John Daly opting for Champions major over PGA Championship
John Daly plans to tee it up in a major next week, just not at the PGA Championship .
The biggest quirk of the 2025 schedule is that the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Alabama — the first of five majors on the PGA Tour Champions — is the same week as the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
'I can go there and miss the cut and get $6,000,' Daly said of the PGA Championship, which last year paid $4,000 to players who missed the cut. 'But I'm playing Birmingham. I love Regions. They're a great sponsor. But why are they scheduling Regions the same week as the PGA Championship, where I can see Brooks (Koepka) and all the guys?'
May typically is crowded for golf and the Regions Traditions didn't want to take this week because it's tough getting support on Mother's Day. The week after the PGA Championship is the Senior PGA Championship at Congressional.
Going earlier was tough with NASCAR at Talladega on April 27.
Daly also is not in top form after surgery on his left hand in January. He said his biggest issue remains getting through the ball on three-quarter shots — that and his putting. He finished at 27 over par last week at the Insperity Invitational, a tournament he won in 2017 and was runner-up in 2020.
But he's not ready to pack it in from playing on the PGA Tour Champions, even with 16 surgeries and bladder cancer.
'I'm like Lazarus — I keep coming back from the dead,' he said. 'Waking up is a win for me.'
Daly isn't the only former PGA champion missing next week.
Rich Beem, who took down Tiger Woods at Hazeltine in 2002, chose not to play this year after a rough go at Valhalla last year. Beem now works for Sky Sports at the big events and felt he didn't have enough time to prepare this year for a big course. Quail Hollow is 7,262 yards and plays as a par 71.
'I got my (butt) handed to me last year,' he said. 'Even though I had success at Bethpage (2019), you lose 10 yards, you might as well lose 100.'
He said he plans on skipping Aronimink next year but will return to the PGA Championship in 2027 in his home state of Texas, where he hopes dry and firm conditions will help.
Davis Love III (recovering from heart surgery) and Y.E. Yang also are not in the PGA Championship next week.
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