John Daly hates having to use a cart in the PGA Championship and probably wouldn't do it unless the major didn't mean so much to him. Daly used the cart for nine practice holes Wednesday, arriving at the Bethpage Black clubhouse with an elastic bandage around his right knee, a cigarette in one hand and a wish that he could simply walk the 7,459-yard rolling course the next four days. The PGA of America has come under criticism for giving Daly access to a cart for medical reasons. A committee on the American with Disabilities Act gave Daly an exemption because the arthritis in his knee would have prevented him from competing. After playing Wednesday, Daly said the cart is a big disadvantage. He can't figure out where he can go with it. "Trust me, I hate riding in the cart," the 53-year-old said. "If I could walk, I would do it. I could probably walk four holes and be done. The thing swells up so bad." The long-hitting Daly has been playing in the PGA Tour Champions, a 50-and-older circuit that allows for carts, since 2016, winning once in 2017. He has not won on the PGA Tour since capturing the 2004 Buick Open. What everybody remembers, though, is his first victory. He captured the PGA Championship in 1991 after getting into the field as the ninth alternate. John Daly enjoys a cigarette during Wednesday's practice round. (Julio Cortez/Associated Press) That memory keeps him coming back. "I am a past major winner of this; I just feel obligated. I don't know why," Daly said. "I just do. It got me started in my career. It's very special to me and I just feel like I need to play, or try to anyway." Daly will be the first player to ride in a cart at a major since Casey Martin in the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in 1998 and 2012. Bethpage will be a challenge, Daly said. It's long and the fairways are not providing much roll after recent rain. He noted the greens are perfect. His game isn't. "It's so-so," said the heavy-set player who has lived on the wild side and paid a price for it. "It's not great, but you never know. Give it a shot and see what happens."<doc-sep>John Daly is always going to be a fan favorite whenever he tees it up but this week at the PGA Championship it seems even more special as the chain-smoking bomber is driving around the legendaryBethpage Black course in a cart. Daly, who broke onto the scene with a storybook win at the 1991 PGA Championship, was granted permission by the PGA’s Americans with Disabilities Act committee to use a cart this week due to arthritis in his knee. And while Tiger Woods made a funny joke about it before the tournament began, Daly said he wishes he didn’t have to use it and that it’s a disadvantage. But now that the tournament is underway, it’s clear to see that the cart is a thing of beauty and it’s becoming a break out star of this major. First of all, it’s packed with everything you’d see in an unhealthy weekend hacker’s cart: John Dalys cart. 3 or 4 empty diet cokes a mcdonalds soda and a pack of cigs pic.twitter.com/OwY8VlIojy — Liam (@liam_hinesss) May 16, 2019 Yeah but he’s got a buncha empties in there to — Liam (@liam_hinesss) May 16, 2019 I mean, just look at this athlete: And fans are loving it: John Daly driving his golf cart at the #PGAChampionship. Cigarette in hand and large Diet Coke from McDonalds in the cup holder. As one does. pic.twitter.com/WwmZ8WlTEk — Dustin Schutte (@SchutteCFB) May 16, 2019 John Daly wheeling up to the green at a major with a cig in one hand, his putter in the other and a McDonald's cup in the cart. The American Dream distilled to a screenshot. pic.twitter.com/uDYiasDlkL — Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) May 16, 2019 Cigarette ✔️ McDonald’s Cup ✔️ NYC-Themed Pants ✔️ Driving A Cart On A Cart-Pathless Course ✔️ John Daly is crushing his Thursday afternoon round at his local muni. pic.twitter.com/nCgv6dHRBh — Jason MacBain (@JaBain) May 16, 2019 Here’s John Daly and his cart on the third tee. Someone in the crowd just said, “You’re my idol.” #PGAChampionship pic.twitter.com/qwDuJGzUfa — PGA Championship Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) May 16, 2019 This John Daly thing is bizarre. He is fist-bumping fans while driving his cart between holes. #PGAChamp — Neil Best (@sportswatch) May 16, 2019 Just a man and his steed. John Daly the GOAT. pic.twitter.com/WWJisSP9fq — SI Golf (@SI_Golf) May 16, 2019 Is John Daly's Golf cart a taken twitter handle yet? #askingforafriend — Ryan Walters (@RyanWalt525) May 16, 2019 John Daly is equipped with a golf cart and a medium coke from McDonald's. pic.twitter.com/oUbviRkOrM — Alex Seixeiro (@alexfan590) May 16, 2019 The 🐐 — Cheyenne Jarvis (@cjarvis24) May 16, 2019 John Daly cruising around the Players Championship on a golf cart is the best thing I’ve seen all week! 😂 — Greg Hernberg (@Ghernz1534) May 16, 2019<doc-sep>Eamon Lynch, Golfweek FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — It was a glistening, 420-horsepower Cadillac Escalade that ferried John Daly to the distant 10th tee at Bethpage Black on Thursday afternoon, and a mud-spattered, 3.3 horsepower electric cart that he pointed down the fairway to begin his opening round in the 101st PGA Championship. His ride, like his career, a faded carbon of what it once was. A man who quickly swaps vehicles deep in the Long Island woods might fall under suspicion of doing something illegal, but in the case of Daly it was merely something unsporting. And unsurprising. The 1991 PGA champion is the first golfer to compete on wheels in a major championship since Casey Martin qualified for the U.S. Open in 2012. Martin has Klippel-Trénaunay syndrome, a debilitating and incurable condition that could eventually lead to amputation of his right leg. Daly has osteoarthritis in his knee, a wear-and-tear injury common among veteran golfers. Jack Nicklaus had it. So too did Tom Watson. Both had hips replaced. Neither requested a cart so he might compete in a major. There is a huge difference between Martin using a cart due to an incurable condition and Daly using one for a treatable ailment. That’s not to suggest he isn’t in discomfort. Each time Daly dismounted his cart there was obvious evidence of a bum knee, but also a crummy health regimen. The cart had a cup holder for his large McDonald’s Diet Coke, but lacked an ashtray for his ever-present cigarette. Last summer Daly’s request for a cart at the U.S. Senior Open was denied by the USGA, a decision he accepted with customary grace (“I've had it with the USGA and the way they run their tournaments.”). He applied again this week under the Americans with Disabilities Act and got a green light from the PGA of America. The tournament organizers have accepted that Daly is entitled to use a cart, but his exercising that entitlement doesn’t sit well with some fellow competitors. Like Tiger Woods. He was asked about Daly’s mobile major earlier this week. “Well, I walked with a broken leg, so….” he replied archly. One player warming up down range from Daly on Thursday wondered aloud if cart wheels on a soft course might adversely impact lies for those playing behind. More:John Daly wishes Tiger Woods had known 'all the facts' before criticizing him over golf cart Opinion:The Tiger from the Masters goes missing during first round of PGA Championship But Daly is not a man easily cowed by the disapproval of others, public or private. That is apparent annually during the Masters, when he parks his bus in a Hooters lot close to Augusta National to hawk tacky merchandise and sign the buttocks of any woman eager for the ink (there was one last month). So he cruised Bethpage Black in a one-man ticker tape parade. None of Daly’s fellow competitors actually believes he can win, or even contend. Since that epic win in 1991 he has accumulated 17 missed cuts and has withdrawn twice, to go along with just three top-50 finishes. His controversial cart won’t require a full charge since he’s unlikely to see the weekend. But competitiveness isn’t relative to fairness. There is a sentiment among Daly’s fellow pros that he is being permitted to make his usual half-hearted effort without even the burden of having to walk between bogeys (he made five of them Thursday in a dismal 75 that left him 12 strokes off the lead, tied for 112th). Daly’s appeal is obvious, and amplified at a venue that bills itself as the “People’s Country Club.” In a game awash with tailored, rake-thin banalities Daly maintains a budget everyman mien. The bleached hair and wraparound shades. The belt straining at the loops. Today he wore pants adorned with Yankees logos — and that wasn’t even the most widely-loathed New York dynasty represented on his attire since his sleeve also carried the “Trump” insignia. There were cheers, for sure. There always are, whatever his failings. But around the grounds at Bethpage Black there is also an unmistakeable sense that the Daly Show is a tired act, that he is afforded courtesies that his conduct long ago cost him any right to expect. Sure, he earned his spot in the field as a former champion, and he has been legitimately granted a cart. But professional pride and sportsmanship should have rendered moot a decision on availing himself of either. “It sucks, getting old,” Daly observed the other day. He’s right about that. But even at 53 he remains proof that growing old and growing up are mutually exclusive.<doc-sep>BETHPAGE, N.Y. — Two young guys wearing khakis and quarter-zip fleeces are standing in the shade right next to the 10th tee at Bethpage Black. They’ve lost their friends and scan the growing crowd on the other side of the ropes until the one leaning against the tree spots the rest of their group. “Dude, tell them to come this way,” he says. “We wanna watch Daly tee off from right here!” It’s 12:40 p.m. on Thursday. John Daly is supposed to begin his PGA Championship in 14 minutes, but he’s nowhere to be found. He’s playing with Y.E. Yang, who won the tournament in 2009 and Rich Beem, who won in 2002. They’re both here, but Daly—who won in 1991—seems to be taking his sweet time. The 53-year-old golfer has made plenty of news this week. The PGA's Americans with Disabilities Act committee decided he could use a golf cart at Bethpage due to the arthritis in his knee. The decision has been controversial—Daly is only the second player, after Casey Martin, to be permitted use of a cart on the PGA Tour. Other golfers haven’t been jazzed about the decision. Tiger Woods, when asked about it on Tuesday, said, “As far as J.D. taking a cart? I walked with a broken leg, so ...” Everyone here waiting for Daly seems pretty psyched about it, though. The cart has become one of the main storylines of the day, and we’re all packed in here to see the moment it finally rolls into view. Daly’s drawing a crowd that could rival the numbers Woods drew this morning, and this place is buzzing—people (mostly men) are lined up ten-deep behind me. They’re all cracking some version of the same joke. “All the drunks are gonna follow him,” one guy says. “I wonder if he has a cooler of beers in there,” another wonders. 12:45 comes and goes. Daly is about to be late for his own tee time (12:54) at a major championship. Beem and Yang take some practice swings. 12:46—still nothing. But at 12:47 a roar erupts from the crowd (whoops punctuated with “Big John!”s and “J.D. !”s) as Daly comes into view, bombing up the fairway in a dark green cart. He’s driving himself and he’s alone. His caddy, Peter Van Derriet, will have to walk. Daly’s white pants are patterned with the New York Yankees’ logo. He gets out of the cart and makes his way to the tee without much trouble. “Johnny you gotta sell it, limp a little,” says one of the many guys behind me. “He looks like Donald Trump!” another member of the crowd says. Daly does look like Trump, if Trump and Hulk Hogan had a kid together and that kid grew up to smoke at least a pack of Marlboro Reds a day. Daly’s hair is shockingly blond and he’s rocking a deep tan, a blue polo, and white wraparound shades. He’s the last in his group to tee off, and I don’t see where his ball goes, but it doesn’t really matter. No one’s here to watch him golf; he doesn’t have a shot at winning. We’re here to watch him be a spectacle. “Did you see him walk to his cart?,” one guy says to his friend, as they turn to follow Daly’s group. “Highlight of the event so far.” “So awesome,” his buddy replies. “I love J.D.” A lot of people do. After Daly sinks his putt on the 10th, his first hole of the day, he makes his way haltingly back to his cart, which is farther away than the 11th tee at this point. He drives by the ropes. A man who looks a lot like Daly yells out to him. Daly doesn’t really acknowledge the fan, but that doesn’t stop the guy from turning to his wife and saying, “very friendly, very nice man.” Except...is he? It’s tempting to write about, think about, and experience Daly as a goofy uncle, as golf’s punchline, as The Funny Man In The Loud Pants, as the guy who rides around in a cart, ripping butts and sipping from McDonald’s drinks that he keeps in the cupholder. But that’s not exactly what we’re working with, and a lot of people here are either willingly forgetting that or never knew in the first place. In 1992—a year after winning this very tournament—Daly was arrested and charged with third-degree assault for throwing his second wife Bettye Fulford against a wall when he was drunk. He pled guilty. In 2007, he turned up at a PGA tournament in Memphis with scratches on his face that he claimed came from his fourth wife, Sherrie, who stabbed him with a knife while he was sleeping. Sherrie countered with a court petition accusing Daly of sexually assaulting her and making up the knife story as a cover. In addition to the charges of abuse against two out of his four wives, there’s a dark sadness to Daly’s own fight with himself. He’s struggled for decades with addiction; in 2010 he spent the night in jail after passing out in a Hooters, the restaurant chain outside of which he regularly parks his tour bus and holds meet-and-greets. He’s had sponsorship deals pulled because he refused to go to rehab. This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his run-ins with the law and his attempts (or non-attempts) to get sober, but you can google the rest. You get the point. The sport he plays has, to some extent, enabled this. Daly has consistently used golf to wash away his sins. He admitted as much in 2017 in an interview with TMZ Sports following Woods’ arrest for a DUI when he sent Woods a message: "Get back on the golf course, man,” he said. “This stuff will pass. It always does. Hey, it proves he's human, he's one of us, baby. I love him." It does pass, apparently. By the time Daly gets to the 13th hole, there’s a huge crowd following him around, straining against the ropes.<doc-sep>
John Daly made news last week when he received approval from the PGA to use a cart at this week’s PGA Championship. He’ll be the first player to use a cart at a major championship since Casey Martin used one at the 1998 and 2012 U.S. Opens due to circulation problems in his legs. It’s controversial because walking is part of the game, and many believe that a cart has no place in a professional golf tournament. If you can’t walk the course, then you can’t compete, goes the thinking. Criticism from Tiger Woods Tiger Woods gave voice to that line of thinking on Tuesday at a PGA Championship news conference. “I walked with a broken leg, so ... ” Woods told reporters when asked about Daly using a cart. He was referencing his famous 2008 U.S. Open championship victory that required a 19-hole Monday playoff against Rocco Mediate while playing with an injured knee. Even John Daly isn't a fan of John Daly using a cart at this week's PGA Championship. (AP) Daly: ‘I hate riding in the cart’ As it turns out, even Daly’s not a fan of Daly using a cart. He used one during a practice round Wednesday at Bethpage Black and told reporters he’d rather not. “Trust me, I hate riding in the cart,” Daly told reporters. “If I could walk, I would do it. I could probably walk four holes and be done. The thing swells up so bad.” That “thing” is his osteoarthritic right knee which has required meniscus surgery and Daly claims prevents him from being able to walk downhill. It’s the reason he got an exception to ride this week in the tournament he has a lifetime invitation to thanks to his 1991 PGA Championship win. So while it turns out that Daly doesn’t like using the cart, he apparently doesn’t like the idea of missing out on the PGA Championship even more. Given an opportunity to play, he’s not passing it up, even if it means taking heat for his choice to ride. Will Daly hear it from fans? This week’s PGA Championship is taking place at Bethpage Black, which has a distinct reputation for two traits — being an extremely difficult course and having an extremely rowdy gallery. Story continues Daly, who is no stranger to getting rowdy himself, knows that he may not be met with kindest reception from fans who don’t like that he’s riding. "I hope I don't get a lot of grief from the fans," Daly told the Associated Press last week. "My knee is screwed.” More from Yahoo Sports: