John Daly shot his highest ever score on the PGA Tour, an astonishing 19-over-par 90, in the second round at the Tampa Bay Championship on Friday.
The two-time major champion, who is suffering from the yips, ran up a 12 at the par-four 16th hole, where he put three balls into the water on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, Florida.
But it was not his worst single-hole score, because he had an 18 at the par-five sixth hole at the 1998 Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando.
“I just played awful,” Daly told the Tampa Bay Times website.
“It really wasn't that bad of a drive,” Daly said of his disaster at the 16th hole.
“Then I tried to hit two three-woods over the water and then bailed out left. Shanked a seven-iron from there. Got up and down for a 12. It was a good 12.”
Daly also had five bogeys and three double bogeys, which he blamed primarily on the putting yips.
“It's no fun,” he said of the yips after recording 37 putts. “I can't stop it.”
Daly, 47, captured the imagination of the golf world when he emerged from obscurity to win the 1991 PGA Championship with a powerful display of long driving that was unprecedented at the time.
He added the 1995 British Open at St. Andrews to his winning resume, but has always been an inconsistent player with a long history of at least one round each year in the 80s.
His previous worst score was an 89 at the 2008 British Open at Turnberry.
At least he finished on Friday, signing for a 22-over 164 total.
At the 2011 Australian Open he quit after running out of balls at The Lakes course in Sydney. – Reuters