John Daly's country song 'Hit It Hard' hits the airwaves | PGA.com Wrote Shuda : John is very honest with his music. But if you've ever seen him in an interview you know that's exactly who he is all the time. He's an open book. He's not afraid to talk about the things he's done in his life. He's quite the character and people love it. I think in a way, all of John's fans are inspired by his honesty. The fact that this song is getting played on SiriusXM now caught me off guard. The album that John put out came out back in 2010. Shuda goes on to speculate about why the song is suddenly on satellite radio (perhaps Daly has a friend pushing it?). Though I don't know much about country music, I do know I like this song better than another Daly hit -- "All My Exes Wear Rolexes." Here's Daly covering one of his all-time favorite songs a while back -- "Knockin' on Heaven's Door": T.J. Auclair is a Senior Interactive Producer for PGA.com and has covered professional golf since 1998, traveling to over 60 major championships.

You can follow him on Twitter, @tjauclair . Home » Blogs » tj.auclair's blog » John Daly's country song 'Hit It Hard' hits the airwaves The Latest "All My Exes Wear Rolexes" "All My Exes Wear Rolexes" AUTHOR(S) Garrity, John; Davis, Seth; Yaeger, Don PUB. DATE Sports Illustrated;11/3/2003, Vol. 99 Issue 17, p68 SOURCE TYPE Article ABSTRACT This article focuses on the life of professional golfer John Daly. Except for the part about winning the British Open, John Daly's life has always played out like a bad country song, with all the touchstones of the genre: the wrong women, battles with the bottle, squandered fortunes and a scrape with the law (to say nothing of the PGA Tour commissioner). In the beginning--circa 1991--Daly's flaws contributed as much to his popularity as did the awesome drives he launched with his hyperextended swing. Daly's tailspin began in July. On the 23rd his fourth wife, Sherrie, gave birth to John Patrick Daly II, a.k.a. Little John.

Five days after the birth, Sherrie and her parents--Alvis Miller and his wife of 39 years, Billie--were indicted in a Mississippi federal court for allegedly laundering more than $1.2 million in illegal drug profits. Since his wife's arrest, Daly has been disqualified or has withdrawn from four of his seven Tour starts. On Oct. 5, the day PGA senior vice president and chief of operations Henry Hughes called Daly to express concerns over his recent behavior, Daly instructed his attorney to file divorce papers in Memphis. ACCESSION # Best songs by sportspeople - Sport - smh.com.au network map | member centre <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC=""> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <A HREF=""> <IMG SRC=""></A> </NOSCRIPT> Best songs by sportspeople Printer format 1 John Daly: All My Exes Wear Rolexes Golfer John Daly's life sure has the goods for a country 'n' western album. So it's no surprise the one-time alcoholic, smokeaholic, chocoholic and a gambling-addict brought out an CD titled My Life. The highlight of the album is a song about his former wives titled All My Exes Wear Rolexes.

2 Warwick Capper: I Only Take What's Mine The Swans forward wore a white dinner suit for the video clip and the song was produced by team owner Dr Geoffrey Edelsten. Anyway, on reflection, Capper thinks that I Only Take What's Mine is the worst song he's ever heard. At a Swans' reunion a couple of years ago Capper took the stage and cried "Three cheers for Wazza" and then launched into I Only Take What's Mine, until the mic was quickly ripped from his grasp. 3 Brett and Shane Lee: Six and Out At Six and Out's first gig cricketer Brett Lee was only two weeks into learning how to play the bass guitar. "Look, the worst thing that could happen is my amp could blow up," he said to his fellow band members as they took the stage. "As I've gone to play the first chord, I smelled this smoke and looked around and my amp's on fire.

We thought it was going to be one gig and one gig only and then the novelty would wear off, but we kept getting people come and ask us to play at their club." 4 Jason Martin: Take Us To The Top Music guru Molly Meldrum described the rugby league player's voice as "ideally suited for an anthem-type song, sort of [Jason] Donovan-like". But the 1991 song was a flop. A couple of years ago the former North Sydney, Newcastle and Cowboys halfback relaunched his singing career and released a CD Enjoy The Journey. One song on it was titled Buds, Pills and Happy Meals. 5 John Barnes: World In Motion The England/New Order 1990 World Cup tune World in Motion hit the top of the charts in 1990 and featured a rap from forward John Barnes. One website described Barnes's rap style as "ever-so-slightly camp he sounds a bit like someone who's never actually tried to rap before". The song also featured backing vocals from Paul Gascoigne and Chris Waddle. 6 Lionel Rose: I Thank You In 1970 boxer Lionel Rose had hits with I Thank You and Please Remember Me.

However, Rose is better known and should be remembered as a boxing champion. It must be noted that he did have some musical success - but put away your thoughts of smoke machines and flashing lights - cast your mind to clowns. In the early '70s he toured with Ashton's Circus and was billed as the singing ex-boxing champ. 7 Pam Burridge: Pam and the Passions Summertime All Round The World was the first song released by Pam & the Passions. The lyrics were harmless, but the former world champion surfer's voice wasn't the best. In the '80s she was spotted around town doing the odd spot of singing, doing gigs with the Celibate Rifles. 8 Anthony Mundine: Knock You Out A few months ago the boxer proclaimed he was going to release a "bangin' rap album". So far we have heard only his collaboration with Australian Idol finalist Joel Turner the tune Knock You Out which has the beat of Eye Of Tiger sampled through the song. Unfortunately, Mundine couldn't clinch the WBA super-middleweight title last month against Dane Mikkel Kessler - so maybe a rap career is on the cards.

9 Mark Jackson: I'm An Individual Who can forget Jacko stomping down the beach in King Gee shorts and a blue singlet singing "I'm an individual, you can't fool me?" It was the first time the grunt "Oi" ever made the Australian charts, and the former Australian Rules player's song finished in the top 15. 10 Reg Reagan: Am I Ever Going to See The Biff Again The man with the mo' and bulging beer belly released the reworked The Angels hit last year. It's Reg's screaming and yelling tribute to the hard men of yesteryear. It is a great biffing tune. Jessica Halloran "All My Exes Wear Rolexes" The life (loony) and times (lately) of JOHN DALY. Not a role model Now Momma Lou makes chocolate gravy; Lord, she is so nice /Poppa Jim pulled me aside and gave me some advice /He said, "Quit spending all your money on all those old skanks /Just put some in your pocket and put some in the bank" --John Daly, "ALL MY EXES WEAR ROLEXES" This is an article from the Nov.

3, 2003 issue Original Layout Except for the part about winning the British Open, John Daly's life has always played out like a bad country song, with all the touchstones of the genre: the wrong women, battles with the bottle, squandered fortunes and a scrape with the law (to say nothing of the PGA Tour commissioner). In the beginning--circa 1991--Daly's flaws contributed as much to his popularity as did the awesome drives he launched with his hyperextended swing. On a Tour full of country-club types, Daly was raw and real, with problems you could relate to. (Well, some of us could relate to some of them.) But in the eight years since his last PGA Tour victory, Daly, 37, has regressed from contender to curiosity. Just when it seemed he had lost all his shock value, Daly has, over the last three months, gone on a self-destructive binge that has put his golf game and personal life in disarray--and his problems are far from over. "John Daly needs help," says a member of his inner circle. "The Tour feels that way. Everyone close to John feels that way." Daly's tailspin began in July.

On the 23rd his fourth wife, Sherrie, gave birth to John Patrick Daly II, a.k.a. Little John. He is Big John's third child, from as many mothers. Five days after the birth, Sherrie and her parents--Alvis Miller and his wife of 39 years, Billie--were indicted in a Mississippi federal court for allegedly laundering more than $1.2 million in illegal drug profits. Sherrie could face up to 20 years in prison. Daly may be an aspiring country music crooner, but Tammy Wynette he ain't. "I believe they're not guilty, and I'm standing 100 percent behind them," he told SI in late September. "Granted, if Sherrie is going to prison for 20 years, I'll have to divorce her." Since his wife's arrest, Daly has been disqualified or has withdrawn from four of his seven Tour starts. At the 84 Lumber Classic, he started shaking uncontrollably and had to be carted off the course.

At the Texas Open he raked in a missed putt while the ball was still moving and didn't report it to Tour officials until after he had signed his scorecard--an automatic DQ. Afterward there were reports (denied by Daly) that he trashed the interior of his $1.4 million bus. "He's not really a golfer any longer," a Tour player said. "More like a freak show." A week later at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, Daly six-putted a green, chasing after his ball and "hockey-sticking" it into the cup, tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. Once the game's biggest draw, Daly was dismissed as "sad" by tournament director Robert Morgan, who added, "If he continues the way he is, the John Daly persona is not going to be an attraction anymore." In addition to the real problems Daly faces, he has had to deal with a torrent of rumors in recent months. Last weekend, the New Jersey wire service SportsTicker cited sources saying, incorrectly, that Daly had entered an alcohol rehab clinic on orders from PGA commissioner Tim Finchem. "I'm just frustrated that I'm having to defend myself on things that aren't even happening," Daly says.

"It's been a joke." In the wake of his wife's indictment, two of Daly's longtime associates called it quits. At the PGA Championship in August, Daly was fired by his caddie, Mick Peterson, who made it plain that he no longer wanted to have anything to do with Sherrie Daly. Donnie Crabtree, John's personal assistant and driver for 10 years and his closest friend since the first grade, quit a week later. "It's hard watching somebody that you love self-destruct," Crabtree says. "John can go weeks without drinking, but he's a binger. He'll drink and not eat, smoke three packs a day. He drinks Diet Cokes like they're going out of style. No rest, high stress, lots of caffeine, lots of nicotine. You add all those things together, and you get what's happened over the last six or seven weeks." Asked if he thinks Daly--who denies any recent binge drinking--has become a danger to himself or others, Crabtree says he doesn't consider his friend "consciously suicidal" but cites the belief of people in 12-step programs that you have to hit rock bottom before you can come back.

"My fear with John is that his rock bottom might be something you don't come back from." Early last month Daly thought he'd arrived at a simple solution for his latest round of problems: dump the wife. On Oct. 5, the day PGA senior vice president and chief of operations Henry Hughes called Daly to express concerns over his recent behavior, Daly instructed his attorney to file divorce papers in Memphis. Daly then flew to Seoul for the Korean Open, an Asian tour event that had ponied up an appearance fee for him. A world away from his troubles, Daly summoned one of the most stunning performances of his career, shooting a back-nine 32 on Sunday, Oct. 12, to win his first tournament in more than two years. The field was weak, and the course wasn't exactly Pebble Beach, but for Daly the victory was monumental. "Your adrenaline gets pumping when you have a chance to win," he says. "I was hitting my driver 30 or 40 yards farther than I normally do." The day after the tournament Daly rested in a suite at the Paris Las Vegas hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

In a relaxed but subdued conversation--one of several with SI over the past six weeks--he said that his divorce would be governed by a prenuptial agreement that he and Sherrie signed in 2001. On various occasions, he said, he was physically and verbally abused by his wife in front of friends, family, other Tour players, the rock band Hootie and the Blowfish and, in one colorful incident, three strippers at a charity golf outing. He also claimed that although his wife had told him that she and her parents were targets of a federal investigation, she had not disclosed that it involved the laundering of drug profits. (Sherrie denies having known this herself.) "It's cut and dried," Daly said. "She gets 50 grand, and that's it." He puffed on a cigarette and stared at a bowl of roses in the center of the table. "I wanted to make it work. It's embarrassing to have to go through another divorce. There's two beautiful children involved." He shook his head. "But I'm going to go insane if I don't get away from this woman." The knot was tied two years ago in the wedding chapel at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The bride wore a wedding gown. Daly wore jeans and a sport coat. After the ceremony the wedding party took an elevator up to his suite and celebrated. For the first time in years the planets seemed to be aligned for Daly. The day before the wedding he had won $850,000 playing slot machines, and he was cresting on a comeback that saw him rise from 507th to the top 50 in the World Ranking. "I really thought I had found a woman who was a lot of fun," he says of Sherrie. "I really thought I'd found the right woman." The lovebirds had met during the 2001 FedEx St. Jude Classic, in Daly's adopted hometown of Memphis. He was engaged to another woman at the time, but after being introduced to Sherrie by mutual friends, John joked that he was going to marry her instead. Seven weeks later, to the accompaniment of slot-machine bells, John and Sherrie were wed. With the benefit of hindsight, John concedes that he didn't know Sherrie well enough to exchange Christmas cards, much less conceive a child with her.

Nine months earlier Sherrie had broken up with the father of her son Austin, who is now four. John probably wasn't looking beyond Sherrie's obvious attributes. At 27 she is a shapely, well-groomed blonde with a chatty air that can be disarming. She was a cheerleader at Collierville (Tenn.) High and studied at St. Joseph's School of Nursing, although she didn't get a degree. In recent years she has worked sporadically as a commissioned car salesperson, mostly at the Auto Center, a used-car dealership in Collierville owned by her father, Alvis. The indictment against Sherrie and her parents charges that Alvis Miller, through a series of cash transactions involving used cars and real estate, laundered illegal drug profits for three members of a domestic drug ring, all of whom pled guilty. The case focuses on 47 cash deposits ranging from $2,000 to $9,500--just under the $10,000 level that must be reported to federal authorities--made by the Miller family over 33 months, all of them at two Collierville banks.

Four of the deposits were made by Sherrie, which is why, unless she or her parents make a deal with prosecutors before their scheduled trial date of Nov. 17, she faces penalties ranging from probation to 20 years in prison if convicted. "The whole thing is a joke," Sherrie says. "I borrowed money from my dad because my checking account was overdrawn. Yes, I made a $9,500 deposit.... This lady at the bank, she was a little old lady, she was like, 'Oooh, you don't want to deposit all that cash. You need to keep it under $10,000 or we'll have to fill out all those forms.'" Sherrie adds, "Now, this lady that told me that is eightysomething years old, and I don't think she remembers it." Sherrie's lawyer, Kemper Durand, says his client may have made the deposits, "but our take is she was a flunky doing what she was told by her father." The indictments of Billie Miller and Sherrie, says Durand, are the government's way of pressuring Alvis to plead guilty. "This is what we call Southern gentleman justice.

They're hoping the man will take the hit so his wife and daughter will get dismissed." That approach may not work with Alvis, a voluble man of 60 with the blocklike physique and belligerent outlook of his son-in-law, John Daly. "I'm not scared," Alvis said three weeks ago, leaning back in his office chair at the Auto Center. "I'm not giving in to anybody, because I didn't do anything I thought was wrong. If we laundered any money, we certainly didn't know it." Miller characterized his business dealings with three of the drug-ring principals as favors for lifelong friends and said he had no idea they were involved in drug trafficking. "This has ruined my business," he complains. "I haven't sold a car in two months. People think I'm a drug dealer." While they wait for the scales of justice to tip one way or the other, the Millers--and, at times, Sherrie, Austin and baby John--live in a spacious four-bedroom house with swimming pool and gazebo on 35 acres of farmland at the edge of Collierville.

Until the case is resolved, the feds have a lien on the house, the land and the Millers' bank accounts and used cars. John Daly "is not in any way implicated," according to a highly placed government source. Nevertheless, it is Daly who has behaved like the beleaguered suspect, losing sleep, chain-smoking and confounding his nervous system with alcohol and caffeine. The loss of his beloved mother, Lou, who died last year of cancer, contributed to his personal and professional decline. "Every month, before he can take a breath or miss a cut, he has to pay $20,000 [in child support and alimony]," Sherrie says, explaining some of the pressure Daly endures. "When you're not making any money, that comes pretty quick." Daly's ex-wives numbers 2 and 3 seem to rank ahead of the feds on Sherrie's don't-like list. "They live in Rancho Mirage and Orlando in very, very fine homes," she says. "Tile roof, the whole bit. They live large, and they don't even have to go to the mailbox to get their check. We wire it.

All they have to do is spend it." Daly, on the other hand, told SI that the principal cause of his anguish was wife number 4. Among other things, John claimed that Sherrie kept him in the dark about the scope of her legal troubles and then dismissed them as trivial when they emerged. "I had to find out from the newspaper," he said of the part of the federal indictment that involved the laundering of drug money. "I saw it in the Memphis paper, and that hurt me more than anything." Crabtree supports Daly's claim that he was shocked when he read the news. "His jaw dropped," Crabtree says. "His face was in his hands. Because the headline, if I remember right, [called her] John Daly's wife. His name was the one that was up there." In recent weeks, however, Daly has repeatedly defended the Millers. On his return from Korea he stood up for his wife again ("I believe she's been honest about that case," he said); praised her parents ("I love Alvis and Billie, they've been great to me"); praised Sherrie's parental skills ("She's always been a good mother"); and insisted that he wasn't divorcing her because of the charges. So ...

why? "I couldn't deal with it anymore," Daly said in Las Vegas, tapping another cigarette out of his pack. "The things that she's done to me in front of people. I have let her beat the living s---out of me.... just poundin' on me with her fists." In Fayetteville, Ark., Daly said, he was schmoozing with singer Darius Rucker and other members of Hootie and the Blowfish on his bus when an angry Sherrie pushed him, and he tripped and fell against a counter, injuring his right shoulder. Another time, during a locker room card game in Florida, she smacked his head repeatedly with the buckle on a cap because he had autographed it for a female fan with the words "You were great last night!" The worst abuse? "When she about choked me in Ontario [Canada]," Daly says. "She lost it, took it out on me." (Sherrie confirms that she pushed Daly and smacked him with the cap but denies choking him.) Allegations of abuse are common in divorce cases, and Daly himself was accused of throwing his second wife, Bettye Fulford, against a wall during a drunken rampage in Castle Rock, Colo., in 1992.

(Both Daly and Fulford later denied this had happened. "I've never hit a woman in my life," Daly says. "I don't even spank my kids.") Bryan Van Der Riet, a former teaching pro who is president of John Daly Enterprises, says Daly called him at two in the morning the week of the Bell Canadian Open. "John said, 'You better come to the bus quickly, this woman is going to kill me.' So I high-tailed over, and he was outside the bus and she was inside. [Daly said] she had tried to strangle him with his gold chain and snapped the big lion head off. John was out by his courtesy car looking for the gold chain. We eventually found it on the ground." The couple argued through the night, Van Der Riet says, and Daly withdrew from the tournament after a first-round 75. Crabtree cites another example from another Ontario. In January, at a sports bar in Ontario, Calif., Daly, Crabtree and Mick Peterson were watching a live women's boxing match. "They had these girls with big blown-up gloves on their hands," Crabtree recalls. "They're not naked, they're not anything.

Sherrie came up behind [John] and hit him on the back of the head, absolutely as hard as she could. His head snapped forward, like he had been in a car accident. She started screaming, 'If you want to see women fight, you pick any woman in this club and I'll go beat her right now!'" Sherrie, while confirming some details of the incidents, says it was John, not she, who had the alcoholic rages. The choking incident? "He's lying about that," she says. The Texas bus bashing? "He started slamming the cabinet, then he ripped it off the wall and started banging it into all the mirrors and breaking everything." The boxing match? She had been told it would involve huge men, not college-age girls "wearing thonglike shorts and bikini tops." The story that she attacked three strippers last spring at a charity golf outing in Little Rock? "I did try to choke one of the girls, but she shouldn't have been naked in front of me like that." Had she ever physically abused her 230-pound husband? "Oh, my God, no," Sherrie says. "Well, one time, but he was yelling in my face so bad....

Look at the size of him, and look at me. Does that make any sense?" The constant bickering, those close to Daly say, goes a long way toward explaining why he has had only one top 25 finish in 2003 and is 169th on the PGA Tour money list. "The boy had no peace," says Arkansas jeweler Blake Allison, who has worked for Daly in various capacities for 20 years, most recently as operator of a merchandise trailer that Daly tows to tournaments. "If he would go somewhere, she'd sneak up on him or hide across the parking lot. It was a brutal situation." Says Van Der Riet, "I'll tell you what I said to the PGA Tour--that as far as I'm concerned, 95 percent of this has nothing to do with alcohol. At the John Deere Classic she wasn't there. At the Buick she wasn't there. Those two weeks John didn't drink a drop of alcohol. He missed the [Deere] cut by one or two, but he hit it great." Daly tied for 38th at the Buick.

In Korea, Daly's friends all point out, he had only his caddie for company. "That win in Korea might not be a big win in the world of golf," Crabtree says, "but in the world of John Daly it is a big deal. As bad as things have been for him, I think the future could be that good." Daly, looking out his Vegas hotel window at the lights of the Strip, shared Crabtree's optimism about his playing ability. "I wouldn't be out here if I didn't think I could still win," he said. His PGA Tour career, though, had hit a new low, and his personal life had slipped even further into the abyss of honky-tonk heartache. "It saddens me that it has to go this way," Daly said. "The hardest thing for me is losing Austin. I know he's my stepson, but he's four years old, and he's been calling me Daddy for almost three years. Little John is going to be fine, I'm always going to take care of Little John, but Austin, snuggling up to me in bed...." Daly's eyes teared up, and he swallowed hard.

On the day that Daly flew back from South Korea, Sherrie was waiting for him with Austin and Little John at a private airport in Las Vegas. "I said, 'If you're going to divorce me, we need to do this in a civilized manner,' but he wouldn't even talk to me," Sherrie said. "I'm in shock that John has turned on me like this. I mean, honestly, I thought I knew him." As it turned out, Daly's attorney had not filed his divorce complaint yet, so instead of waiting for papers her husband had told her were coming, Sherrie filed a complaint herself in a Tennessee circuit court on Oct. 17. In it Sherrie alleged that Daly had committed adultery and that there was "no hope" for the marriage. Two days later, at Sherrie's request, John's brother, Jamie, went to the couple's house in Dardanelle, Ark., to pack up Sherrie's belongings and take them to her in Collierville. When Jamie arrived at the house, however, he was surprised to find John's luxury bus parked in her driveway. John had driven there the night before, and by morning he and Sherrie had decided to try to reconcile their irreconcilable differences.

"I want to be with my kids and try to work things out with her," Daly said that afternoon by phone from Birmingham, where he was playing in an outing. "If it doesn't work out, we can go our separate ways." Asked to predict an outcome, Daly replied, "I have no idea." Despite the tumult of the last two years, Sherrie sounded undeterred and even optimistic. "We're going to be a family," she said. "We're not going to let all these people ruin our marriage. John and I are very happy. The kids are happy. Everybody's happy." The 21 Most Controversial Golfers | Golf.com © 2014 Ti Golf Holdings Inc. All Rights Reserved. The 21 Most Controversial Golfers Maybe it's an ill-timed tweet or surprising moment of candor. It could be just plain surliness. Whatever the reason, there are certain players who strike a nerve as well as they strike the ball. Here are 21 of the most controversial figures in the game.

View Gallery Next Tiger Woods, 2009-present To be fair, Woods had plenty of critics before he crashed his Cadillac SUV into a tree and a fire hydrant in the early morning hours the day after Thanksgiving. But the ensuing avalanche of news, that Woods was cheating on his wife, Elin, and the parade of publicity-loving mistresses pretty much sealed his fate as golf's villain of the moment. His image has recovered since then and his play, at times, has approached the heights it reached pre-scandal. But a string of injuries, back surgery, and a split with swing coach Sean Foley leave Tiger's golfing future in flux. Jack Nicklaus, in the '60s There was nothing outwardly objectionable about Nicklaus or his behavior, but Arnold Palmer's legions of fans were miffed at the new threat to the King's supremacy. They picked on Jack's weight ("Fat Jack"), and the comparatively uninspiring way the new guy from Ohio played the game. Like many players before and after him, Nicklaus had to work his way into the public's hearts.

Vijay Singh, circa 2003 When Annika Sorenstam became the first woman to play a PGA Tour event in 58 years at the 2003 Colonial, it seemed like a quaint, feel-good story. The 32-year-old Swede had so dominated the women's game, it seemed she'd earned the right to try her game on the men's circuit. But then the AP quoted Singh saying, "I hope she misses the cut. Why? Because she doesn't belong out here." Other players, most notably Nick Price, said essentially the same thing, but it was the cantankerous Singh who took the fall. That was one of many feuds in which the sometimes-prickly Singh has been involved. Greg Norman He was praised for his gracious handling of his excruciating loss at the 1996 Masters to Nick Faldo, but it didn't last. Fellow Aussie Jack Newton was among those who thought success changed Norman. "I think he needs a few mates in his life," Newton said in 2008.

"I feel that he's going to end up a lonely man with no friends." That was around the time that Norman married the former tennis star Chris Evert after a messy divorce from his longtime wife, Laura Andrassy. The jilted Andrassy got a reported $105 million settlement and dismissively said of Norman and Evert that she had "no wishes for them except to say they deserve each other." Norman and Evert have since split and Norman has continued to build on his ultra-successful, worldwide brand. He'll be the analyst alongside Joe Buck when FOX Sports takes over the U.S. Open broadcast next June. Nick Faldo When U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger said Faldo had been "a p____" (rhymes with Nick) during his career as one of the game's pre-eminent technicians, Azinger was speaking for many whom Faldo rubbed the wrong way. The princely Englishman fired his swing coach, David Leadbetter, by fax. Faldo was so self-absorbed as a player, Mark Calcavecchia said famously, "Playing with Nick Faldo is like playing by yourself &#151; only slower." Ben Hogan Hogan, too, was self-absorbed.

(Of course that self-absorption is part of what made these guys great in the first place. Discuss among yourselves.) The famously intimidating "Hawk" didn't do jolly, grip-and-grin golf, and he didn't apologize for it. He dug his game "out of the ground," could freeze an opponent's blood with his icy stare, and bristled at the winning panache of Arnold Palmer. The latter attribute may have sealed Hogan's fate as an unlovable champion, because really, how could you not like Palmer? Only Santa Claus has more fans. Hogan did soften, however, and became more popular with fans after his remarkable recovery from a cataclysmic 1949 car crash. 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup team When Justin Leonard made his long, snaking putt to clinch the Ryder Cup for the U.S., seemingly the entire American team and their wives and caddies came stampeding onto the green. One problem: Jose Maria Olazabal still had a putt to halve the hole.

Having endured abuse from the vocal Boston fans all week, the Europeans were apoplectic at the final indignity, and after Olazabal missed his putt, they fired back in the press. The ill-timed celebration and hurt feelings marked a low point &#151; if not THE low point &#151; in the then-72-year history of the once-cordial biennial exhibition. 1999 European Ryder Cup assistant Sam Torrance The high point of sportsmanship in '99 was Payne Stewart trying to protect opponent Colin Montgomerie from the most outspoken (and over-served) American fans. The low point was probably Europe assistant captain Sam Torrance's incendiary quote as the U.S. side danced all over the 17th green: "And Tom Lehman calls himself a man of God!" It seemed like a cheap shot, since the Ryder Cup isn't about religion, but Torrance stood by the comment as he prepared to lead Europe into the 2001 Cup. Then 9/11 happened, and it all seemed very, very trivial.

Johnny Miller At the 1999 Ryder Cup, the relentlessly candid NBC golf analyst said Justin Leonard looked so out of sorts he should have just stayed home. Leonard's comeback against Jose Maria Olazabal made Miller eat his words. As Tom Lehman's American Ryder Cup team got ready to play the Europeans at the K-Club in Ireland in 2006, Miller said, "This is probably on paper the worst Ryder Cup team we've ever fielded." (He may have been right. The Yanks lost by a record-tying margin, 18.5-9.5.) At the 2008 U.S. Open, the fearless Johnny irked Italian Americans when he said Rocco Mediate looked like "the guy who cleans Tiger's swimming pool," and, "guys with the name of Rocco don't get the trophy, do they?" He later apologized.

Miller has continued to launch his barbs from the NBC booth, including this gem when Andrew Loupe was put on the clock for slow play during the third round of the 2014 Valero Texas Open: “If everyone on Tour played like him I’d quit announcing.” Michelle Wie, circa 2005-2007 She charmed at the 2004 Sony Open as a 14-year-old when she shot 72-68 to miss the cut by a stroke. Alas, Wie missed the '05-'07 Sony cuts by miles, WD'd from the '06 John Deere with heat exhaustion, and, in a move that tournament host Annika Sorenstam said lacked "respect and class," Wie withdrew from the '07 Ginn Tribute after going 14 over for her first 16 holes. She cited an injured wrist, but critics cited the LPGA rule that bumps players off the circuit for the rest of the year if they shoot 88 or worse. They seemed to have a point &#151; Wie was spotted beating balls two days later.

Having put some distance between herself and her parents, Wie began to get back into the public's good graces when she got a wild-card pick and went 3-0-1 for the 2009 U.S. Solheim Cup team. Her maturation and improved play culminated in two victories in 2014, including the U.S. Women's Open at Pinehurst. John Daly The godfather of hillbilly golf, Daly blew up the old idea that golf was all about refinement and restraint. His drinking, smoking, gambling, ex-wives and unchecked impulses have offended many, but he did bring new fans to the golf course. He also cut an album, and gave us at least one wonderful song title: "All my exes wear Rolexes." His 2010 song "Hit It Hard" has gotten play recently on SiriusXM. Sergio Garcia, in 2002 (and beyond) Everyone loved Garcia's exuberance at the 1999 PGA, but it didn't last. Said one U.S.

star after the 2002 Ryder Cup, "We lost to 11 gentlemen and one little boy." Even European captain Sam Torrance got mad when El Nino made light of Torrance having ranked the win behind his marriage and the birth of his child. "One moment here," Sam said to the child star in front of the press. "I tell you one thing: You will have a kid, and you'll know how important it is. It was more important than today." When New York fans jeered his incessant waggling at the '02 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, Garcia flipped them the bird. After he lost the '07 British Open at Carnoustie to Padraig Harrington, Sergio wallowed in self-pity, saying the gods were against him. He criticized Augusta National as "too tricky" in '09 but later apologized. He's had a memorable feud with Tiger but has made up and enjoyed once of the most successful years of his career in 2014.

Paul Casey, circa 2004 Swept away in Ryder Cup rhetoric, Casey became the victim of a sensationalist headline writer in the U.K., and before he knew it, he had supposedly called Americans stupid (didn't happen) while denigrating the country where he went to college, found his wife and still lives. The massive fall-out included loss of income in the hundreds of thousands for Casey, whose game cratered as he apologized and worked to get back in the good graces of American fans. By the time he did a lengthy Q&A with Golf Magazine in 2008, the whole villain label was a thing of the past. Rory Sabbatini Say this for golf's original Rory: He doesn't take the easy way out. When playing partner Ben Crane was plodding along too slowly, Sabbatini left him in the dust. When Tiger Woods was playing mediocre golf by his own lofty standards in 2007, Sabbatini said he looked "more beatable than ever." (Woods responded by stomping Sabbatini 65-74 on Sunday at the WGC-Bridgestone.) "Sabo" wears his confidence and belt buckles like few others on Tour.

So? It's said that if you live an honest life, and are true to your ideals above all else, you're bound to rub a few people the wrong way. Stephen Ames Like Sabbatini, Ames wears his confidence proudly, makes little or no effort to self-censor, and has gotten burned for it, most memorably by tugging on Superman's cape. Ames told the AP before playing Tiger Woods at the 2006 WGC-Accenture Match Play, "Anything can happen, especially where he's hitting the ball." Woods beat Ames, 9 and 8. Ian Poulter The late-blooming Englishman's unique combination of self-absorption (a headcover in his likeness), strut (the spiky hair, the groovy attire) and candor (it'll be just him and Tiger one day, he told a U.K. magazine) make him a lightning rod. Love him or hate him, Poulter stirs passions, which of course is exactly why he's good for the game.

Jan Stephenson, in 2003 The onetime siren told Golf Magazine in a lengthy Q&A, "This is probably going to get me in trouble, but the Asians are killing our tour." Yep, it got her in trouble all right. The LPGA got in hot water, too, when it subsequently tried to force its Korean players to learn English. Kevin Na He's young, talented... and slow. In and of itself, that wouldn't be a problem, but unlike Ben Crane, insular Na has been more defiant than contrite about his pokey playing habits. Slow and proud is not a winning combination on Tour. Colin Montgomerie Few players have drawn the ire of golf fans like Colin Montgomerie. Monty's stellar play in the Ryder Cup and hyper-sensitivity to slights from the gallery ensured that the Scotsman more than his fair share of controversy. Monty enjoyed a renaissance in 2014, winning two Senior majors and making peace with American fans. "I’ve matured,” he says. “I’ve realized that you need the fans on your side.

There’s no point in fighting against a few thousand of them out there.” Bubba Watson He's one of the game's folk heroes, but the down-home demeanor that fans love has sometimes gotten the two-time Masters champion in trouble. Here's Bubba on seeing the sites of Paris when in Europe for the 2011 French Open: "I don't know the names of all the things, the big tower, Eiffel Tower, an arch (Arc de Triomphe), whatever. I rode around in a circle. And then what's that - it starts with an 'L' - Louvre, something like that. One of those." He later apologized. Bubba hasn't been immune from trouble on American soil, either. He apologized for his behavior during the 2014 PGA Championship, which included hitting an iron off the tee to protest the long-drive contest and losing his cool during the rain-soaked second round. Steve Elkington One of the smoothest swingers in the history of the game doesn't have quite the same tempo on social media.

Jokes about a Scottish helicopter crash, a female golf reporter, and a Previous John Daly is slimmed down and fired up for Hollywood - Devil Ball Golf - Golf Blog - Yahoo! Sports John Daly is slimmed down and fired up for Hollywood By Jay Busbee As one golf star falls, another rises. For the past two decades, the name "John Daly" has been synonymous in golf circles with the kind of lifestyle better suited to country music than the soft piano tones you hear on every golf telecast. He could grip it and rip it better than anybody on Tour, and played his way into two majors, but off the course his life was one long speed down a dark highway with the lights off. Daly hit rock bottom around this time last year. He was found passed out outside a North Carolina Hooters , and later smashed a fan's camera while playing in Australia . The PGA Tour suspended him for six months, and it looked like the long, hard road of golf's most famous party animal was about to end in an ugly fashion. But then Daly did something nobody would ever have expected -- and considering what he'd done in the past, that's saying something: He cleaned up. And now he might be going Hollywood .

Daly, as the photos above indicate, has shed well over 100 pounds in the last year as a result of lap-band surgery, and he's now a slim, trim 185. He's talking about writing a new book, and at a press conference Tuesday prior to the Australian PGA, he noted that he'd also like to see a movie made of the insanity that has been his life, both on and off the course. He's already thought about who would play him in the movie. He recommended pal Kevin James for the "before" version. And for the "after"? "I just saw Matt Damon, how he swung a golf club, and I thought if I ever made a movie, I want him to be me," Daly said. "The problem is, who is going to play all the ex-wives?" Daly laughed. He has four ex-wives whom he immortalized in a song, "All My Exes Wear Rolexes." Daly's in the middle of a yearlong redemption tour. In addition to playing well at the British Open -- he made the cut where Tiger Woods didn't -- he's now back in Coolum, Australia at the site of one of his most famous blowups.

In 2002, he carded a triple-bogey 7 on the 18th hole, then threw his ball and putter into the lake and stormed off without signing his scorecard, disqualifying himself from the tournament. He was fined nearly $6,000 by the Australasian PGA Tour and ordered to write an I'm-sorry letter. It doesn't look like Daly will be producing those kinds of sparks this weekend, but that's probably for the best. Daly may no longer have the biggest waistline on tour, but he's still -- sappy sports metaphor coming -- got one of the game's biggest hearts. He donned pink pants in support of Phil Mickelson 's wife Amy in her fight against breast cancer earlier this year. And Tuesday, he took a not-so-subtle shot at players like Jesper Parnevik who have criticized Woods for his alleged off-course behavior: "I'm not too happy with what some of the players have said. Without him our tour would not survive as what it is when Tiger plays." Whether or not Woods returns any time soon, it looks like Daly is back to stay. And that's very good for golf indeed.

Prepare for a new John Daly book, then the movie? [AP via Yahoo! Sports] ______ BBC SPORT | Funny Old Game | Daly swaps greens for blues Friday, 29 November, 2002, 12:35 GMT Daly swaps greens for blues By Ian Hughes BBC Sport Online's very own Wild Thing John Daly is no longer just living the life of a rock and roll star - he has become one. The American, who is renowned for his rebellious behaviour, has recorded an 11-song album called My Life. Not surprisingly it documents his experiences over 36 turbulent years and Daly has not been lacking inspiration for his musical autobiography. I can't sing - I sound like s*** John Daly He has struggled with alcoholism, marital problems and gambling addiction and admits his life has been a series of extreme highs and lows. "The songs are pretty much my life. There's blues, soul, rock country. It is me, there's no doubt about it," said Daly. One thing that is lacking, however, is talent as the man nicknamed the Lion freely admits. Of his guitar playing he concedes "I still suck at that" and he was even more self-deprecating about his vocal ability.

The former British Open and US PGA champion said: "I can't sing - I sound like s***." But lovers of raw, emotionally charged songs may soon find that their treasured copy of Celine Dion's greatest hits is replaced in the CD drawer. Daly opens his heart on the album, spending some time Knocking on Heaven's Door as well as claiming "I'm Drunk, Damn Broke and Ain't Got a Penny To My Name". That tune was probably written after he had composed the bitter-sweet ballad All My Exes Wear Rolexes. Willie Nelson guests on the album Scathing comment on the thrice-married star's relationships which failed to stand the test of time. But sensitively, Daly adds: "It's not as if the song mentions any of them by name." One of the tracks, Where Am I Now? seems to sum up the question Daly has often asked after a wild, wayward tee shot has left him rummaging in the rough. Disappointingly, there is no cover of Wild Thing and Daly has missed a trick by failing to record REM's classic Drive - a song made for the big man, surely.

My Life - John Daly | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic John Daly ©2017 AllMusic, member of the RhythmOne group | All Rights Reserved

Question: Which golfer released the song "All My Exes Wear Rolexes" in 2002?
Answer: John Daly