cover image John Daly: Wild Thing

John Daly: Wild Thing

William Wartman. HarperCollins Publishers, $22 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-06-101072-9

Daly, raised in a rootless family that moved from California to Arkansas to Missouri, can hit a golf ball farther than anyone else in the game, and he cultivates a blue-collar persona that endears him to the public, if not to officials or his fellow players. He burst into the pro spotlight in 1991 at the age of 24 by winning the PGA championship, and three years later signed a $30 million contract with Wilson Sporting Goods, although his links career was spotty and he had endured a suspension and an alcohol rehab program. But he drew crowds and so got away with much that might have spelled trouble for a less popular figure. In 1995, he won the British Open and, in the view of Wartman (Playing Through), achieved a mature serenity. But readers who have followed Daly's career will wonder whether the author's characterization of him early in the book as ""magnificently talented and endlessly fallible"" is not still accurate. Photos. (June)