Daly says weight loss has led to back pain

For the better part of seven hours, John Daly chain-smoked Marlboros, guzzled Diet Coke and interacted with Minnesotans who gawked at his lime-green shirt and polka-dot pants during Wednesday's practice session for the 91st PGA Championship.

It was a typical practice round for Daly, the often-troubled and always-popular two-time major winner who, believe it or not, is playing in his 17th PGA Championship since shocking the golf world by winning his debut as a ninth alternate in 1991.

Typical, except for one thing: The big belly is gone. Daly has dropped more than 80 pounds since undergoing lap-band surgery in February.

He looks better and walked more swiftly during his only practice round of the week. He says his swing isn't quite what it used to be and, at 44, he's had to deal with a back injury for the first time in his career.

"I never had back problems when I was fat," said Daly, who also blamed his weight loss for that 88 he shot in the second round of the Buick Open.

Daly, who returned from a PGA Tour suspension earlier this season, said an injury suffered earlier this summer in Paris has caused his back to lock up at times. That's resulted in tee shots hooking wildly to the left.

That's what happened on the 12th tee Wednesday. His first crack at the longest par-4 (518 yards) sailed over the gallery down the left side of the fairway. "If it doesn't go good [this week], I'm not worried," Daly said. "I'm just going to go out and play, work on some things and try and manage the golf course the best I can."

If you want to actually play golf in Chaska this week, you're likely going to have pay more for a tee time just down the road from Hazeltine National at Chaska Town Course.

For one week only, the municipal co-host course of the 2006 U.S. Amateur is charging $95 and $85 greens fees (with cart) for advance morning and afternoon tee times. That's about a $15 bump if you take a cart, but as much as a $41 surcharge if you're a nonresident walker.

The reason, of course, is simple supply-and-demand. "With the PGA here, we believe there are a whole lot of golfers in the area," said Chaska Town Course pro John Kellin, who said the concept was borrowed from public courses close to past PGA Championship venues.

Quick. Name the world's No. 3-ranked player.

No. 1 (Tiger Woods) and No. 2 (Phil Mickelson) are easy for even the casual golf fan. After all, they have a combined 107 PGA Tour victories, including 17 majors.

But No. 3-ranked Paul Casey has one victory, and his best finish in a major is a tie for sixth at the 2004 Masters. His best PGA Tour finish is a tie for 15th last year.

Casey doesn't have fond memories of Hazeltine from the 2002 PGA. He missed the cut by 11 shots. "I remember it was long," Casey said. "And they added over 300 yards. Crikey!"

Lee Westwood is not among the PGA Tour players who believe in the value of a sports psychologist.

"No," he said. "Look at them all. They look a bit odd, like they need to see somebody. I find it a bit hard to take anybody like that serious."

The interview room erupted in laughter as Westwood paused and then continued. "Well, they do," he said. "I'm sorry. That's the way I see it. I've always felt mentally quite stable. Don't feel like I need it."

Minnesota native Tom Lehman is 50, but he's playing more golf than he has in a long time.

"I feel like my game is solid," Lehman said. "I've been playing a lot of competitive golf. This is my fifth tournament in six weeks, the fourth major [including Champions Tour events] in a row. So when it comes to being competition-ready and competition-tested, I've been playing a lot. So I feel my game is sharp in that way."

Mickelson said his favorite hole is the 248-yard, par-3 13th. He said one of the best holes is the 572-yard, par-5 seventh. And he said the 176-yard, par-3 eighth is "one of the coolest par-3s out there."

But Mickelson does not have much love for the 633-yard, par-5 third hole. He doesn't like the way the fairway slopes severely to the right over the last 20 or 30 yards.

"[No. 3] is probably my least favorite hole on the course," Mickelson said. "There's just no reward for trying to get it down by the green. There's no reward for hitting a driver off the tee. So I'll play that hole with a 3-wood or hybrid off the tee, a 4- or 5-iron and try to hit the flat area on the fairway."

Deephaven's Tim Herron moved up to No. 2 on the alternates list when Jason Day removed his name from the list Wednesday night. To get in, Herron would need two players to withdraw before the the first round begins this morning.

Staff writer Jerry Zgoda contributed to this notebook.