FanHouse Tim Herron

John Daly has been golf's version of Lindsay Lohan. He's been a mess, then pulled himself together for a short amount of time, only to disappoint the golfing public and his fans again with antics best reserved for an adolescent. He's won two major championships, won the 2004 Buick Open and finished runner-up to Tiger Woods at the 2005 American Express Championship, so the talent's there. And this time, this time, it seems like we might be able to believe Big John when he says he's ready.

Daly's return to the PGA Tour on Thursday at the St. Jude Championship is one of reserved excitement. He has shed nearly 50 pounds. He seems downright happy if you follow the man on his always entertaining Twitter page. He played good golf over on the European Tour during his PGA suspension, finishing t-2 at the BMW Italian Open in early May.

This is sure to rile up those folks who might accuse me of Tiger Woods fanboy fanaticism, but, well, I'll be honest: even though Lumpy Herron put together a swell, four-under round at Bay Hill this afternoon, I don't think readers are all that interested in the fact that he needed just 33 strokes a side to do it.

The bigger story is that Woods rebounded from a one-over front-nine to fire three-under on the back. That's good for 10th place, two shots off the lead. Despite the strong finish, Tiger struggled to find fairways and greens for most of the day, relying on his scrambling skills to only get around in 36 strokes going out, where most players might've made the turn at three- or four-over.

It's drug testing day here at the FanHouse, where myself and Ryan Wilson were randomly selected to use that little plastic cup to the best of our ability.

Not sure of our results (outlook hazy), but one thing's for sure, Tiger Woods ain't failing no dang drug test.

According to Tiger, he's been drug tested twice privately and got up-and-down both times.

Woods didn't say when the tests were conducted, but both came back negative. After the first test was clean, he said he changed the brand of amino acid as part of his nutrition program, and wanted to make sure the change didn't alter the results. He said the second test came back negative, too.

Ahh, the excitement of changing brands of amino acid. I sometimes put together "Changing Amino Acid" parties where we all bring our favorite brand and exchange them Secret Santa style. It's more fun if at some point during the party you have a push-up contest and/or arm wrestling championship.

Anyway, I'm not involved in the grinding of gears within the PGA Tour (shocking, I know) but I'd almost guarantee that the bulkiness of Woods was a minor red flag for the implementation of the steroids testing era. Sure, he's no athlete, but he has built his body up to an impressive level that others are striving to reach.

The PGA announced the first golfers they are looking to test and it looks to be Tim Herron, Duffy Waldorf and Boo Weekley.*

Entire sentence might be a lie.

We're almost through the first round of the U.S. Open and as far as these things go, the scoring has been pretty respectable. Kevin Streelman is atop the leaderboard at 4-under, and there are currently 27 players at even par or better.

Earlier this week, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo teed it up at Torrey Pines, site of the Open, and fired a 84 from the tips. That's like Tim Herron rushing for 100 yards in a NFL preseason game.* Pretty impressive.

The Dallas Morning News' Todd Archer caught up with Romo yesterday to get his U.S. Open predictions, and to get his take on the course set-up:

"I think 5 under, 4 under [wins it]," Romo said. "[Concerning the course it's r]eal tough. It was definitely the hardest course I ever played. The length, the rough, how firm the greens were, the tightness of the fairways, a little bit of wind, so the combination of all of them together, it was hard."

I was sorta hoping Sergio Garcia would put up a 90 so I could make the predictable "Romo's better than El Niño!" observation, but after going out in 41, he's playing even par through 16 holes. So much for that.

If Romo had been in the field today, he would currently be tied for 152nd, which is good for next-to-last. Of course, the difference in the course from Monday to Thursday is probably worth four or five strokes. Still, an amateur breaking 90 from 7,600 yards three days before the Open is mind-boggling.

* Slight exaggeration since it's not clear Herron has ever actually run 100 yards.