30 years since John Daly's 'validation victory' in upstate New York

Golf probably needed John Daly to validate his stunning 1991 PGA Championship victory more than the player did.

The PGA TOUR was years away from the arrival of Tiger Woods. It certainly didn’t hurt that a rotund, mullet-wearing, swing-for-the-fences Everyman had come out of nowhere to win a major.

And it literally was nowhere. He was the ninth alternate for the 73rd PGA Championship. Daly drove all night from his home in Memphis to make his first-round tee time at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana.

Then he proceeded to capture the imagination like few before him had. PGA TOUR veteran Bruce Lietzke had the temerity to compare the way the throngs at Crooked Stick had taken to Daly as reminiscent of Arnold Palmer.

But as the PGA Championship passed in 1992 – Daly finished 82nd – “Long John” had yet to win again. He had threatened at the Kemper Open, but he also had missed eight cuts when the TOUR arrived in Endicott, New York, for the B.C. Open at En-Joie Golf Club.

Yes, the site of this week’s PGA TOUR Champions DICK’S Sporting Goods Open is where Daly proved he wasn’t just a one-hit wonder. Thirty years ago, “Long John” shot round of 67-66-67-66 to finish 18-under. He trampled the field by six shots.

“It's obviously a great feeling, especially since a lot of people didn't think I could win again,” Daly said on Sept. 27, 1992. “The last three days were definitely the best rounds I've ever played ... a wet golf course is an advantage to a big hitter, but my short game won it for me this week.

"I'm just so happy that I won another tournament, and it only took me a year and six weeks to do it."

Daly’s jovial sarcasm gave way to the fact even he knew he had gotten the proverbial monkey off his back.

“I don't care what anybody says, the first tournament is definitely not the toughest to win -- the second is a lot more pressure,” said Daly, whose winner’s share of the purse was $144,000. “I hope this shows some younger players that you can hit it long and play aggressive and still win.”

Daly’s play at En-Joie left his fellow pros mesmerized. He did things most of them simply couldn’t do.

“I thought I had a chance, but John put us away early,” 1990 B.C. champion Nolan Henke said. “He made it look easy. He's so long that he can hit it past trouble off the tee and with it so wet he doesn't roll off the fairways. And he's hitting a wedge to greens where most of us are hitting 6- or 7- irons.”

PGA TOUR veteran Ken Green, who also was in contention during the final round of the ’92 B.C. Open, said it wasn’t that shocking that Daly found his way to victory there.

“John is not a surprise,” Green said. “If you look at the history of this tournament, the winner has always been somebody either very long or very straight -- and he was both this week.”

Daly is 56 now and has appeared regularly on PGA TOUR Champions since turning 50. He won three more times on the PGA TOUR after his B.C. triumph, including, famously, the 1995 Open Championship. He has won only once on PGA TOUR Champions, at the 2017 Insperity Invitational.

Can the Arkansas native recapture glory past and get the “validation victory” on PGA TOUR Champions like he did 30 years ago? He is trending up this season. He has only two top-25 finishes, but both have come over the course of his past three outings. He posted a T8 at the American Family Insurance Championship and a T23 at the Shaw Charity Classic in which he bounced back from a first-round 73 with weekend rounds of 68 and 67.

Daly will be making his sixth appearance at the DICK’S Sporting Goods Open, and for the most part he has played well. He has a T11, a T3 and a T29 on his ledger. He ranks ninth on the Champions Tour in driving distance at 296.1 yards but is only 63rd in driving accuracy.

There’s no telling how Daly would feel or what he might say were he to win again here. But it felt every bit as good to win the B.C. Open 30 years ago as it did the PGA, according to “Long John.”

"It's just like the PGA,” Daly said. “You get chills up and down your body. Your heart's pumping. The hair is standing on your arms. There's no feeling better than that, coming up 18 and winning a golf tournament.”