Eleven isn't Daly's highest score
Updated: March 20, 2005, 8:16 PM ET
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. -- John Daly took four swipes at a ball in the rocks and made an 11 on the 18th hole Sunday -- and it still wasn't his highest score in the Bay Hill Invitational.
Seven years ago, Daly hit six balls into the water on the par-5 sixth hole in the final round and made an 18.
Daly started his final round on the 10th hole and was even par for the day when he came up short of the 18th hole. He tried a flop shot that landed in the rocks that separate the water from the green. Instead of taking a penalty drop, Daly tried to play out of rocks.
Four swings later, the ball moved only 3 inches.
He took a drop back where he started, pitched to 15 feet and two-putted for an 11.
"The legend grow," said Billy Andrade, who played with Daly. "You guys will write about it and glorify it, and everybody out there think it's really great. It's John being John. Not a shock. He's done it before."
It was at least the eighth time Daly has made a double-digit score on a hole.
Daly wound up with an 80 and finished last among 70 players. He declined to comment after his round.
Andrade looked at Daly's lie in the rocks and figured there was no way he could play the shot. He figured Daly would return to his previous spot and take a penalty drop.
"I went over and marked my ball and heard one 'whack.' I didn't know what it was. 'Whack, whack, whack," Andrade said. "I thought that was kind of strange."
Later in the round, Daly hit his tee shot into the water on the sixth hole and reloaded on the tee. This time, however, he played his second shot so far to the right that it caromed off a mesh fence and an out-of-bounds stake. He wound making a 15-footer for bogey to limit the damage.
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press