Daly Swings Back at Former Coach for 'Lies' About Alcohol Use

SOUTHPORT, England, July 16 -- John Daly, playing in the British Open this week as a past champion, said Wednesday his lifestyle has changed and accused his former coach, Butch Harmon, of spreading lies about him when he announced in March that he would not work with Daly because of his problems with alcohol.

"I think his lies kind of destroyed my life a little for a little while," Daly said. "I think if he would become a man and talk about some of the stuff he lied about, when we were doing charity work that week when I missed the cut. I just wish he wouldn't have said the things he did that made you guys write some really bad things about me when nobody had the facts."

At the PODS Championship outside Tampa in March, Daly reportedly spent a rain delay consuming alcohol in a corporate tent of one of his sponsors, Hooters, then persuaded Tampa Bay Buccaneers football coach Jon Gruden to caddie for him when play resumed. Weeks earlier, there also had been reports that Daly had been partying to excess at the Bob Hope Classic in Palm Springs, Calif.

When he announced he had dropped Daly as a client, Harmon told the Associated Press: "He's got to show me golf is the most important thing in his life. And the most important thing in his life is getting drunk. . . . The partying and other shenanigans, if that's the way he wants to be, I don't choose to be part of it."

Daly, a two-time major champion now ranked 643rd in the world, said he was drinking Diet Pepsi that day in Florida and that Harmon didn't have his facts right.

"Butch . . . told the Golf Channel that I'm just a drunk and it was ridiculous that Coach Gruden caddied for me," Daly said. "He just made up stuff that he really didn't know the facts were straight. By putting it out all over the world and not talking to me, I mean, it's kind of ridiculous. Real men just don't do that. . . . I don't know what his problem is, but he needs to stay as far away from me as he possibly can."

Asked to comment on Daly's remarks, Harmon said Wednesday: "That's typical John Daly, blaming everyone for his problems but himself. Until he learns to take responsibility for his own problems, he'll never solve them."

Daly has played three European Tour events and 12 PGA Tour events this season. He missed the cut nine times and withdrew twice. He said his main problem the past two years has been injuries, most recently tendinitis in his left elbow and a cyst in his right hand.

"My lifestyle has been great," he said. "I'm eating too much, but I'm hardly drinking at all, and I never go out. Where these rumors are coming from, it's just funny to sit back and look at it. I guess that's just the way my life is going to be for a long time because of my past."

Pushing for Olympic Golf

The major governing bodies of amateur and professional golf announced Wednesday that they have joined forces with the International Golf Federation in an attempt to add the sport to the 2016 Olympic Games.

The IGF has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the sport's representative in dealing with the Olympic movement. Peter Dawson, chairman of the Royal & Ancient, said the PGA, LPGA, European Tour, U.S. Golf Association, PGA of America, Augusta National and the Royal & Ancient have formed a new committee charged with overseeing the preparation of golf's bid.

Ty Votaw, a vice president of the PGA Tour and former commissioner of the LPGA, has been selected to head the committee. The IOC is expected to make a decision by October 2009 on adding two sports for the 2016 Games. Other sports vying for 2016 are rugby, squash, karate, roller skating, softball and baseball.

Dawson said the IGF wants a stroke-play competition for men and women, but no decision has been made on what format an Olympic tournament would use.

"That's a work in progress," he said. "We have to come up with a formula which attracts the leading players of the world, also allows players from a wide variety of countries to compete and also recognizes the IOC's policy on a limitation on athlete numbers."