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PGA TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 3, 2016

John Daly

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

DAVE SENKO: John, maybe just get us started. First off, your thoughts on turning 50 recently and now joining the PGA TOUR Champions.

JOHN DALY: Oh, I'm really excited, one, to make it to 50 (laughing), and two, just to be able to have kind of a home to play again. It's been pretty tough the last few years not knowing where I'm going to play and waiting by the phone on exemptions and stuff, and now that I have sort of a category here that I can play a few years out here and get a schedule going and play a lot of golf, it's going to be good for me.

DAVE SENKO: Any nerves with making your debut on this Tour? I know you've been playing on the PGA TOUR and in Europe and in Asia. Will you have any nervousness, I guess, starting your PGA TOUR Champions career?

JOHN DALY: Oh, yeah, I'm sure. I hope so. If I didn't -- I think you can ask anybody who plays golf anymore in tournaments all over the world or whatever, whether it's Champions, PGA TOUR, Web or any of them, and if you're not nervous on the first tee, then we don't need to be out here. I just hope it's positive energy, and I hope for me it's just going to be a confidence builder as the weeks go on because I'm pretty rusty right now not playing a lot of golf in the last nine months. I'm here at Insperity this week, and this course is beautiful and a course that I've played real well at back in the day in the '90s, but my game is nowhere where I want it to be because I haven't been very competitive and I haven't played a lot, so everything for me is just a starting over and it's kind of a learning process, and playing competitive golf hopefully will get me back in that rhythm where you can start playing and get some confidence.

DAVE SENKO: You've been around here for a couple days now in Houston. Have you had a chance to visit with some of the guys on Tour?

JOHN DALY: Oh, yeah. I mean, I saw Fuzzy, John Huston, Mark Wiebe, Peter Jacobsen, Fred Funk and all of them. They're all excited that I'm out here. These are kind of the guys that I grew up when I first came on the Tour and kind of took me under their wing in some aspects, telling me when I'm screwing up and telling me when I'm doing good. Just a bunch of good men out here that are legends of the game, and it's kind of an honor to be around them again and play against them.

I know this Tour is very, very competitive, but we're not scared to -- apparently they're not scared after the round to go in and have a drink together and talk and stuff like that, and I think that's what's really cool about this Tour.

DAVE SENKO: What have they told you, some of the guys you've talked to, about what makes this Tour so special and guys enjoy playing out here?

JOHN DALY: I think the camaraderie that they have amongst each other. You know, these guys have played against each other for so many years, and they've beaten each other head-to-head and they've won tournaments and they've won majors. It's just -- I feel like it's just kind of our time to go out and have a good time and play some golf, very competitive golf, but on the outcome, we don't -- there's no drama out here. Nobody is mad at anybody. Nobody is worried about too much of anything except going out and having a good time and playing golf, and these guys, I've known most of them for a long time, and we know how to take care of our amateurs when we play in these pro-ams and we know how to take care of the sponsors, and we've done it forever. These guys, they know how to do it, and I think that's why it makes it so special.

Guys out here are very approachable. That always helps the sponsors, and we're playing the pro-ams, we have no problem helping the amateurs, either. It's just a good fit, and I'm just excited to be out here.

Q. As you get ready to come to Des Moines, you're kind of an instant crowd favorite and people are looking forward to it. With all the ups and downs that you've kind of been through in career and personal life, what's generally been the reception of the crowds, and I guess how appreciative are you in the sense that they've kind of been with you throughout this whole ride the last 27 years?
JOHN DALY: Well, that's the greatest thing. I hear people talk say John ought to be in the Hall of Fame and stuff, and I always tell people, look, I'm already in the Hall of Fame because I've got the greatest fans in the world. No matter what, through thick and thin, they've always stuck by me. I've always been honest with them, and that's why I think I maybe have a lot of fans is because I've never lied to them, and they've pumped me up and I feed off of them and I always have and probably always will.

It's a great combination, me to the fans, and it's here in the States. It's all over the world. They really fire me up. Having them on my side is a pretty cool thing.

Q. I understand you have a son now that's playing, about 12 years old. Are you kind of having fun with that, and are you mentoring him a little?
JOHN DALY: Well, he's having a blast. He loves the game of golf. He's in a school now, a golf school that he's thriving in education right now, so at least I did -- me and Anna did really well home schooling him for six years, and he's just thriving. He's enjoying it. It's Core Golf out of Orlando, and the school is right there at Orange County National right on the driving range. Gets out at 1:30 and they play golf every day and they have tournaments on the weekend, and he is just having a blast, and he's doing really, really well. Unfortunately for him he's playing against the 13 and 14 year olds, but he's been finishing -- he won his first one last weekend, and he finished third Sunday. So he's thriving, and he just loves it. I'm so proud of him. I think for me, what I'm looking forward to with him is playing in that tournament in Orlando, being in the Father-Son thing, because we're going to have a blast.

Q. A bit left field coming from this side of the pond, but obviously it's going to be interesting for us here to see you at Carnoustie at the Senior Open championship, another Claret Jug up for grabs. You've already won one at St. Andrews. What would it mean for you to win a Senior Open, as well, not far away at Carnoustie?
JOHN DALY: Oh, it would be wonderful. I know we're going back to Troon for the British and then for the Senior British at Carnoustie. I'm looking forward to it. For me, probably some of the favorite golf that I love to play is links golf, and to have two weeks in a row of it, hey, I'm all for it. I love it.

Carnoustie is like one of the courses that I love to death, and I've never played well on it, but to me it's probably got the best greens in Scotland. They're always perfect. The golf course is always hard. It's challenging. But I just love it. It's one of my favorites, and I'm looking forward to coming over there and playing, not only Carnoustie but the Open, as well, at Troon. I'll have a lot of practice at it anyway.

Q. Just take us through that last few holes at Carnoustie. Everybody says that finishing stretch from 15 to 18 is absolutely brutal. You've played there in the Dunhill Links and the Open. Can you just give me your thoughts on that finish?
JOHN DALY: I think it's -- well, 16, 17 and 18. 15, it depends on the wind. You can manage it. It's probably one of the easier ones of the last four, but it's not easy by any means. But 16, that par-3 is absolutely brutal. I played Dunhill there last year, and I hit a 3-wood pretty good and left it short. Andrew Johnson hit a driver and barely got it on the front. It's a hole that depending on the wind, or with no wind it's even hard, but then you come around 17, and it's a risk-reward hole off the tee, very tough, depending on the wind, as well. But 18 is just -- it's just, you've got to be straight and straight, long, long par-4 that's -- you make 4 there, you feel like you've made birdie because that OB comes in really hard on the left. You've got the creek in the front of the green, and a green that isn't one that likes to hold too many shots sometimes during the Open Championship. I think it's one of the hardest four golf holes to finish up in any golf course I've played.

Q. Everyone has always talked about your length off the tee and how far you hit it, but do you think your short game has been underappreciated during your career?
JOHN DALY: Well, if you looked at my short game right now, you probably wouldn't want to see it right now. It's not very good. But no, it is what it is. I mean, nowadays, if I was coming out now with Bubba and J.B. Holmes and all these kids that bomb it, I would be kind of a forgotten. I would just be one of the guys that hit it long. But for me, back in the '90s, I was kind of the only one that was really long out here, and now you've got 20 guys that probably hit it over 300, averaging almost 300 yards out here, and the game has really turned into nothing but the long ball. I think if you -- I think you can look at everybody on the Tour and even out here, I think all of our short games, nobody really pays that much attention to it like they would somebody hitting a long ball with a driver. And that's what I always do at clinics and pro-ams and stuff and always tell kids. You know, if you're going to spend an hour on the driving range hitting balls on your driver, you need to spend at least two on the short game because I think it's kind of a forgotten thing, and all of these guys that play golf on all of these tours, they know when they win a golf tournament, it's because of the short game. Yeah, you've got to hit it good, but when you're chipping and putting good and you're getting it up-and-down and you're making 20-footers, that's what wins golf tournaments.

For the next generation of golfers, I just don't think they focus enough on the short game like they should.

Q. One thing about being a rookie, you're playing a whole new set of courses, including Wauconda Club in Des Moines when you play Principal. Is it going to be by feel for the first year or so trying to learn these courses?
JOHN DALY: It is. There's only a few that I've played on the Tour in the past that I know. Especially here at Woodlands, this is one of my favorite stops on the Tour back in the day when we played here at the Shell. It's a golf course I'm familiar with. I wish I'd have had four or five tournaments under my belt before I came here, but yeah, it's going to be kind of a -- kind of feel everything out and get used to them, and that's really basically all I can say about it is just trying to find my way and get to know some of these golf courses, and hopefully get lucky a few weeks and win some of them.

Q. You've mentioned a couple of times courses played, your schedule, that sort of thing. Where are you at with your schedule at this point? I know you've committed to a couple of tournaments, about five out. Where are you staying for the rest of the summer?
JOHN DALY: I'm going to be committing to quite a few of them. Just trying -- really for me it's just the traveling right now that I'm trying to get a hold off, and what really helped is not having the one in China, which they're going to move to the Vancouver Island, which is really cool. I'll be able to play that one, as well. I'm going to play as much as I can. Going to probably here in the next two weeks here commit to a lot more of the tournaments, and just excited about it, more or less just trying to make sure I can meet the criteria the Champions Tour wants me to meet because I'm going to be driving my bus and want to make sure I don't miss any pro-ams and stuff like that. But no, it's going to be a full go year. It's going to be a lot of golf, which I've been anxiously waiting to play.

Q. You're going to Des Moines. I know you've committed to Madison. Do you think you'll be able to get up here to Minneapolis after the PGA?
JOHN DALY: Yeah, I'll be there, no doubt. That will be right after our PGA at Baltusrol, I guess, so I'm looking forward to it. Yep, I'll be driving from there to the 3M.

Q. You've got the Ryder Cup here this year. What do you know about golf in Minnesota? I know you've played Hazeltine a couple times. What are you looking forward to in the Twin Cities this year?
JOHN DALY: Oh, they've got great fans. I remember playing there at Hazeltine when Rich Beem won. The fans are wonderful. It's a great sports town. You've got all the sports there. You've got all the pro sports, and you've always had great fans there. And not just in the football and the hockey and everything else. You've got great golf fans, as well, so I'm excited to come there.

Q. As you enter the Champions Tour, it's a natural time for reflection. How do you look back on your PGA TOUR career? Are you satisfied or do you look back and think it could have been more?
JOHN DALY: I'm kind of satisfying with everything in the 2000s. My mind was right, and I did everything I could to try and win golf tournaments. But in the '90s with the physical ability I had, and if I had the physical ability I have with my mental attitude right now, I'd feel a lot better. But I wish I would have had the mental attitude back in the '90s like I do now. I think I wasted my talent in the '90s, especially towards the later part of the '90s. All the money was coming in, and I didn't work hard enough at it. I didn't do the right things to prepare myself to win golf tournaments. You know, that's definitely on me, and I admit that. But that's just not the case anymore for me. I'm just kind of a grinder now, but I think my mental attitude is 10 times better than it was in the '90s.

Being kind of a blue-collar guy, I taught myself how to play the game growing up, I didn't have anybody coaching me on how to manage a golf course and definitely how to manage my life. Right now I'm in a great place, and I just wish I had the physical ability now that I had in the '90s. It would be probably a lot more fun.

Q. And a lot of people out here obviously remember your dual with Tiger at Harding Park, and I'm curious when you look back at that, what does that sort of say about you? On the one hand you're hanging with the No. 1 player in the world. On another obviously you missed the putt and I know you wrote in your book you went to Vegas that night and lost a lot of money in frustration. How do you look back that experience against Tiger at Harding Park?
JOHN DALY: Well, one, it was a great experience. Harding Park was probably one of the best ball-striking courses I've ever played in my life, and it's probably one of the worst putting exhibitions I did for four straight days. I just never got the putter hot. If that putter would have been average, I'd have won that tournament by 10 shots. It was frustrating to -- and Tiger even said, he didn't want to beat me that way. He was hoping somebody would make a long putt or do something. It was unfortunate. But at that time I was hitting the ball really, really well, and I just had one horrible week of putting.

But you know, it is what it is, and you can't look back -- for me it got me to 17th in the world I think after that week, and I thought things were going to get better and better, but the elbow started deteriorating, the knee started going out, feet were getting bad, shoulder was still hurting. It was one thing after another.

You know, it just -- the injuries and stuff just didn't help me much.

Q. I know you were asked about your schedule. You played Pebble in the AT&T. Are you planning to play there in the First Tee Open this year?
JOHN DALY: Yes, I am. I sure am.

Q. My colleague Jeff Babineau had a good story about how you had a bet with Fuzzy about making it to 50. Are you going to make sure he pays that off?
JOHN DALY: Yeah, he even said he thought it was 40. (Laughter.) I told him just give me a bottle of your Fuzzy's vodka and we'll call it even.

Q. How long have you been counting the days to 50 and how did you celebrate the occasion?
JOHN DALY: Well, it was cool. I had a great birthday last week. I did a golf tournament at the Cowboy Club, and God bless them, they let me practice up there for a few days before I came down here, and it was really quiet. It was just a lot of fun, bunch of friends, and we had a good time last week.

Q. Whose game do you like to watch today and why?
JOHN DALY: There's so many of them. I love Rickie Fowler's game. I love Jason Day's game. It's great to see some long hitters like Jason Kokrak to me is the longest guy on the Tour. I know Bubba and J.B. and Dustin Johnson are very, very long, but Jason Kokrak is probably the longest player I've ever seen on Tour. I like watching him. But there's so many great kids out there that can play. It's fun to watch all of them, actually.

Q. You said you're going to come to Minnesota for the 3M Championship. I was just wondering when it comes to get people here, how persuasive can Hollis Cavner be in trying to get people to come to his tournaments?
JOHN DALY: Oh, he's great. I mean, we love Hollis. We see him here every now and then and just love him. He's been so great to everybody out here from what I understand, and he's easy to do things for because he's so nice to everybody.

Q. As you kind of head into this season here, do you have any goals as far as what you want to accomplish in your first run at it?
JOHN DALY: Just going to get comfortable and get used to everything, and hopefully if I get a few rounds under my belt, a few tournaments under my belt, hopefully there will be some signs of some confidence, and hopefully start playing real well. I'm not looking to do anything great this week here at Insperity in Houston, I'm just happy to be playing and getting a feel for it. You never know what can happen, but the game is not where I want it to be by any means, but I think getting some tournaments under my belt, some competitive rounds, I think it'll come around.

Q. You joke about the bet with Fuzzy, but as you probably know, there are plenty of people in the golf world wondering about you getting to 50. How much did you contemplate that all, that hey, I'm really not going in the right direction here, and was there -- you talked about better mental game in the 2000s. Was there a time where you flipped the switch with yourself?
JOHN DALY: Well, I mean, not really. You know, you just can't -- I just live. That's basically all you can do, live and love what I do. I'm in a great place in my relationship with Anna. We're in a great place. My kids are healthy, and things are really stable in my life. There's not really any problems or hardly any outside the ropes, and ever since I met Anna, we started dating in '08, things have been a lot simpler and a lot easier. She's been wonderful for my life. She's helped my kids out. She's helped me with my kids. So there's a lot of stability in my life. She's probably helped me get through a lot of that stuff.

But I don't think too many other women would do that. She's been a great thing in my life to keep me going and keep me strong and just keep me getting through certain things that we work it out and we get it done. We're like doers instead of don'ters now.

Q. Do you have regrets about the off-the-course stuff in those times where you just brought so much attention to yourself or negative things rather than the positives of your golf?
JOHN DALY: If I lived in the past, I'd be dead. So you can't live in the past. It's just not worth it. I admitted the mistakes I've made and hopefully try not to keep making them. That's the key. I know I've kept making a few of them, but there's a lot of them that I don't make anymore.

That's just life. You've just got to live and try and get through it the best you can, but for me I know I can say I've been honest about everything that's happened good or bad in my life, and that keeps me going, and it keeps me not having any skeletons in my closet.

Q. Are you more proud of the PGA Championship win because nobody knew you then, or of the British Open because people had kind of written you off?
JOHN DALY: More like the British Open because of where it was, being at St. Andrews. Don't get me wrong, the PGA was one of the greatest moments in my life, but the British Open was saying to me that, hey, one, I can play links golf; two, I feel like I -- that's when I really felt like I belonged on the PGA TOUR and golf, period, when I won at the home course of St. Andrews, where you're right, yeah, everybody did kind of write me off, but it's funny that I'd won the PGA in '91, BC Open in '92, Atlanta in '94, so it wasn't like -- I wasn't winning like Tiger did or some of these other guys do, but I'd won a few tournaments. But to win at the British Open at St. Andrews, it's a little more special than the PGA in that way that I had all the pressure on me that people doubted me and all that, and then just winning there was just the ultimate.

Q. You Tweeted out your support for Donald Trump recently and he's had a lot of athletes and coaches on the trail with him recently. What is it about his personality that attracts athletes and people from the sports world?
JOHN DALY: Who, Donald?

Q. Yeah.
JOHN DALY: Well, I've known Donald forever, and I know the bad things they say about Donald Trump is not true because I've known him as a friend for so long. I've seen what he's done for all types of people. I know how many people call him a racist and all this, and it just makes me sick because he's not. I've known him too long. I've seen what he does with kids, I know what he does with charities, and the thing I love about Donald, it's time this country is run by a businessman and not people with their hands out, and Donald doesn't have his hands out.

I not only consider him as a friend, but if people get to know Donald Trump, I think they'll know what I'm talking about. He's one of the greatest human beings I've ever met in my life, and I love him as a dear friend, and you're dang right he'll get my vote.

Q. What category allows you to come and play on the Champions Tour? You alluded to that earlier so I was just wanting to get that right.
JOHN DALY: For me it's on a point system. I'm very fortunate that I have nine points, which gives me quite a -- I know I'm fully exempt for two years, but it all goes back after two years if things don't go real well, they go into the points and then they go into career money. I feel like I'm going to be out here for hopefully -- at worst three to four, maybe five years, so I'll be able to have a nice -- each year be able to get my schedule ready and get ready to play week to week whenever I can on this Tour. So that's going to be something that I haven't had in a long time.

Q. I noticed you're with TaylorMade now.
JOHN DALY: Uh-huh.

Q. Do you still break drivers? I remember years and years ago Tom Crow made you that cyanamide or whatever, that white driver, because it was the only one you couldn't break, and then you ended up breaking those. How often do you go through a driver?
JOHN DALY: Well, my club head speed is not what it used to be, but for me, it's just like today I was hitting the M2 driver, and the head was fine, but sometimes the sleeves crack a little bit sometimes, and it cracked on me today. But I'm not busting too many driver heads at 121 mile-an-hour club head speed. I used to, but the equipment is so much more solid and stronger now, it's tough to really crack them now.

Q. Given your schedule now on the Senior Tour, will you be traveling as much or will we be seeing you as much in Asia and Europe as you used to do?
JOHN DALY: Well, you know, the thing is there's only 27 Champions Tour events, which if I'm not in the Charles Schwab there will only be 24, so yes, I'll be coming over for the British, of course, but would love to come back over. Unfortunately the BMW in China, I don't think they're going to have that there this year, and I was going to come over for the Principal Charity Classic. I was going to come over there, but it got canceled. I will be coming to Turkey. I don't know if I will be in the Turkish Open. If I get in the Charles Schwab Cup series, if I get fortunate enough to do that, I think it falls on one of the weeks that the Turkish Open is in, but if not I'm definitely going to come to Turkey, I'll play the BEKO, and hopefully a few other ones.

Q. I hope you've heard of what Leicester did in the English Premier League yesterday. They won English Premier League and almost nobody gave them a chance, and most people here are comparing that win of Leicester yesterday to your 1991 PGA Championship win. Do you have any thoughts on that?
JOHN DALY: Yeah, that's about right. I was fixing to say, it's like me winning the PGA in '91. That's great that they did that, my hats off to their team for not -- you just never know. It just shows that the talent in sports, whether it's team -- especially team sports, you just never know because it doesn't matter how much you pay one player on one team, it doesn't make them the best. So my hats off to them for winning it all because they're like the underdogs, and that's what I've always been all my life. Like I say, I'm a fan of theirs now, big-time fan. God bless them for winning it all.

DAVE SENKO: John, thank you very much, and good luck this week.

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