Thursday, September 2, 2010

John Daly is one golfer who has been there, seen it and done it all away from the course, so he’s well-placed to tee up some advice for troubled Tiger Woods.

But whether the crouching Tiger chooses to accept the views of the ‘Wild Thing’ is a different matter.

As Woods keeps tight-lipped about what really happened in the mysterious car crash outside of his home last week, Daly, who knows a thing or two about secrets and off-course antics, has urged the world No.1 to come clean for the good of golf.

Daly, who has been involved in several scandals in his rollercoaster career, including high-profile alcohol and gambling problems, says the 14-time Major champion should open up about the incident.

“The thing that Tiger needs to look at is, whatever happened, just tell the truth,” said Daly, who is competing at the Australian Open this week.

“I hate for something like that to happen to anybody. I just want him and his wife and kids to be happy and for him to keep pursuing the goals that he had.”

Woods has pulled out of his own tournament Chevron World Challenge this weekend, but Daly has urged him to at least put on a public appearance because golf needs a fit and firing Woods.

“Hopefully he’ll go out there with his wife and his kids and support the sponsor of his tournament,” Daly added.

“The most important thing right now is for them to be together. He’ll get over this. The family will get over it. They’ll move on.

Golf needs him now.”

Meanwhile, Daly is hoping to make the right headlines of his own this week when he tees it up in Sydney tomorrow.

On his last appearance Down Under 12 months ago, the a hotheaded Daly smashed a spectator’s camera into a tree on his way to missing the cut in this tournament at Royal Sydney 12 months ago and was disqualified for failing to sign his scorecard after hurling his ball and putter into the lake at Coolum’s 18th hole in 2002.

But, he is a reformed character these days, and is desperate to rediscover a semblance of the game that saw him win the US PGA Championship in 1991 and the 1995 Open.

“I feel great. The game’s a little rusty,” said a slimline Daly, who has shed the pounds in a bid to be able to compete with the big guns ago.

“It’s starting to come back.

“I haven’t had a lot of success in Australia. That’s why I want to keep coming down here,” he added.

“Sooner or later I’m going to have a good week.”

Daly will face a fight for the title this week with home hopes Geoff Ogilvy and Adam Scott among the favourites.