likable?
It doesn’t matter that for the better part of his golf career he has been this cursing, overweight, beer-drinking, cigarette smoking, golfer. He comes across as a likable guy. He has that likability factor going for him that Simon Cowell likes to talk about on American Idol. Outside of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, he is still arguably one of the top draws in golf – which is amazing considering he hasn’t won a PGA tournament in almost five and a half years. If Woods, Mickelson, and Daly were battling it out on the back nine on Sunday, Daly would have just as much crowd support as Woods and Mickelson. He’s David and everyone else is Goliath. He’s the ultimate underdog. That’s why America roots for him.
Last weekend, Daly played in his first tournament in over 6 months at the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tennessee. He finished tied for 59th place, with a four round score of one over par. Not great, but it’s a start. Hopefully, it’s the start of many more things to come!
To answer the debate question from Sport Geek, yes, America should root for John Daly. Every sport needs someone to take on the underdog role, and John Daly fits it perfectly!
Read the debate intro and Bleacher Fan’s opinion.
