PGA Championship: John Daly shouldn’t be riding a cart in competition

John Daly will be allowed to ride in a cart at the PGA Championship next week, but the ruling doesn’t make much sense at all.

John Daly is one of the most colorful characters in all of golf. A longtime fan favorite, he is still somewhat active on the PGA TOUR Champions, although he might be more known these days for his annual appearances in Augusta, Georgia; not that he’s in any way part of the Masters Tournament. Daly does still have some major championship play left in him, and he’ll be making his next start at the 101st PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.

If you don’t catch him by his loud outfits, there’ll be one other thing that makes him hard to miss: he’ll be the guy riding in a golf cart on Thursday and Friday. It’s a controversial decision, and if you ask me, one that shouldn’t have been made.

There’s a couple reasons for this. The first, and most connected to the rules of the game, is the question over whether the arthritis in his knee should qualify as a true “disability”. Daly told the Associated Press that his knee is so bad that he can’t walk any more than six holes without severe swelling.

"“I hope I don’t get a lot of grief from the fans,” Daly told the AP of the famously vocal Bethpage galleries. “My knee is screwed. I had the meniscus cut out. I have osteoarthritis so bad … I can walk up a hill, I just can’t walk down one.”"

Daly was denied permission to ride in a cart at last year’s U.S. Senior Open, and he said he would never play in another USGA event. The PGA of America decided to grant his application this week under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It’s a controversial move, especially when you remember what Casey Martin had to endure throughout his career.

Martin, now the head golf coach at the University of Oregon, won an injunction against the PGA TOUR in 2001 that allowed him to use a cart. His case was a bit different, as he was born with a circulatory disorder that realistically prevented him from walking a course at all. He also played in two U.S. Opens in a cart, including a T23 finish in 1998 at the Olympic Club.

Martin has come out in support of Daly’s cart use, but it definitely feels like a different situation. Martin essentially would have been cut down in his prime by a genetic disorder. Daly, on the other hand, enjoyed a pretty successful career, and as he has grown older, his body is wearing down. It’s the typical progression of things, really.

Which is not to say that Daly shouldn’t be riding a cart at all. The PGA TOUR Champions allows for carts, with the understanding that many of its players will deal with similar results of aging. But in a lot of ways, this doesn’t come across as a true disability. It’s an injury that a lot of his past lifestyle choices probably didn’t do much to prevent.

I still enjoy John Daly in a lot of ways, but there comes a time in every athlete’s career when it’s just time to admit you don’t have it anymore. Big John is 53 years old, and he’s finished all four rounds of the PGA Championship a whopping three times since 1998. He’s an attraction and a fan favorite, to be sure, but if he’s too unhealthy to walk the course, perhaps it would be a better decision to not play at all.

Daly is certainly not unique in wanting to hang on to his lifetime exemption into the PGA Championship. His Open Championship exemption will end in 2026, at age 60, but who knows what will happen between now and then. But there’s a difference between doing all you can to be competitive, and simply hanging on. The PGA of America can’t really be faulted for making this call for a former champion, but if you ask me, Daly probably shouldn’t have been asking in the first place.