golfrewind.com

who is the nicest guy on tour?

i went with JD.

i have heard awesome stories about him.

You made a good choice johnny, JD will literally give you the shirt off his back. He is a great guy from Arkansas.

Daly's generosity touches heart of PGA Professional Smith

We've all heard the stories about John Daly's past troubles, but rarely do we hear about his good deeds. But PGA Professional Bruce Smith of Lewisville, Texas, found out how big Big John's heart really is when the former PGA Champion dug deep to help support Smith's infant daughter, who suffers from a rare facial affliction.
By Bob Denney, PGA of America

KOHLER, Wis. (PGA.com) -- PGA Professional Bruce Smith of Lewisville, Texas, calls the opportunity to compete in the 86th PGA Championship "the chance of a lifetime." He earned one of 25 berths to compete at challenging Whistling Straits after a one-hole playoff in June following the 37th PGA Club Professional Championship in Nashport, Ohio.

But, it was a short meeting Saturday with John Daly during a practice round that has left Smith both emotional and near speechless.

Smith, 37, the PGA Head Professional at The Trails of Frisco Golf Club near Dallas, Texas, did his pre-Championship practice before flying home Saturday to prepare for an Aug. 9 Kisses Fore Kennedy Celebrity Pro-Am at his club.

The inaugural charity event, coordinated between Smith and his wife, Kathleen, is intended to raise funds for their infant daughter Kennedy Smith, 2, who was born with lymphatic malformation of a portion of her face. The Smiths plan to use the tournament to support the medical costs for future surgery for their daughter and to support other children with lymphatic malformation.

The celebrity pro-am has attracted 186 players, including members of the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Stars and celebrities that include actor Chuck Norris.

Bruce Smith was playing ahead of Daly Saturday at Whistling Straits, when the long-hitting Tour star caught up with Smith on the 16th tee. Smith offered Daly to play through, but Daly wanted a partner.

"John asked me in the 16th fairway where I was from and I told him, and that I had to catch a flight back to Dallas to set up the charity event for my little girl," said Smith, "I asked him if I could run into the golf shop to find a few things that might be in an auction. He said, 'I can do you one better and get some items from my van and get them to you.' "

Smith and Daly walked a little further down the fairway.

"John reached into his pocket and I thought he was giving me business card. But, he handed me a roll of bills," said Smith. "John said, 'Here, put that in your foundation.' I peeled the bills apart, and there was $1,000. I was pretty choked up about it, and I still am.

"John Daly has had a lot of things happen to him in his life, all of which have been chronicled by many people. But, what he did for a complete stranger is amazing, and it really shows you something about the man."

Kennedy Smith, one of three children of Bruce and Kathleen, will require periodic reconstructive facial surgery the rest of her life. The family's medical insurance, Smith said, does not cover cosmetic surgery.

"I will never forget John and what he has done," said Smith. "I don't know if I will ever get another chance to play in a PGA Championship. But, I'm going to enjoy it no matter what I shoot. I feel very blessed right now."

Kathleen Smith, who said the entries for the pro-am have resulted after just eight weeks of preparation.

"It truly is a blessing and we are certainly excited about the response we have had," said Smith. "We plan in future tournaments to adopt a child that suffers from the same affliction and support them with this tournament. I will be a tired wife of a golf professional this week, but I will be a happy one."

Bruce Smith, the tallest member of the field at 6-foot-8, won't be hard to find at Whistling Straits this week. He will be the big guy from Texas wearing a 10-gallon smile.

The PGA of America, founded in 1916, is a not-for-profit organization that promotes the game of golf while continuing to enhance the standards of the profession. The Association is comprised of more than 28,000 men and women PGA Professionals who are dedicated to growing participation in the game of golf.

Copyright 2004 by PGA.com. All rights reserved.

Johnny, I just don't know enough about their behavior off camera to comment. I'm sure that there are some really terrific guys out there whom we rarely see since they are back in the pack most of the time. If I attended more tournaments, I might feel qualified.

I've heard that Phil signs autographs for fans the way Arnold Palmer used to. I've heard that John Daly interacts a lot with the gallery. But years ago I read a story about what a miserable person a particular golfer was, so I followed him around during a tournament to see for myself. What I found was a guy who was very quiet and kept to himself, but who was very conscientious about all the elements of golf etiquette and expected everyone else to be too. He gave dirty looks to fans who talked while his playing partners were trying to putt, and even had a few quiet words to say to them afterwards. I found that he just concentrated very hard on his game and avoided too many interactions with the fans and his playing partners during the round. I wrote the guy a letter telling him how wrong all the critical articles about him over the years had been, and he responded with a very gracious letter, the beginning of a pleasant correspondence.

My point is that what we read in the press and hear on TV may not be the whole story. A person has to see for himself.

I think I remember reading in one of the John Feinstein books that Davis Love III is really a nice guy.

That being said, I can picture John Daly as a real down-to-earth guy also.

Here is the bottom line, IMO, there are really alot of great guys one all of the tours, I think that sometimes our opinions get jaded by the press and some second hand stories. Anyone can have a bad day or even a bad season, wittness Phil when he almost lost his wife and son last year. As fans we sometimes get to critical, probably due to expectations we have of all these players that are at the pinnacle of their games. Thoughts?

hey vale are you going to let us in on who that golfer was?

Here I go showing my age again: Bruce Crampton, a real gentleman and a very intelligent man, originally from "Down Under" but living in Texas when we were corresponding about 10 years ago. He was still on the senior tour back then and already starting to scale back a bit, but still one heck of a player.

What about Fred Couples? From what I've seen on television, he sounds like a great guy. It's impossible to decide who the nicest guy on tour is but we can all list guys we think are nice. In the end, even that doesn't count for much because we probably don't personally know the players.

No, we might not know the players personally, but pro golfers generally act like gentlemen while in the public eye. More so than any other sport. When you have people like Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, and Tom Watson as examples of how to conduct yourself around the fans and reporters, the tour players of today have to continue the tradition those people set. And for the most part they do. The only guy on the tour that I've don't have any respect for, from a public perception point of view, is Tommy Amour because it is common knowlege that he sold his clubs to buy dope - the man is a complete moron for that reason alone. I've listened to John Feinstein on the radio, the excellent author on several sports books, and he says that the guys on tour are easily the easiest to approach and are more aware of current events outside of their sport than other well known athletes. I've played a round of golf earlier this summer with a sports writer and he echoed those sentiments. 2nd place went to, in this guy's opinion, and somewhat suprisingly to me, went to pro hockey players. Apparently, off the ice most of them have a completly different demeanor.

we all dont really know until we know the person... i think this point was well brought up when the kobe bryant scandel came out.. although ppl knew he was cocky and a showboat (but we los angelenos still love him), he was known as a clean cut guy with a great image, good family guy, etc... all his endorsements thrived on that... then we found out what kinda family guy he is (we are all human)...

i think when u do things that the media might not really know about is when u find out the true character of the guy... daly, or instance, in that story probably thought nothing of future media coverage (just being a nice guy), and smith wanted to let everyone know how great he was and let the media get involved..

i dunno if anything i wrote just made sense... if it didnt, hahah on you for reading something that didnt make sense...
point being, john daly's dope..