{"id":510267,"date":"2026-03-08T01:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T01:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/510267\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T01:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T01:24:08","slug":"as-he-contends-in-pga-tour-debut-john-daly-ii-has-come-a-long-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/510267\/","title":{"rendered":"As he contends in PGA Tour debut, John Daly II has come a long way"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s safe to say, John Daly II couldn\u2019t have done this a couple years ago.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Daly, son of legendary pro John Daly, enters Sunday\u2019s final round of the Puerto Rico Open just three shots back after briefly tying the lead Saturday in what is his PGA Tour debut. But just over a year ago, the younger Daly couldn\u2019t crack the starting lineup at the University of Arkansas as he battled his golf swing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my 30 years of coaching, this is the most satisfying thing I\u2019ve ever seen from a player,\u201d Arkansas head coach Brad McMakin said of Daly\u2019s rise, which has him on the cusp of being a top-50 amateur in the world, at No. 54 in WAGR.<\/p>\n

A diehard Razorback, Daly wasn\u2019t going anywhere else out of high school. Not even after shooting 83 in the opening round of his only tournament as a walk-on freshman and redshirting that next season. Unable to strike the ball at a Power-4 level, Daly couldn\u2019t get by with just his silky short game and mental toughness.<\/p>\n

He finally cracked the lineup for Arkansas\u2019 fall opener as a redshirt-sophomore and proceeded to rattle off six consecutive top-20 finishes. But a T-64 at the 2024 Seminole Intercollegiate spooked McMakin enough where he recommended some significant tweaks to Daly\u2019s swing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started jacking with his swing, saying, you need to fix this and this, and I probably messed him up,\u201d McMakin said.<\/p>\n

Eventually, McMakin conceded his mistake \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve left him alone, and I\u2019ll take the blame,\u201d he said \u2013 and Daly got back to the basics while working with both his dad and former Arkansas assistant Barrett Lais.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t click until last spring. But boy, did it click. After averaging 75.7 in two fall events, Daly ascended into a top role for a struggling Razorbacks\u2019 squad that was teetering around the .500 mark. Daly posted three top-10s, including his first college victory at the Columbia Spring Invitational, and had one round in the 60s in six of seven spring events to help Arkansas squeeze into an NCAA regional, where they nearly advanced with a seventh-place showing in Amherst, Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t going to make regionals, but he carried us there and almost got us through with a very young team,\u201d McMakin said.<\/p>\n

Daly wasn\u2019t done, either. Last summer, he placed third at the Northeast Amateur, won the Southern Amateur on Arkansas\u2019 home course and then advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur at Olympic Club. He backed up that run by placing second at the Bearcat Invitational and winning again at the Blessings, this time Arkansas\u2019 annual fall tournament.<\/p>\n

While Daly has cracked the top 25 just once in six college starts since, his play in Puerto Rico continues to show just how far he\u2019s come since his early college years when he\u2019d aim way left, hit massive pull-cuts and rarely knew exactly where the ball was going. McMakin said Daly\u2019s ball-striking improved 100% from the end of his junior fall to last summer, and he pointed to a shot at the Southern, where he hit 4-iron at the 265-yard, par-3 17th to 10 feet to help polish off that title.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe actually looks the part now,\u201d McMakin said. \u201cHe went from being a bad driver of the golf ball, to now he\u2019s hitting these tight draws, hits it high, has great control. This has been one of the biggest improvements I\u2019ve seen in a player in that short amount a time. I couldn\u2019t be prouder of that kid, and I\u2019m telling you, that kid is the greatest kid. He\u2019s a Christian kid, does everything right, his clothes in his closet are all color coordinated, he\u2019s got everything organized, and he loves the Razorbacks more than anything in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daly arrived at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande on Wednesday, a day removed from wrapping play at the Cabo Collegiate; he wasn\u2019t going to ditch his team at one of the season\u2019s biggest events. He was so tired after Thursday\u2019s opening 70 that he blew off practicing for a well-deserved afternoon at the beach. He fired 5-under 67 on Friday and went bogey-free for 17 holes Saturday before a closing bogey capped a third-round 70 and knocked him back to 9 under for the week. Ricky Castillo leads at 12 under.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Puerto<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Ricky Castillo posted a bogey-free round of 4-under 68 in strong wind Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the windiest day of the week so far, it was really hard to get the numbers right, but stayed in it well, hit some good shots,\u201d Daly told reporters afterward. \u201cYeah, sucks to make my first bogey in a while on 18. Hit a good second shot, just the wind let it rise in the air. Oh, well, it was a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daly\u2019s pops won five times on the PGA Tour, including two majors. Daly II, better known to his friends as \u201cL.J.,\u201d said he didn\u2019t expect Daly Sr. to fly in for Sunday\u2019s final round, as he was out west with some buddies and sponsors.<\/p>\n

As for his goal for Sunday, Daly has remained consistent all week: \u201cJust go out there, try to make a lot of birdies and hit some good shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike a couple years ago, he\u2019s fully capable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s safe to say, John Daly II couldn\u2019t have done this a couple years ago. The 22-year-old Daly,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-510267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}