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JP McMANUS INVITATIONAL PRO-AMJuly 5, 2010John DalyADARE, IRELAND STEVE TODD: John, it's always a pleasure to have you over on this side of the Atlantic, welcome to Adare Manor and the JP McManus Pro-Am. Your thoughts on being here this week. JOHN DALY: Yeah, it's absolutely beautiful. It's always good to be back over here. Definitely looking forward to it. I've heard a lot of good things. I know JP has been trying to get me to do this for a long time, and I promised him, I kept promising him and I just never could make it, and finally I said, you know this, year I'm going to do it, and so I'm so glad I did. STEVE TODD: It's a pretty neat setup we've got here, isn't it. JOHN DALY: It's great. You've got probably the best golf course in the world, playing a two-day event here, and that shows you how much they respect J.P. and all that he does for everything in Ireland and stuff. So you know, I'm just happy that he invited me, because there's so many years that I wanted to come but by the time he had invited me, I had already scheduled something else, so I made sure this year that I was going to do it. STEVE TODD: A quick word about your game; how are you feeling at the moment and where do you feel you're at? JOHN DALY: The game is solid. It's just not scoring. It's right around 2-under par, 1-over, even, it's so close to being really good. I think the main thing for me is just the first time I've been healthy in about 3 1/2 years, where I don't feel any pain in my hip, my rib, shoulder, anything like that. You know, when you hurt, it's tough to get confidence, and when you are healthy, you try and get confidence without having to work around the injuries, and that's the way it's been the last 3 1/2 years. Q. (How has your weight been since the surgery and what type of surgery was it)? JOHN DALY: Yeah, it's steady. I'm 195, that was my goal, keep it between 190 and 195. It's actually the lap band, is what they call is. The gastro is something you don't want to do. Too many people have died from that. No, it's been great. You know, I've lost about 115 to 120 pounds. I've been 195 probably for about the last eight, nine months and I feel really good about it. Q. (Playing here a good run-up to The Open)? JOHN DALY: I'm excited to play Loch Lomond, as well. I love that place, and I was hurt last year, got hurt in the French Open, and going to St. Andrews is always -- it's like a second home to me. I've always loved that place ever since I played it in '94. Q. Obviously '95 was very special at St. Andrews. What do you remember about the place? What is so special about St. Andrews to you, apart from the fact that you won there? JOHN DALY: I think '94 said it all for me when me and Payne and Freddie won the Dunhill Cup. You know, a lot of the Americans that told me about coming over here and playing British Opens and stuff, either you're going to hate it or love it. I had played a few British Opens up to there and I fell in love with the links golf, but St. Andrews just seems to fit my game. It's just a golf course, in '94, that I absolutely fell in love with and it was one of my favourites. I think that helped me win the British, playing in '94, as well, the Dunhill. I'm not the most traditional or historic type of player, but I do believe that's where golf was founded and started, and all of the people that have walked on the grounds and won there and stuff; to me, I think it's the hardest one to win, because the best players in the world play. It's not like the PGA Championship where you have sectional pros that get in. The Masters is a limited field and the U.S. Open, you don't know who is going to get in it because of the qualifying. I just love it. I think that St. Andrews is the home of golf. Q. When you're playing links golf, do you feel you have to change your mind-set, or does it come naturally to you? JOHN DALY: No, I think it's just you deal with the elements. I like it when the weather is not so good. I like having an imagination, create some shots; and St. Andrews, you can putt from 80 yards off the green. So you can hit a lot of chip-and-runs, and you can just do anything you want. The imagination can run wild on a course like that, and if you're doing it right, you feel comfortable, it brings confidence. Q. What are you hoping to get out of next two days? Are you going to try to tweak one or two things while you're here? JOHN DALY: Get adjusted to the time, enjoy my amateurs; that's the most important thing, just swing, play some golf and have a good time. Q. On this side of the Atlantic we are quite excited that the last four of five events on the PGA Tour have been won by British and Irish players. JOHN DALY: I remember watching Justin, especially Justin Rose play when he was an amateur and how well he did at the British Open; we knew he was going to be good, and now he's starting to come on. He's starting to play really, really good. Rory McIlroy, he's playing just absolutely great golf. What he shot at North Carolina was phenomenal. I've played that golf course I don't think I've broken 80 on it. He goes out and shoots 63 or 62 on Sunday. It's great for golf. It's going to be great for The Ryder Cup, as well, because I think you've almost got to favour the Europeans right now, the way they are playing. Q. Is it a worry for the Americans, the talent doesn't seem to be coming through like it once did and the Euros just flying so high; is that a worry for America? JOHN DALY: Are you talking about the players, you mean? Our young players are playing great. They are Top-10ing and doing this, and some of them haven't gotten their first win, and it took Justin a few years to get his. Villegas is a great player, Rickie Fowler is going to be phenomenal. We have some guys that are so young that have started to play really, really good golf. I was fortunate to win my first tournament, a major, but these guys are going to win and they are going to be really, really good in the future, and I think everybody predicted that Justin Rose and Rory would be really good. And you look what's going on. So they will come around, I promise you, I've watched a lot of them play and they are phenomenal. Q. What's the motivation for you playing these days? Do you still feel that there are more wins to come from you, that you've got a win inside you? JOHN DALY: I'm hoping. It's more sort of a comeback with the injuries and everything else, and you know, I don't really have a lot to prove, except to myself and it would be -- I really feel -- I wouldn't be doing it and I wouldn't keep playing if I didn't think I couldn't still win, and that's the grind and that's the competitiveness that I still have and that's what keeps me motivated and keeps me playing. Q. You had a great time in Europe last year when you came over for that little spell; did you ever consider coming over here more regularly, even permanently? JOHN DALY: Yeah, I've been making cuts over in America. I just haven't been following up on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm going to get through this year and see what happens. I dedicated it to try and get my card back over there. Still have a few events left that I'm going to get in and see what happens. I think if I don't keep my card, it's serious time to what I'm going to do. I know I'll get a few exemptions in the States but I'm the type of guy that likes to play four or five weeks in a row and build on each week, and if I can't seem to do that over there, then I'll definitely try and come back over here. Q. Would you base yourself here? JOHN DALY: Not base myself, but come over, four or five like I did last year, go home for a week or two and come back. Q. Can you just detail for us how your lifestyle has changed over the past few years and how your stay here or in Scotland might be a little bit different maybe in the wilder days. JOHN DALY: I think I'm just more settled. I'm just more grounded. I'm not -- I don't know what you would say, just kind of off the cuff, you never know what I was going to do. I'm kind of to the point that I'm 44 years old and feel like I've matured a little bit, maybe not as much as I need to but enough to feel like I'm grounded. I've got good people around me right now. I've got a good support group that I've never had in my whole career out here. And so I'm just kind of more mellow, just -- I'm more focussed on golf. I wish this could have happened in my earlier years, but a lot of that is my fault and a lot of that is a lot of people taking advantage of me. That's the greatest thing about golf is you can keep playing it and playing and playing, and as long as I'm healthy, I'm going to keep playing it professionally. Q. So you finish after a round, do you go and read a book or what? JOHN DALY: No, I'm not that boring. No, I guess I am, because I'm go watch a movie. I like to write songs and I like to just hang out. That's the tough thing for me. I enjoy my bus at home and I can kickback and write music and watch TV and just relax, I've got everything right there. The wild days are kind of over for me. Q. Written any new songs? JOHN DALY: I just released one about a month ago. Q. What's it called? JOHN DALY: "I Only Know One Way." It's a song we wrote two years ago, co-wrote with some people, and the "Hit It Hard" songs actually started to get a little air play at home which is cool. Q. What are the themes of the songs generally? Are they to do with your past or life leading up to now? JOHN DALY: Kind of both, both past and life now. It's pretty neat, I did the songs and a guy named Alex Orbison, who is Roy Orbison's son wrote a song called "Canvas" on there and it fit the album and they asked me if I would put it on the album and I said sure, no problem, sang it and everything. It was fun. It was fun doing this album. We have got a lot of -- golf fans are the ones that are probably going to buy it more than anything, but we have had fun do doing it. Q. And when you finish yourself playing, do you see yourself travelling and performing? JOHN DALY: No, I'm not in a good. You get in a studio, anyone can be good and do all of those buttons that make you sound great. But doing it live is a lot different. Q. What's your biggest thrill, hearing a song on the radio or seeing your name on the leaderboard nowadays? JOHN DALY: Leaderboard. It's been a while. It would be great to -- music is more of a hobby and it's from the heart. The songs that I write. I think that's what my producer, you talk to Kenny Chesney and Kid Rock and all those guys, I know I'm that good but they love my passion, the way I write, and it's from the heart. A lot of them say we need that old way with people writing from the heart, and so that was a good compliment; Mark Ryan and all of those guys, it was fun. And they all said they didn't think the album wasn't going to be that good, and when they heard it, they were very, very impressed. Q. Just wondering, and I'm sure a lot of other people would be interested, did you follow a particularly strict diet regime and do you plan to kind of maybe do fitness? JOHN DALY: No, no. I'm not doing any fitness, no. You won't see me in the gym. They don't let me smoke in there and I'm not going to go in there. (Laughter). The lap band, it creates a way of -- it won't let you eat things that I used to like to eat, bread, especially bread. It just won't go down. It comes right back up. I've learned an awful lot over the last year, year and a half, what you can and can't eat. You've got to really chew your food, and it's not -- the biggest, the hardest thing for me so not being able to drink milk. I was always a big milk drinker, the Vitamin D, and I didn't like the skim milk. That's been the toughest thing not being able to drink milk. But other than that, it's been great. My daughter, Shynah, last July, she's he had her lap band put in and she's lost almost a hundred pounds now, so she's really, really excited. Q. Can you drink beer? JOHN DALY: Beer won't go down. Nothing go down. The only reason the Diet Cokes go down is I like to put them on ice and water it down a little bit. And if I do drink it out of a can or anything, I've got to really be careful. When I drink beer, I was a guzzler, so it's not even -- so I just don't drink anymore. Q. When you look back on your career, do you allow yourself to have any regrets, or do you look forward to the next day rather than looking back? JOHN DALY: I've learned that you look back on the good things in life, and I did have a lot and I know there was some down times, some bad times. But if you thrive on the bad times you're never going to get better moving forward. Like my golf game, I looked at some of the film I won the PGA in '91 with my putting and stuff; stuff like that, you want to look back. And life is built from the mistakes you make and you just move on. If you dwell on them, you're not ever going to get any better. Q. People have talked about Tiger suffering because he's made mistakes off the course. Do you think that's been the problem because he's gone this long without a win, and do you think he's going to be coming through pretty quickly? JOHN DALY: I think Tiger's only played in four events. People are forgetting that, he's only played in -- Q. Six. JOHN DALY: You know, he's got -- he'll come out of it. He's so good, and he's so talented that I think it all depends on Tiger. Q. Do you think that is the reason? Obviously as you say, you've had downtime and it's completely affected your golf. Do you think that's why you're struggling at the moment because you're still coming to terms that things that have happened? JOHN DALY: Well, that, maybe. And I don't think he's found another teacher. Tiger had as been a guy that's always had to have a teacher, those eyes looking at him. I don't know if he has anybody; I haven't followed up. I remember when I met his mom and dad, they were always looking for that perfect teacher for him when he was a young kid. I think he's gotten used to that. So I think he's probably searching and just needs to eyes looking at him, because Tiger is so feel and talented, that it's not going to take much. I just noticed on his putting, the ball was back in his stance a little bit. But I'm sure, I saw him make three in a row in Philadelphia and he looked like he moved the ball back up. He's a feel player. He knows what he's doing. But you know, I think once he get this year behind him, I think right now, you see how he's playing in the Masters and U.S. Open, he had two pretty good events there. So I think he's striving for the majors and then next year just probably rebuild. Q. But St. Andrews, obviously his favourite course, is that the sort of place he could bounce back to form? JOHN DALY: No doubt. He loves it probably just as much as I do. You never know. He's still the best player in the world. He has been for a long time. I remember Jack Nicklaus had a year or two he didn't have a great year; and some of the greatest names that have played, they always go through a little kind of slump. And Tiger has only had maybe three, four tournaments that he has not played his best but I thought he played great at the Masters and the U.S. Open. So, look out. He'll be back. He's still the No. 1 player. STEVE TODD: Thanks a lot, John. Best of luck this week and next week. End of FastScripts |
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