Daly’s Tour rap sheet is deep, rough

John Daly long has been recognized as golf's bad boy.

How bad? The PGA Tour's personnel file on Daly is a whopping 456 pages. Among the "highlights" of the dossier are the Tour ordering Daly into alcohol rehab seven times, being cited 21 times for giving less than his best effort, nearly running over a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent at a security checkpoint during the 2005 U.S. Open and accruing fines of more than $100,000.

The file was made public during a lawsuit filed against Daly by Morris Publishing in 2005, which was settled last year.

According to the file, as reported by several media outlets, Daly's first transgression on Tour came in 1991 when he was fined for cursing at a fellow competitor. His largest fine, $30,000, came in 1993 while participating at a clinic in Portland, Ore., when Daly was hitting golf balls over the heads of spectators in the bleachers.

Yet despite playing in only a handful of events, Daly remains popular with the fans. Golf Digest reported in January that Daly made an estimated $4 million last year off the golf course.

■ THE SWITCH IS ON -- Regardless of where LeBron James plays basketball next season, he no longer will be wearing No. 23.

James, the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar who will become a free agent July 1, officially has petitioned the NBA to switch to No. 6 next season. That's the number he wore in 2008 while helping Team USA win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

"I've done it," James told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I already sent it in. I'm going to be No. 6."

James made waves in November when he discussed his intention to switch numbers in front of a national TV audience, saying the NBA should retire No. 23 leaguewide in honor of Michael Jordan. But James' decision wasn't set in stone until recently, when he filed paperwork in advance of today's deadline for players to request new digits for 2010-11.

■ UNPACKING HEAT -- Did Luke Scott not get the memo? Or did the Baltimore Orioles designated hitter simply ignore Major League Baseball policy regarding firearms in the clubhouse?

Scott, who claims he has been packing heat for 10 years, said he simply forgot about the policy, instituted by MLB last summer in the wake of the Plaxico Burress case in New York and well before the incident involving the Washington Wizards' Gilbert Arenas. Scott continued bringing firearms into the Orioles' clubhouse last season. But he said those days are over.

"I wasn't aware of it until recently," Scott told the Baltimore Sun at spring training. "There is a good reason behind the rule, I can't deny that. The reason is you cannot trust 25 guys in a locker room to have the same respect and training as I do with a weapon. That I do understand.

"I've carried a gun for 10 years. I've carried them in the locker room and nobody really knows about it. I know how to handle myself, and I stow it away where nobody really knows about it."

COMPILED BY STEVE CARP
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL