Harmon dumps Daly because of 'shenanigans'

John Daly has been cut loose by swing coach Butch Harmon, who said Tuesday he was not going to waste his time with a two-time major champion who is more interested in drinking than working on his golf game.

``My whole goal for him was he's got to show me golf is the most important thing in his life,'' Harmon said from his golf school in Las Vegas. ``And the most important thing in his life is getting drunk.''

Harmon said he has worked three times this year with Daly, but he said Daly's behavior at the PODS Championship was enough to end the short-lived relationship.

Daly, playing on a sponsor's exemption because he no longer has his full PGA Tour card, spent a 2 1/2-hour rain delay during the first round in a Hooters corporate tent behind the 17th green at Innisbrook. He was 3 over, and when play resumed, he had Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden caddie for him the rest of the day. Daly ended up with a 77.

Daly spent Saturday at the Hooters ``Owl's Nest'' at the tournament, drinking beer, mingling with fans and signing autographs, including one on the back of a woman's pants.

``I've let him know that after his actions of last weekend, we are no longer together,'' Harmon said. ``In all honesty, I'm a very busy person. I'm willing to help the kid, but until he helps himself and makes golf his No. 1 priority, I'm not his guy.

John Daly woke up Wednesday morning to read that swing coach Butch Harmon fired him. Then he got a phone call when he was at the entrance to Bay Hill letting him know he had been kicked out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational for missing the pro-am.

“Hasn’t been a good day,” Daly told The Associated Press. “This is the last thing I needed in my life. I feel like I let Arnold down.” It stinks for me. I want to do anything I can for the tournament as a sponsor exemption. I wanted to meet the people I was playing with in the pro-am. I love Arnold Palmer to death. I called and talked to him and apologized.

“And the thing that upsets me is I cost Nick O’Hern and Ryuji Imada, so now I got these guys mad at me, too.”

Imada and O’Hern were alternates for the pro-am, and both thought they were assigned to the afternoon group. Instead, they were the first two names called when Daly didn’t show, and when neither was around, they also were disqualified from the $5.8 million event.

O’Hern lives only five minutes away at Isleworth and was furious to learn he would not be eligible.

“When I should have been on the tee, I was giving my girls breakfast,” O’Hern said. “I thought common sense would have prevailed. This is a tough one to take. Unfortunately, we got caught up in John’s snowball effect.”

http://www.pga.com/2008/news/pgatour/03/12/daly_harmon_split.ap/index.html

Maybe so, but Butch is a jerk for going public. Daly is the pro and Harmon is an instructor, nothing more.

As for his DEMAND that John make golf his number one priority, I guess that arrogant jerk Harmon doesn’t think much about family.

There is a reason the great Tiger Woods dumped HIM.

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