What, Me Sweat?

Filed in archive Golf News on August 16, 2007

Courtesy: BBC

Two popular points of view have clashed in the wake of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills.

Tiger Woods said following his win - his 13th major victory - that his fitness level was responsible for his play.

""Other guys have gotten tired. You see their shoulders slumping and dragging. I feel fine," Woods said in the media conference after his victory.

Woods makes work-outs in his gym mandatory as part of his ongoing preparation as a professional golfer.

The weather conditions at Southern Hills indicate that Woods is right: sweltering heat for the entire week with the mercury exceeding 100F when humidity was factored in took its toll on many players.

But one of them didn't seem to mind. John Daly disputes what Woods had to say about fitness winning the tournament.

Big John was a first round leader and was in contention until he slid down - and off - the leaderboard on Sunday. Not bad considering he didn't play a single practice round because it was too hot.

Of course, Daly hates to practice; it's too much like work.

Still, Daly said, "I'm used to the heat; fat boys like me can get through the heat. I don't think it matters if you work out or you don't work out. I tried but every time I worked out I threw up and I thought to myself that you can get drunk and throw up, so it's just not for me."

Yes, two popular points of view from two high profile and highly charismatic golf figures.

Is one right and the other wrong? If you're talking simply about points of view, then neither is right or wrong. A point of view is just that. It's not the truth - just an opinion.

But it's when you look just a little deeper that you see how right Woods is and how wrong Daly is.

Fitness has proven it has an important place in the life of a professional golfer. Daly can scoff and continue to exhort the merits of smokes and Diet Cokes to beat the heat and anything else life throws at him but at every PGA event every week, there's a fitness trailer filled with PGA pros working out. Not just getting a massage or a stretch. Working out. With weights. Building muscle, strength and stamina.

And they are the players who are finishing in the money, on the leaderboards and, most important, managing to put in full seasons on an increasingly busy PGA Tour without injury.

Daly was forced to withdraw early from the Canadian Open the previous week with a bad shoulder.

Being injury-free is huge for a professional golfer. There's no time off work with pay when a back starts to spasm or a wrist is sore.

Or a massive heart attack fells a "fat boy" on the course.

Certainly Woods is correct and John Daly is just being John Daly.

But, frankly, I admire Woods' work ethic. It gets results.

Daly's philosophy of life is simply tiring.