FanHouse JohnDaly

SAN FRANCISCO -- Anything with the name Presidents Cup sounds like it is ripe for a Golf Czar appointment.

Are you qualified to rule over this week's PGA Tour team matches between the United States and an International squad of non-Europeans that tees off Thursday at Harding Park Golf Club?

Take this test and decide for yourself.

This week's Wyndham Championship is the last tournament of the year for players to earn a little more cash, and jump a few more spots in the FedEx Cup point standings, hoping to make their way into the playoffs that kick off next week. Basically, it is the best shot for people that aren't having their best year to do a little more to make sure they aren't left out when the Barclays begins and only the top-125 on the FedEx Cup point list are invited.

On a weather-shortened Thursday at Sedgefield Country Club, a few players did just that. Chez Reavie, who won the Canadian Open last season but has struggled mightily in '09, shot a 6-under 64, his best round of the year, to tie Brandt Snedeker and Ryan Moore atop of the leaderboard. All three leaders have had lackluster years, but Reavie is the one that needs the biggest boost.

Last December, before lap-band surgery, LoudMouth Golf and a recommitment to the game, John Daly was overweight and struggling. The nadir (on the course, anyway) came at the Australian Open.

After missing the fairway with his tee shot on the final hole of the first round, Daly made his way to his ball, and as a spectator tried to take his picture, the former two-time major winner took the camera, smashed it against a tree, and announced, "You want it back, I'll buy you a new one.''

Big John also declared that he'd never play in Australia again.

So maybe John Daly's putter isn't the only thing holding him back. He signed for a 16-over, 88 during Friday's round at the Buick Open, barely missing the cut ... by 15 strokes. (If you're looking for a silver lining, how about this: he fired a back-nine 37 after going out in 51. So, yeah, there's that.)

In previous years, when Daly's mental state was more problematic than his golf game, he'd occasionally flirt with 90. And while between-the-ears issues contributed to his second-round meltdown Saturday, they weren't beer or hot wings-induced. Instead, at least to hear John tell it, it had more to do with a demanding schedule and a lifetime of changes squeezed into six months.

The PGA Tour doesn't talk about such things, but I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that the decision to suspend John Daly for six months was born out of the events that took place a year ago last month. Daly, participating in the Buick Open pro-am, thought it would be great fun to hit a golf ball off a beer can. while an overalls-clad Kid Rock watched on.

Alone, it was harmless, but Daly has a long history of skirting right and wrong, at least in terms of what the PGA deems appropriate. Not long after the beer-can-as-a-tee trick, Daly was cuffed-and-stuffed for being sloppy drunk outside a Winston Salem, NC-area Hooters.

For 71-and-a-half holes, 59-year-old Tom Watson was Turnberry's best golfer. A two-putt bogey and four forgettable playoff holes later, Watson was a 59-year-old British Open runner-up. Stewart Cink, 23 years Watson's junior, had played flawlessly down the stretch and finally captured his first major.

In the aftermath of what almost was, Watson has been hailed as a hero, his performance a reminder that age, if just for a week, can be a state of mind. God forbid we leave it at that. The fact that someone who has been on this earth for almost six decades came within one shot of winning one of the toughest tests in golf can only mean one thing: it's not a sport.

At least that's the tired, cliche-riddled arguments you'll get from certain media folk every time an old-timer has a good showing. Because, you know, it happens almost weekly.*

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- John Daly is a professional pitchman now, selling the goofy pants, sport drinks, bags, grips, even lap-band weight loss surgery.

"If anyone wants to lose weight without working out ...,'' he said Friday.

It's no get-rich quick scheme for Daly, but instead just a way to survive the next month, day, hour, minute. He has to sell himself, too, and that will work. It always does. And then he fails and starts over.

Here's the news: He made the cut at the British Open Friday at Turnberry, shooting 2-over for the day, even-par for the tournament. He's five strokes out of the lead. And it's the first time he has survived the cut at the Open since 2005, and just the third time since 1996.

Maybe Charles Barkley's golf swing can't be fixed. He spent the better part of a year working with Hank Haney, Tiger Woods' coach, and any improvements in his game can kindly be described as imperceptible.

The Golf Channel got "The Haney Project" out of it, easily the most popular program in the history of the network, so there's that. But if Haney, who charges non-celebrity hackers $500 an hour for a session, can't do anything with this, that might be Chuck's cue to cut back on the public golf appearances. You know, in the name of not maiming innocent bystanders.

The last time John Daly won a major -- 14 years and countless mullet wig trims ago -- he fired an opening round 67. On Thursday at Turnberry, Daly, sporting a buzzcut , lap-band (not visible without surgical tools) and garish get-up, turned in a 68. This could be the first sign that his new-and-improved lifestyle and recommitment to golf is finally paying off. Or, just as likely, it could be nothing -- an aberration, the calm before the metaphorical storm.

My HausCast buddy Will Brinson rightly pointed out on our British Open Preview podcast that Daly is usually good for one really good round and one spectacularly awful one. The only question is which will come first. (Of course, Brinson promptly put down $25 on Daly to win this week, but that says more about being a degenerate gambler than a hardcore JD fan, I think.)

So after a solid Thursday showing, Daly is T21, four shots back of leader Miguel Angel Jimenez. As for what happens Friday? We wait.