New-look John Daly encouraged by good start to comeback

It would be fair to say that John Daly’s first competitive round of golf in four months was not of the most sparkling variety. And yet the former Open champion’s two-under-par round of 70 at the Spanish Open yesterday was a more than adequate first step on the road to golfing redemption.
Daly — suspended for six months from playing on the PGA Tour in the United States and plying his trade these next five weeks in Europe — had a round that included an eagle, three birdies and three bogeys. It left him seven shots behind Soren Hansen, of Denmark, and six in arrears of Thomas Levet, of France.
If Daly continues in such vein today, he should make the halfway cut and repay the faith shown in him by those who extended an invitation to play the beautiful PGA Catalunya course, near Girona. After losing about 4st in 11 weeks in an attempt to get his golf back on track, he is still adjusting to his changing shape but is pleased with his progress, particularly on the greens.
“My elbow used to be three feet out, now it’s right on my gut,” Daly said. “The closer I can get it in there, the better I’ll hit the ball. When I was real big, it was tough to get ‘through’ the golf ball”, obstructed, he demonstrated, by overhanging “love handles”.
And if he is seeking inspiration, he need look no farther than Levet, a member of Europe’s triumphant 2004 Ryder Cup team, whose own career was threatened three years ago by severe vertigo. “When I got sick, I always thought not coming back,” Levet said. “But the doctor told me it was curable and what kept me in the game was that I kept improving week by week and month by month.” In all, the recovery took the best part of a year.
One of the brightest and funniest players on tour — he speaks seven languages and used to entertain his fellow players with card tricks — Levet won for the first time in four years at the Open de Andalucía last year and, at 40, is getting fun from the game once more. Yesterday he had birdies at three of the four par-fives and an eagle at the other, and did not drop a stroke.
Hansen, a member of the Europe Ryder Cup team in Valhalla last year, set a course record with his round of 63, but surprised even himself after opening with a double-bogey six at the 1st. A bounce-back birdie with a 30-foot putt at the 2nd settled him, however, and he went on to record another eight birdies and an eagle with some outstanding golf.
There were good rounds, too, for two of the bright young things of British golf — Callum Macaulay, of Scotland, who had a 65, and Chris Wood, of England, with a 66. Both secured their playing rights at Qualifying School on the same course last November and made good use of the knowledge they gleaned at the time.
Source:The times