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CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- John Daly holed out from the fairway for eagle. Three holes later, he was botching chips on his way to a triple bogey. His opening round of the British Open was loaded with ups and downs, just like his career.
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The Scottish gallery who remember him winning at St. Andrews in 1995 was buzzing when they saw his name atop the leaderboard Thursday, especially when his sand wedge from 60 yards rolled into the cup at No. 11 and put him in the lead at 5 under.
Alas, it was temporary.
"He couldn't decide which club to hit," caddie Michael Owen said of the tee shot at No. 12.
It turned out to be a 3-wood, and it went to the right into a miserable lie in the rough. Daly got it out to the fairway, hit 6-iron some 50 feet away and three-putted for double bogey, missing from 2 feet.
He recovered with a par on the next hole, and Daly was in good shape off the tee on the 14th. But he pulled his approach into a bunker, then caught his third shot so thin that it sailed over the green into another terrible lie.
"His chip didn't reach the green," Owen said. "His next chip didn't reach the green."
Daly rammed the third chip 25 feet past the hole, took two putts and rang up an 8. He followed that with back-to-back bogeys, then dropped one more shot on the 18th when he missed the green to the right.
The linescore: Three birdies and an eagle through the first 11 holes, three bogeys, a double bogey and a triple bogey on the last seven.
He went from in the lead to a tie for 74th.
He finished with a 74 and walked away from reporters without speaking.
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LUGGAGE WOES: Mark Calcavecchia has been on the PGA Tour for 25 years and has gone through just about everything. A trip to the British Open brought a new experience that he could do without.
