Considering he hadn’t won in eight years, hadn’t played much in the past three, and had spent the first part of this season without any playing status to speak of, it was a shock to see Scottsdale pro Joe Daley in the winner’s circle last Sunday following his playoff win at the Nationwide Tour’s Wichita Open.
Well, perhaps to everyone but Daley and the guy he beat with a birdie on the first extra hole, Shane Bertsch.
“There is not another guy out here I would rather lose to than Joe,’’ said the gracious Bertsch, who just happens to be Daley’s hunting and fishing companion, as well as best friend.
“With all Joe’s gone through, I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s battled a lot just to get his (Nationwide Tour) status back, and now he’s close to getting his PGA Tour card back, too.’’
It’s been seven years since Daley left the big leagues, where he played without much success in 1996 and ’98. And it’s been five long seasons since he was involved in one of the most well-chronicled horror stories ever at PGA Tour qualifying school.
Playing in the 2000 Q-School finals at La Quinta, Calif., Daley had a birdie putt go into the cup, completely disappear and then bounce back out. A crooked cup-liner cost him the lone shot he needed to get his PGA Tour card that year.
“Yeah, I still have people come up to me and say, ‘Aren’t you the Q-School guy who had the putt pop out?’ ’’ said the good-natured Daley, whose only win as a professional came at the 1997 Louisiana Open on the old Nike Tour.
“My solace in all of that is, I never hit a 5-footer more solid in my life than I did that putt. At the same time, that was just one of 8,200-or-so shots I took that year, so I had plenty of other chances along the way. . . . At least I can laugh about it now.’’
The 44-year-old Daley has been to Q-School every year since but to no avail, part of that due to a painful neck injury that sidelined him for the entire 2003 season and part of ’04. But after jumping from No. 42 to No. 10 on the Nationwide money list this week with $149,320 -- more than half of that coming from the $85,000 he won in Wichita -- Daley has a solid shot to get back to where he wants to be IF he can remain among the Nationwide’s top 20 money winners. (Gavin Coles was No. 20 last season with $198,683.)
“It’s been a long road back,’’ admitted Daley, who had shown signs of a rebirth after losing six-way playoff earlier this year in Chattanooga, Tenn., and then tying for fourth at Scranton, Pa.
“The mental thing of being able to know that you can still do it is so important. But that was the goal when I started this season: to win and return to the PGA Tour. I mean, the Nationwide is a great opportunity, but making it to the PGA Tour is the only reason we’re really out here.’’
If the truth be known, Daley always has been a dark horse. He was prematurely born at 2 pounds 2 ounces in 1960, back when “preemies’’ didn’t have nearly the chance they do today. He spent two tenuous months in an incubator before doctors declared him ready for the world.
Growing up as a kid near Philadelphia also was a school of hard knocks. Especially for Daley, a hockey brat who religiously followed the Flyers.
“I got plenty of black eyes and cuts playing hockey,’’ Daley recalled. “But eventually I got into golf by caddying at Philadelphia Cricket Club, where they let us play on Mondays. Later, I made No. 3 guy on our high school golf team.’’
Despite a lackluster resume, Daley’s game kept persevering. He played on the golf team at Old Dominion while earning a bachelors degree in finance. Upon graduation in 1983, he spent the next eight years as a credit manager who was known as a good amateur golfer.
“But in 1992, I quit that job and started playing on the Canadian Tour,’’ Daley said of the about-face that radically changed his life. “From there, I went to South Africa, South America, Asia, Australia, Europe and New Zealand while playing off and on minitours in Florida, where I also worked as a waiter.’’
They were the toughest of times and yet the best of times, Daley added.
“What I found out in my case was, I had to be willing to travel the world and work really hard if I was going to get any better. And over the course of that adventure, me and my wife, Carol, have become a team that knows how to handle adversity.’’
Carol, who works as a teacher at Aztec Elementary School in Scottsdale, has certainly been an integral part .Her paychecks have kept “Team Daley’’ floating the past two years as Joe tried to find relief from two herniated discs in his neck.
“When you’ve been out here as long as I have, you know what it’s like when it’s not happening, and it wasn’t happening the past two seasons,’’ said Daley, who earned just over $25,000 during that span.
“Seriously, this is the most job security I’ve ever had in my life, even if it’s only going to last for a year or so, or until I win again. I guess the bottom line is, I still need about $50,000 to get my PGA Tour card.
“Yes, it’s never-ending. . . . But I’m just so happy right now, I can’t even think about it.’’
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