Cheating N Gambling: Golf’s Bad Boys

bad boysHe gets more women than Mike Lowry, he gambles, he gets fined and disciplined by the PGA and he has one hell of a driver. No, it’s not Tiger Woods, it’s John Daly and he makes Tiger Woods’s exploits look like a children’s book.

Professional golf has always been regarded as a classy sport, played in country clubs by the affluent and the privileged, by Ivy league cats in plaid pants and cardigans, with wholesome wives and wholes lives. Or so we thought. After everything we heard and saw about Woods, we began to realize that perhaps we don’t know these golfers as well as we thought, perhaps the stereotype on golfers is a little off kilter. Golf does have a wilder side to it other than playing the fade, and its called John Daly. Read more.

The list of infractions published by the PGA about John Daly and his exploits is enormous. Daly is a man who beats to the sound of his own drum, he hits the ball a mile and he doesn’t give a fuck about the media or anyone else who tries to form an opinion on him. While some people may find his behavior offensive and unbecoming of a professional ball player, I tend to think it’s a refreshing change from the drab golf stories we always hear about. He’s a bad boy. He’s admitted to losing over $60 million gambling, he smokes on the course, he only tries when he feels like it, he drinks like a fish and I’ll tell you right now, he’s the only reason I’ll be following golf closely this year.

Every sport has them, every sport needs them. They’re the bad boys and without them, things are just, well boring. Look at the major sports, in the NBA you got guys like Ron Artest who will run into the crowd and start throwing haymakers, love it. In hockey, you got guys like Sean Avery who will do and say anything he bloody feels like no matter how many enemies he makes along the way. In the NFL, well, the NFL has entire teams full of bad boys and guys that tote guns and make it rain on strippers, while sporting cool nicknames like Pacman. We eat this stuff up, and now golf has their bad boys, John Daly and the most unlikely of bad boys, Tiger Woods. The PGA tour just got a whole lot more interesting. Let the gong show begin.