Don’t photograph John Daly without wearing a flak jacket
We don’t go out of our way to find stories that make John Daly look bad. Really, I swear. They just kind of drop in our laps, like this newest one: in Australia on Thursday, Daly didn’t exactly take kindly to being photographed. Daly, finishing out an ugly 6-over 78 at the Australian Open that likely took him out of cut contention, grabbed the guy’s camera and smashed it into a tree.
Now, this is very much a he-snapped/he-snapped situation; it’s easy to see Daly’s side of things here. You play like garbage, the last thing you want to deal with is some Aussie paparazzi-wannabe shoving his little digital camera in your face. “I was looking to take a drop and a camera was 6 inches away from my face,” Daly said in a statement after the round. “If I was 10 under, I would have felt the same,” Daly said. “My eyes are still burning from the flash of the camera … I feel it was very rude to put a camera that close to somebody’s face in any situation. The guy that had the camera had already taken a dozen shots at close range.”
Down Under and Daly don’t exactly get along. In 2002, he threw his putter and ball into a greenside lake after finishing out a seven-over final round at the Australian PGA, then stormed off without signing his card. He was fined $5,600 — in Daly terms, about 980 Hooters’ Stacked Wing platters — and ordered to apologize to a whole buncha folks.
To a great extent, Daly’s a victim of his chosen profession. An NBA player who smashed a camera against a wall wouldn’t rate a mention in the first 30 minutes of SportsCenter. Shoot, in the last week alone the NFL has seen self-inflicted gunshot wounds and full frontal nudity; a simple camera-smash would probably get a thank-you note from the commissioner’s office.
But Daly plays golf, where a club angrily returned to a bag is a cause for a reprimand. So it’s bad luck for him. That, and the fact that he has a bit of trouble with, you know, basic sports self-control.
The only upside to all this is that we’re probably about one season away from Daly doing a full-on bodyslam
of some smarmy golfer. It’s gonna happen, you know it.
And this short article about a Photographer who really upset Ian Poulter, now Tiger Woods had a famous few run ins with Photographers, guys clicking on his backswing.
‘Novice’ photographer in golf tournament storm
Monday 6th July 2009
Chris Cheesman A British golfer has blamed the sound of a camera’s shutter for destroying his chances of winning the French Open.
Angry golfer Ian Poulter said the three clicks of a camera 25 yards away caused him to hit his ball into the water on the 15th hole.
Poulter, who yesterday finished in third place, told reporters afterwards: ‘It’s frustrating when you get a novice cameraman out here this week.
‘It spoils the day, spoils the tournament. It’s one I want to win and some stupid cameraman makes it difficult for you.’
Poulter vowed to pull out of next year’s event over the incident.
The identity of the photographer has not been revealed.
