Golf: Daly recaps on drugs

'GOLF Stars Snort Coke]' screamed the tabloid headline and it was close to the truth. Substitute the word drink for snort and it might be even closer, writes Tim Glover.

John 'Wild Thing' Daly, clutching a can of Coke, was, inevitably, the source of a sensational expose. 'I was asked if some players used cocaine and I said I had heard some rumours about it,' Daly revealed yesterday. 'I just wanted to say that I was not the only guy on tour who had ever had any problems, that Daly is not the only guy to have gone through rehab. I'm tired of being labelled the only bad guy, although I admit it's good for my image.'

Daly, a reformed alcoholic, added: 'I don't actually know anyone doing drugs on tour but anyone that does is not going to do well. My career has been a little like a soap opera. I am the bad image of golf when it comes to alcohol and I spoke from the heart as everyone who knows me knows I do. I am not going to take the rap for the whole of the PGA Tour.

'I have never done drugs, my father always told me never to do anything illegal. Alcohol is legal. I am the only guy they ever talk about having rehab but I really believe this drugs thing is out there. I don't know why they don't drugs test us. I'd probably be the cleanest person out there. I suppose it's the image of golf. People don't want to read or see about guys on the course doing drugs. It's a gentlemanly sport. I guess I may have brought it out in the open.'

Peter Jacobsen, a former member of the US Tour's policy board who accompanied Daly in the press room at Gleneagles, said: 'Maybe it's time for golf to step into the real world and have drug testing. How many of you guys are on speed to make a deadline? You may laugh but it happens. It's in society.' The doyens of British golf writing were bemused. 'What is speed?' they asked each other.