I just saw on Twitter and Facebook that John Daly is considering taking a break from professional golf. He cited a few reasons, financial concerns, self described embarassment, his game and the residual effects of the 2007 rib injury. He also wanted to make it clear that he did not say 'retirement' in any post. Obviously he has not made any permanent decisions on his career at this time.
My personal opinion: It's never good to let anyone else define who you are. He may play golf but he doesn't have to be a golfer his whole life if he doesn't want to. Golf is different than other sports in that you can play golf well beyond the average retirement age. You can easily get caught in the trap of being identified by what you do. There are plenty of options out there for Daly to explore. I think this year was especially tough on Daly since the whole Tiger thing happened. The media pounced on Daly to try to make up for the absense of Tiger. Maybe Daly should have waited until Mickelson played before he played his first event. That way the media wouldn't have been so focused on him and he might not have felt so 'embarassed' (his word, not mine). Finally, Daly's been through a lot of changes in the last couple of years. His personal life is on track and he's lost all of that weight. I think his game needs some time to come around to the new body and the new lifestyle. Hopefully, he can put it altogether and come back when he's ready to. His fans will be there waiting for him.
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