Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 24, 1995 TAG: 9507240106
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND LENGTH: Medium
Daly defeated Costantino Rocca in a four-hole playoff Sunday at the Old Course in a final round that mirrored Daly's life: First it was under control. Then it wasn't. Then it was.
Perhaps now everything will turn out as well for Daly as it did when he shot a closing 71 on a wickedly windy day and bounced back from Rocca's miracle putt from the Valley of Sin on the 18th hole to take the 124th British Open.
``I am trying to do everything I can in my life off the golf course to make sure that I have a happy life for the rest of my life,'' Daly said. ``I don't think I would be here today if I were still drinking.''
The victory did not come easily. Daly blew a three-stroke lead down the stretch, narrowly escaped disaster at the notorious Road Hole bunker, then watched Rocca force a playoff with a 65-foot birdie putt after Rocca chunked a chip into the Valley of Sin on the final hole.
``When Costantino made that putt at the 18th, my heart sort of sank,'' Daly said.
It's sort of the way things have gone for Daly since he won the 1991 PGA Championship as a 25-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour. He's been through alcohol rehabilitation and two forced vacations because of his behavior in the past two years.
This year he has missed the cut in five tournaments and been 40th or worse in eight others. He put all of that behind him this week at the world's oldest golf course.
``To win here at St.Andrews is just a lifetime's dream and for me it's come true,'' Daly said.
The playoff almost was an afterthought following the dramatics at No.18. Rocca three-putted the first extra hole to fall a stroke behind, slipped two back when Daly rolled in a 40-foot birdie on the second hole and lost all hope when he hit the Road Bunker on the next hole.
Daly played the four-hole playoff in 15 strokes to 19 for Rocca.
It appeared Rocca needed to get his short pitch close on the 18th for the birdie to tie Daly in regulation, but he scuffed it.
``It's not over yet,'' Daly said, watching on television. He was right.
Rocca took out his putter and rolled the ball out of the Valley of Sin, a depression in front of the green, and into the cup 65 feet away.
As the ball disappeared into the cup, Rocca collapsed to the ground, face down, pounded his fists on the hard earth, then clasped his hands behind his head. When he stood, he had to wipe tears from his eyes.
``I was so happy when that putt went in to get me into a playoff,'' Rocca said. ``To be honest, I was trying to make two putts.''
With wind gusts nearing 40 mph blowing virtually everyone else sky high, Daly and Rocca, who closed with a 73, finished at 6-under-par 282, one stroke ahead of Mark Brooks, Steve Bottomley and third-round leader Michael Campbell.
``To win a major championship sober is incredible,'' Daly said, clutching the silver claret jug trophy. Daly is the first American since Mark Calcavecchia in 1989 to win the British Open.
Daly now has a British Open title to go with his PGA Championship and at the age of 29 he once again emerges as a player who could dominate the game.
That's what was expected of him when he won the PGA in his rookie year. But he won only one tournament in 1992, started '93 in rehab and ended it on suspension after picking up his ball in a tournament.
Daly voluntarily sat out the final three months last year after scuffling with the father of a competitor at the World Series of Golf.
Daly was magnificent through the first 15 holes Sunday, playing them 3 under. He could have won going away if he had not missed short birdie putts at Nos. 12 and 14.
Daly said his nerves ``got worse and worse after 15. I told Greg [Rita], my caddie, walking up 15 that my knees were shaking.''
That's when he let Rocca back into the tournament with bogeys at Nos.16-17. He was lucky to escape with a bogey on No. 17 when he unwisely played a driver off the tee down the left side of the fairway and plunked his second shot into the Road Hole bunker.
He was very near the head-high wall between his ball and the green, but managed to get it up and over the lip of the trap and onto the green and save bogey.
Keywords:
GOLF
by CNB