After being denied the use of a cart by the R&A at Royal Portrush, John Daly has withdrawn from the 2019 British Open Championship. Kevin Streelman will replace him in the field.
Daly withdrew from the event on July 8, clearing a path for Streelman, who is competing in this week's John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour in hopes of landing the final spot in the season's final men's major.
🧐🧐🧐
Yes please@TheOpen
🙌🏻🥳
Here we go pic.twitter.com/hJr0g1xQFY— Kevin Streelman (@Streels54) July 9, 2019
The move comes a few days after the R&A announced it would not grant Daly the right to use a cart during next week's competition in Northern Ireland. Daly had made an appeal to the governing body to use a cart because of arthritis in his right knee. He had been granted by the PGA of America the right to play in a cart during the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in May, saying Daly's claim was legitimate under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Similar accommodating legislation is not law in the United Kingdom.
Daly had appealed to the USGA for the right to use a cart in the 2018 US Senior Open and was denied the use. He declined to play the tournament. However, after Daly received the R&A's decision, he indicated he would still play at Royal Portrush and walk the Dunluce Links.
The 148th Open at Royal Portrush...... pic.twitter.com/RAOLQUmfLY
— John Daly (@PGA_JohnDaly) July 6, 2019
"I believe all who have earned the right to compete should be afforded that right to compete and give it their best shot," Daly wrote in part on Twitter.
However, Daly has since changed his mind and will instead play in the PGA Tour's opposite-field event against the British Open, the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky. The PGA Tour has granted the right to use a cart to players with legitimate claims under the ADA, and their PGA Tour Champions routinely allows 50-plus players on that circuit to compete using carts. According to Golf World, the PGA Tour has granted Daly's request to use a cart in this event.
THIS JUST IN: @PGA_JohnDaly reportedly will now skip @TheOpen at Royal Portrush and play in the $3.5 million opposite field event, @BarbasolChamp, in Kentucky, instead, where he has asked for a cart and likely will get one, sources say.
— Dave Shedloski (@DaveShedloski) July 9, 2019
Daly's decision may also have been influenced by a spider bite. The two-time major winner, including the 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 British Open, was rushed to a Pittsburgh-area hospital over the weekend when he developed an infection and sepsis from a spider bite he'd unknowingly received in England while on recent vacation. Daly said he is in serious pain, and he'd likely be in no shape to walk Royal Portrush with his arthritic knee, which will require eventual replacement, and the recent surgery.
