SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – It was just one birdie on a day of over 650 of them, but it generated the loudest roar at Thursday’s opening round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. No surprise, it was from John Daly – and from a precarious position, no less. “Horrible lie,” said Daly, whose second shot to the 383-yard, par-4 ninth hole (his 18th) hopped through the green into a thickish coat of fringe. Daly gave it a quick look, shrugged his head and agreed with his caddie, longtime PGA TOUR member Pete Jordan, that putter was the only play. He closed the face, bumped his ball just onto the green and watched it roll 15 feet downhill into the cup. It left Daly at even-par 71 and miles away from Austin Smotherman’s lead at 9-under, with 100 names that broke par wedged in-between. But that hardly mattered to the crowd surrounding the adjacent ninth and 18th greens. They roared approval at Daly’s birdie and that, in turn, left him shaking his head. “It’s awesome. People have always been so good to me. I love them for it,” said Daly, here on a sponsor’s exemption. Why, at 56 and with an array of aches and pains, was he here? “I just wanted to play. I wanted to come play in warm weather, to see if it helps.” Though his request for a golf cart was granted, Daly hobbled most of the day, particularly navigating Port Royal’s hills up to the tee areas and greens. His left knee is bandaged and is a concern, said Daly, who recently had a platelet-rich plasma procedure to ease his arthritis. He had the same procedure down to his right knee a few years ago. Earlier this week Daly also had an injection in his left wrist to see if that eased discomfort from arthritis. Other than that, how was he feeling? Daly shook his head. An inward 3-under 33 left him at even-par, the knees and left wrist were sore, but it was the putter that caused the most pain in Round 1. “I hit it pretty good, for me, and gave myself a lot of looks. But I putted terrible. It could have been a really good round,” said Daly, who was T123 out of 132 in putting. But when measured by the level of noise ignited by his fourth birdie of the day, Daly topped the rankings. And, that, he conceded, is why he still plays.
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