Tough Day For Daly: Kicked Out Of Palmer And Loses Swing Coach

Orlando, FL (AHN) - John Daly had a tough day on Wednesday as first he was fired by his swing coach Butch Harmon, then he was kicked out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational for missing the pro-am.

Daly said he was giving the wrong information that caused him to miss the tee time, which also knocked two other players out of the tournament.

The PGA Tour has a policy that anyone missing the pro-am is ineligible to play in the tournament.

Daly, who received a sponsor's exemption to play in the tournament, played in Monday pro-am at Bay Hill and said he was asked to play the Wednesday pro-am. He said he called Tuesday to find out his tee time and a woman in the office told him 9:47 a.m., which instead was his scheduled starting time for Thursday's first round.

Nick O'Hern and Ryuji Imada were alternates for the pro-am. They both thought they were assigned to an afternoon group. Instead, they were the first two names called when Daly didn't show, and since they weren't around, either, they both were disqualified from the $5.8 million event, too.

O'Hern only lives five minutes from Isleworth.

Said O'Hern, "I thought common sense would have prevailed. This is a tough one to take. Unfortunately, we got caught up in John's snowball effect."

Daly also lost his swing coach in Harmon, who said he believes Daly is more interested in drinking than working on his game.

Harmon said Daly's behavior last week at the PODS Championship was the last straw, especially his decision to let Tampa Bay Bucs head coach Jon Gruden caddy for him and then the decision to drink with fans, including autographing the back of one woman's pants.

Said Daly, "It hasn't been a good day. This is the last thing I needed in my life. I feel like I let Arnold down. And, I just wish Butch had called me before getting slapped in the face."