So this is what the state governments in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales are happy to spend their money on these days: an obese, chain-smoking golfer who can’t play any more and who smashes up a fan’s camera after yet another temper tantrum.
This is how taxpayers’ money in those three states — via Melbourne Major Events, Queensland Events and Events New South Wales — has been used in the past three weeks: to pay John Daly’s air fares, accommodation and appearance fees to contest the Australian Masters, Australian PGA and Australian Open.
It’s not as if the governments have got anything better to spend it on. What with Christmas coming on, the recession looming just over the horizon and families getting pushed closer to the brink each passing day. I mean why not splash a bit of cash out on an American golfer whose career prizemoney on the US Tour alone totals US$9,109,268? That seems entirely reasonable, and totally defensible.
And the bang they’ve got for their buck? Well, oodles of publicity. So they’d be happy about that. But publicity to be proud of? I don’t think so. Every second image of Daly these past three weeks has been with fag in hand, fag in mouth, or exhaling vast plumes of smoke. And that’s when he’s not being photographed smashing a fan’s camera up against a tree, as he did at Royal Sydney yesterday.
That image was splashed on the front pages of several Australian newspapers today, and got an airing on ESPN, the BBC, SkyNews, The Times of London, The Daily Mail and just about every news outlet in the western world.
Daly’s appearance fee — which is not huge — might just, perhaps, almost be justified if he could still be competitive, but he can’t. In his three tournaments in Australia, he’s missed three cuts (having fired a 78 in the first round yesterday, leaving him 147th out of 156 players). Out of a possible 12 days’ golf, he’s likely to have played just six. So not only is Daly a questionable buy from a PR perspective, he’s definitely a bust when it comes to doing what he’s actually paid to do — and that’s appear.
Yet Australian Open tournament director Trevor Herden is quoted in the paper today as saying: “I’m going to make every effort to get him back next year.” Good grief. Will they ever learn?
If appearance-fee success is measured in the number of talkback calls, newspaper column centimetres and minutes of television news coverage, then why don’t we get Ben Cousins to play in the pro-am next year alongside the Bra Boys from Maroubra? That’d get them talking, wouldn’t it?
They could play in the group behind David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, and in front of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. What a publicity coup. I mean, PR gold, or what?
No, Daly I’m afraid is a freak show — as some of us noted at the time of his signing a month ago — and it’s time to give him, his cigarettes, his DVD collection and his tantrums the boot. In these chastened economic times, he’s a discretionary spend that we simply can no longer afford.
I’m afraid I can’ agree with you on this one Charles. Daly is a freak show but the fact is, he attracts a new type of audience to Australian Golf. The fact is that, although gifted and hard-working, people are sick and tired of the personally trained, yoga- worshippers prevalent in the modern game. They like a bloke who can pull a major out of his backside with a hangover.
Golf is competing against sports like 20-20 cricket and Sevens rugby league for survival in the form of sponsorship dollars, AND, yes, publicity. Don’t worry, Daly’s tantrums are definitely reaching American, European and Japanese television sets.
If we need to cough up a few dollars to get a John McEnroe or, better still, a Happy Gilmor bringig life to our increasingl beige golf tounraments then I say go for it! Leave por old Daly alone. He’s a normal bloke who can beat the christ out of a golf ball. And that’s all I expect out of him.