May 14, 2019

"As far as JD taking a cart — well, I walked with a broken leg. So…"


Background here (a the NY Post). The PGA granted John Daly a waver under the Americans with Disabilities Act for this week’s PGA Championship at Bethpage Black. Daly, who has a bad knee, qualifies to play because he won this particular tournament back in 1991. Tiger Woods played with a stress fracture once (back in 2008 when he won the U.S. Open).

I'm giving this my "insults" tag even though the insult is delivered only subtly and indirectly. That's a masterly insult.

56 comments:

CJinPA said...

Tiger could only keep up the "New, Softer Tiger" for so long. He is who he is. And that was harmless. I'm amazed Daley can still play.

Skeptical Voter said...

Well gollee! As a kid I frequently had stress fractures---got them from the diving board in the pool at home. And I had a couple of stress fractures in larger bones in my foot in the Army. You keep on marching, because there's essentially nothing to be done for a stress fracture except rest. Now if Tiger tells me he played golf with a compound fracture of his femur, I might be impressed.

mockturtle said...

Daly should have been booted from the PGA a long time ago.

Otto said...

Tiger is not entirely fair. John Daly is 53 yrs old , overweight and plays on the senior circuit which allows carts. Tiger was 33 years old when he played with a fracture.

tim in vermont said...

You keep on marching, because there's essentially nothing to be done for a stress fracture except rest.

Read that sentence a couple of times.

tim in vermont said...

Babe Ruth had a kid to run the bases for him, well I knew somebody who knew somebody who knew Babe Ruth, and John Daly, you are no Babe Ruth.

Wince said...

They shoot horses, don't they?

Dave Begley said...
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Dave Begley said...
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Dave Begley said...

You want tough? Nebraska farmer amputates his own leg.

http://www.ketv.com/article/farmer-amputate-own-leg-to-save-his-life/27438602

The guy is from Pender. One of my friends knows him from school

Ken B said...

David Begley
I see no indication Althouse wants tough. She wants insulting. You can see why, with her living In Madison.

Eric said...

I had a stress fracture in my leg. A stress fracture is not a broken leg.

john said...

Easy bet that JD won't be playing over the weekend. Let him enjoy his 2 days out there with the cart. At least his caddie wont have to carry the beers.

AustinRoth said...

Tiger has always enjoyed tweaking JD.

Years ago Tiger was heading to the practice range after his round. He passed JD in the clubhouse having beers. JD asking Tiger to join h8m. Tiger passed on the offer, replying (paraphrasing), “John, if I had your talent I would be glad to. But I need to keep working on my game”.

Donald said...

Not to bore people with law stuff, but this was a pretty easy decision for the PGA to make after losing the Casey Martin case in the early 2000's, wasn't it?

Michael K said...

Daly would qualify for a WalMart scooter, he's so fat.

Too bad, except for the alcohol and the appetite, he mighta been a contender.

Eli Callaway saw him drunk one night in a restaurant and cancelled his contract.

mockturtle said...

Maybe even tougher than Tiger is his former GF, Lindsey Vonn.

mockturtle said...

And Daly at least once stomped off the course in the middle of a tournament round in a snit about something. One just doesn't do that in the PGA. They've already cut him more slack than he deserves.

Fernandinande said...

I don't get it.

readering said...

I should think Daly counts as injured, not disabled.

Fernandinande said...

Oh. Tiger Woods walked with a stress fracture, which isn't a real broken leg.

libertariansafetyguy said...

The OSHAct doesn’t apply to professional sports. I had assumed the same for ADA. This could be quite troubling to professional sports.

tim in vermont said...

So we have a "professional athlete" riding around in a golf cart, on account of he’s such a lardass, and the issue is that Tiger didn’t suffer enough pain as he played with an injury to justify his jibe.

LOL.

reader said...

Stress fractures are no big thing? It doesn’t matter that you have to walk about four miles and maintain the quality of your golf swing (which is physically demanding in itself).

http://sports-medicine.trustreport.com/injuries/golfers_are_at_greatest_risk_for_knee_injury_191.html

The force that the golf swing exerts on the knees is more powerful than the force exerted on the knees of a jogger. The golf swing actually exerts a force on the knees that is 4.5 times the golfer’s body weight. This happens very quickly, since it only takes approximately .23 seconds for a professional golfer to complete the downward swing. The upward swing portion takes .82 seconds to complete. The downward swing is therefore about three and one half times faster and produces the highest percentage of injuries in amateur and pro golfers alike. Studies show that it would actually be less stressful to jog the eighteen holes of golf than to play them.

Yancey Ward said...

I don't think it a big deal given that Daly is likely no threat to even make the cut, so I think the PGA can defend this on that alone.

However, it does undermine a key rule of PGA golf- that everyone walks the course-getting to ride the cart is an advantage. If I were in Daly's shoes, I would have simply withdrawn.

Yancey Ward said...

The real shit will hit the fan the first time a true contender asks for the Daly waiver- what will the PGA do then?

rehajm said...

The PGA Championship is the ugly stepsister of the majors. Good move May, though. It may garner some interest.

Yancey Ward said...

And if you think walking a course is no big deal, then you haven't ever played 18 holes at a time. Most courses are over 7000 yards in total just from the tees to the holes. And if you really suck at golf- it will longer than that.

mockturtle said...

Right, Yancy, and most are not flat. I've played courses where a mountain goat would feel challenged.

rcocean said...

Had Ben Hogan been able to use a cart, he'd have won 3 more US Opens. However, Ben had to walk 36 holes on the last day - with damaged legs.

rcocean said...

Daly is the luckiest PGA golfer ever. Never did much of anything but win the PGA and the British Open. Which earned him life time exemptions till age 60. Might as well let him use a cart, he'll only be there for 2 days. As usual.

tim in vermont said...
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rcocean said...

"The PGA Championship is the ugly stepsister of the majors."

Yeah, its reason for being, more or less went away in the late 50s. Before that it included a lot of PGA club pros and was match play. Then they turned it into stroke play and PGA club pros stopped being the elite players.

Now its sorta of a lesser US Open. I don't think anyone would really care, except someone decided it was a "Major" and you always need 4 of them, in Tennis and Golf.

tim in vermont said...
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rcocean said...

"Tiger is not entirely fair. John Daly is 53 yrs old , overweight and plays on the senior circuit which allows carts."

Yeah, poor John Daly. I guess someone forced all that beer and cheesburgers down his big fat gullet.

rcocean said...

When he putts, does his Caddy carry him to the Green on his hack? Or does John use a cane or a walker?

rcocean said...

I could've been a hell of an Olympic athlete, but they wouldn't let me use my golf cart.

wwww said...

Tiger Woods played with a stress fracture once (back in 2008 when he won the U.S. Open)

It's not that it's no big thing. But stress fractures aren't full breaks. Anyone who has broke their leg knows the difference. You can train for a sport for weeks with a stress fracture before you figure out you need to see a doctor.

Dude1394 said...

Well that didnt take long. It pushed me right back on the tiger hata side.

Quaestor said...

How about shortness? Could the Americans with Disabilities Act be used to "level the playing field" in the NBA?

Does the Americans with Disabilities Act apply to illegal aliens? Could a 4'9" Honduran get the same leveling benefit even though he's not a citizen?

Quaestor said...
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Molly said...

Daly should not be allowed to use a cart. But he should be allowed to play from the women's tees.

Quaestor said...

I could've been a hell of an Olympic athlete, but they wouldn't let me use my golf cart.

I could have won the Boston Marathon every year since 1980, but they wouldn't let me use my Kawasaki to correct my VSS (Voluntary Slowness Syndrome) aka Lebowski's Palsy. Don't look at me that way. It's a real disease, I swear. Yeah? Well, that shows what you know. Watch the goddamn television once in a while. That's what it's there for.

Molly said...

Quaestor is on to something. We are just inches away of destroying women's sports by allowing men to compete. Let's just move on to destroying all sports by allowing old fat people to excel using motors, etc. Have we seen the last real Olympics?

Quaestor said...

When I first tried to enter the Boston Marathon in 1979 I told them I would be on horseback. But they refused me. I even showed them a note from my doctor. It read Quaestor may ride a horse. (signed) Rex Parker, MD. That made no difference to the stewards whatsoever. They told me to get out. I thought about going to the gubmint with an "equal opportunity" complaint, but I decided against it. Horses are slower than marathon runners, did you know that? I figured that out, so I bought a Kawasaki ZX-10 in time for 1980, but they still laughed in my face. Darn those Yankees.

mccullough said...

Tiger once said if he had Daly’s talent, he would hang out at the bar, too.

This is gentle ribbing. Tiger likes Daly.

Narayanan said...

Are player allowed to repair Daly footprints before address the ball?

Tom T. said...

All of this just raises the question, why are any of them walking? Why is that the rule? The point of the sport isn't to watch them hike. Are we getting better or more entertaining golf by forcing these guys to walk several miles each day? Or would we perhaps have gotten more years of Tiger at the top of his game if the rule had allowed him to use a cart and take it easier on his body all those years?

mockturtle said...

Tom T asks: All of this just raises the question, why are any of them walking?

We're talking about golf. And tradition. The PGA has been all about tradition and, I hope, will continue to be.

Quaestor said...

The point of the sport isn't to watch them hike.

True, but professional golf has also been about endurance as well as technique.

Quaestor said...

Well, crap-doodle! I thought I was making a good joke with that doctor's note line, but nobody got it. Why? Because the village idiot (me) got Rex Morgan, the comic strip medico, confused with Rex Parker, crossword maven and all-around NYT asshole, that's why.

stlcdr said...

JD tweet: ‘up hill, both ways’

tim in vermont said...

But stress fractures aren't full breaks.

Did I miss Tiger saying he had a full break?

Are we getting better or more entertaining golf by forcing these guys to walk several miles each day?

Yes. Next question.

tim in vermont said...

JD is an interesting character, but a tour made up of JDs would be a laughingstock.

Curious George said...

"rehajm said...
The PGA Championship is the ugly stepsister of the majors."

It has the toughest field of all four majors.

techsan said...

Ace of Spades did a story awhile back on the art of surviving Thanksgiving when you know it will be political. I think Tiger achieved Ace's key goal...

It is the goal of the dedicated Thanksgivingman, then, to achieve the sublime art of giving offense without offense being taken.