Even if he had never recaptured the magic he once had while winning major championships and contending on Sundays, John Daly could have been one of the most popular players ever to pick up a club.

Sort of a 1960s guy dropped into the wrong decade.  A smoker.  Guy who couldn’t stay married to the same woman for more than a year.  Liked to drink.  They used to say, unfortunately, that those guys were ‘characters’.  Writers thought they made good copy.  And John Daly did make a good story for awhile.   Now he’s just a sad one.

Daly’s latest trouble was documented by the wire services, his picture showing a guy who couldn’t walk a straight line, let alone line up a putt.   The stories written about him used to paint him as just sort of a crazy everyman.   Those days are over.  Daly is a danger to himself now.

It’s a damn shame, too, because the tour really does need him.  Not to play on the Ryder Cup team.  Not anymore.  They just need Daly to be Brett Favre.  He has the talent.  Or did.  It’s probably still there somewhere.  A guy with flaws who can be brilliant enough to make you stop what you’re doing and watch.  He might make a spectacular shot or a 370-yard drive.  He might be a spectacular failure.  You never knew.  You just want to be there when it happens.  Celebrate when it goes his way.  Sympathize when it doesn’t.  Pro golf doesn’t have a lot of those guys.  Players who make you care.

You watch Tiger but he’s so successful and powerful now you’re more in awe of his ability.  Phil makes it interesting.  So does Anthony Kim.  Boo Weekley did for a few days.  Maybe he’ll keep it up, but it’s way too soon to know.    But most players don’t have the personality and the jaw-dropping skills Daly once displayed.  Favre had his trouble with addictions but had the sense to realize what he was losing by giving in.  Hard as it was, he stopped with the drinks and the painkillers and won a Super Bowl.  He’s answered the bell each and every Sunday.  In golf, you have to actually make it to Sunday and Daly has checked out on Thursday afternoon far too often.

In spite of his troubles, he never copped an attitude with fans.  He’ll sit with anybody and have a beer.  Or six.  What makes him endearing has also gotten him into trouble.  Last weekend,  Daly had been signing autographs while blitzed out of his mind.  Some guys in that condition would tell fans to get lost.  Daly isn’t that type.  He’d rather you drink with him.  It’s too bad he can’t offer them a spot in the next pro-am instead.

And show up without a hangover.

Tiger Woods is up and around, ready to say goodbye to a difficult last half of 2008 when his knee injury forced him off the course for the first time.

Tiger’s absence hurt the PGA Tour a little, but the anticipation surrounding his return should make up for it.  Woods has been busy doing some promotional work and he also sat down for a news conference where he addressed the injury and his future.

It’s not likely he’ll be 100% for a couple of years and it will be interesting to see if he has any trouble getting his torque back when he does tee it up for the first time.

In the meantime, he’s spending time…as a caddy? Yup. Tiger donned the vest as part of a Buick sweepstakes won by a shell-shocked man who got the services of the world’s best player.

Seve Ballesteros is only 51 years old.  It seems like he should be drawing social security by now.

We forget what a young man he was when he stormed into golf’s major championships during the disco era  sportswriters quickly learned how to spell the name of the confident young Spaniard who had a game to last.

In 1979, Ballesteros forged his legend with an impossible shot from a parking lot next to the 16th fairway at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.  Anyone who thought they could beat him before that birdie at the British Open was waving the internal white flag.

He won five major championships and after the Ryder Cup competition became a ‘Europe vs USA’ match, Ballesteros began carving out the team-oriented part of his career.

Ballesteros’ play helped the Euros beat the United States in 1985 and the American side never quite recovered.   He was honored with captaincy at Valdarrama in 1997, leading Europe to another win in the country of his birth.

There wasn’t a shot Ballesteros thought he couldn’t make, no matter the trouble. 

Now, he’s inherited another tough lie.  Ballesteros has a brain tumor.  He courageously released the news to the world last week and will know more on Tuesday when he again promised to pass along the information.   A biopsy will apparently determine whether it’s malignant or benign. 

This time he won’t be in control of what happens but either way,  Ballesteros’ courage and countenance will serve him well.   No tumor of any kind will have it easy with Seve standing over it, armed with a wedge.

“Collector and museum quality” items from the life, career and estate of the legendary Bob Hope will be sold during a live televised and real-time online auction conducted by Julien’s Auctions next weekend.

The auction takes place at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. Hundreds of items will be sold, but golf collectors remember the entertainer’s fondness for the game and will find a number of items for sale.

Highlights from Mr. Hope’s golf memorabilia collection include: a complete set of golf clubs from various makers (woods 1 - 6, irons 3 - 9 and a brass head putter); his Dunlop Bogie Buster golf bag; a Tiffany and Company sterling silver golf club given to Mr. Hope for his 95th birthday by NBC; 24k gold plated golf tees; two Chrysler Classic ball markers bearing Mr. Hope’s image; a white, pink and blue striped golf shirt; Izod® cardigan sweater; a red sports jacket made by Arthur Cross; a light blue pair of dress pants with “Second Mile Golf Classic” embroidered on the back pocket and his Du Pont Corfam leather golf shoes. “Golf is my real profession, show business pays my green fees” — Bob Hope.

Proceeds from this auction will benefit the Bob and Dolores Hope Charitable Foundation.

Tiger Woods may be sitting at home watching golf on TV, but he still leads the 2nd annual “Power 100″ rankings from BusinessWeek magazine.

The magazine released its list of the 100 most powerful people in sports and Woods topped the list for the second straight year. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and NBA Commissioner David Stern round out the top three.  LeBron James ranks as the top NBA athlete at No. 17, 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps debuts on the list at No. 42, and Danica Patrick, Indy Racing League driver, is the highest-ranked female on the list at No. 50.

The 35 panelists include athletes, executives, marketers, writers, and academics were told to make their  picks based on how each individual rates vs. his or her peers; how much money each controls, generates, or influences; and the breadth and staying power of their impact. Fans were invited to cast votes on BusinessWeek.com and their cumulative vote counted as the final panelist.

Tiger’s knee injury has kept him off the course since mid-summer, but it has only whetted golf fans’ appetite for his return in 2009.   Jack Nicklaus is no longer competitive on the course, but his influence as a course designer, equipment manufacturer and golf icon–we presume– has him at #47.

Here’s the top 20 on that Top 100 list

     1    Tiger Woods Golfer
     2    Roger Goodell Commissioner, NFL
     3    David Stern Commissioner, NBA
     4    George Bodenheimer President, ESPN
     5    Dick Ebersol Chairman, NBC Sports
     6    Phil Knight Chairman, Nike
     7    Allan   "Bud  " Selig Commissioner, MLB
     8    Brian France Chairman and CEO, Nascar
     9    Michael Jordan NBA great; minority owner, Charlotte Bobcats
     10   Sean McManus  President, CBS News and Sports
     11   David Hill Chairman and CEO, Fox Sports
     12   Rupert Murdoch  Chairman and CEO, News Corp.
     13   Myles Brand  President, NCAA
     14   Tony Ponturo  VP, global media and sports marketing, Anheuser-
           Busch
     15   Lance Armstrong  Tour de France cyclist
     16   Theodore Forstmann  Chairman and CEO, IMG
     17   LeBron James  Forward, Cleveland Cavaliers
     18   Donald Fehr  Executive Director, Major League Baseball Players Assn.
     19   Steinbrenner Family  Principal owner, New York Yankees
     20   John Henry  Owner, Boston Red Sox; co-owner, Roush Fenway Racing

The Ryder Cup will almost certainly become the signature moment for golf in 2008–at least in the United States where a band of average Joe types won one of the sport’s biggest prizes and had a helluva good time doing it.  PGA Tour tickets were never hotter than those that got you into Valhalla for that magical weekend.

Here we are two weeks later, though.  Back to normal.

No Tiger, but a great field of players including several Ryder Cup team members again in the hunt at the Tour championship.  It was dramatic–four guys within earshot of the lead coming down the stretch including some of the biggest and hottest names in golf.

But the game was again relegated to second class status by the day’s NFL games, Major League Baseball’s playoff chase and even NASCAR’s seat-of-your-pants finish.  Coming off its best weekend of 2008, the PGA Tour couldn’t capitalize.

And with the championship decided, this week’s tournament field wasn’t exactly star-studded.  Whatever momentum the PGA Tour had is pretty much gone.  And that’s a shame.

Golf has to figure out a way to capture the excitement from big tournaments and use it as a springboard.  I know the logistics are hard.  It’s autumn and nothing’s going to stop the NFL, MLB playoff race or NASCAR just to make room.  It would help if we could avoid a conflict between the late NFL games and the end of the tournament somehow.  At least from 4-7, golf could have the tube to its own.

Good luck with that one.

Maybe the solution is simply to have everything wrapped up and over by late September.  Then start again with a huge splash the week before the Super Bowl, when nothing is going on.  There’s an opportunity there.

The game and the players deserve a bigger spotlight when it’s not Ryder Cup time or we’re not talking Masters or an Open Championship.  That’s where the Tour misses Tiger.  But the Ryder Cup proved golf can be good without him too.

By the way, anyone seen Boo Weekley?