Caddie's Role:There is something of the rock-and-roll lifestyle of the golf tour that appeals to young hopeful professionals. If you win a tournament in America you are an instant millionaire and you are afforded a status that could make those who are not prepared a little heady with success.

For some, dealing with success is as difficult as achieving it. John Daly was sleeping soundly in his Southwind country club home in Memphis, Tennessee, early last Friday morning when, apparently, his wife woke him. However, she was not getting him up for his early tee-time. There was something on her troubled mind and her husband was going to bear the brunt of that burden. This was how it was told to the county sheriff anyway.

Mrs Daly, the story goes, attacked her husband with a steak knife while he was sleeping. When the two-time major champion and colourful figure presented himself on the first tee surrounded by body guards (seemingly too late), he looked like he had been mauled by a wild animal.

There is a thin line between sanity and the other side with many talented people. Having been around very talented golfers for decades, I have no doubt that if they were not eccentric before they played golf for a living then that pursuit pushed them closer to the edge.

I have always thought that skilled golfers are often burdened with a special talent, just like artists, and if that talent is not realised in the fashion that they believe it should be then it causes them a lot of anguish.

Daly's life has been a litany of highs and lows that have never escaped public attention. From his initial elevation to revered status as the unlikely US PGA Champion of 1991 to the abject images of him with the delirium tremors as he tried to compete during an event some years later, there has always been extremes in Daly's life.

There were rumours that the only reason he played a tournament in Perth, Western Australia, was that he had left such a huge debt at the local Burswood Casino that he had to return in order to repay it with his presence at the tournament the following year.

There seemed to be a heavy dependence on many substances that were, of course, detrimental to his health and ultimately his golf.

I remember a player telling me about an incident in the clubhouse of the Players Championship where there was a spread of fine food laid on for the players at lunch time. Daly took one look at the gourmet selection and immediately asked the waiter to phone the local McDonald's for a take away, including a very large diet coke.

The worst thing a modern golf pro usually has to worry about on tour is the damage that his wife could do on a shopping spree.

Sherrie Daly, John's fourth wife, spent five months in jail in 2006 having pleaded guilty to a federal money laundering charge. There were investigations involving drug trafficking, illegal gambling and corruption to boot. A shopping spree would have been less damaging.

With time on her hands, Sherrie got to think about what she really wanted. She filed for divorce: John followed her a day later.

As anyone living the nomadic life that we on tour all lead will tell you, its hard to maintain a relationship. It takes a very understanding partner to accept the vicissitudes of life on the road. Throw in a few addictions to the already compromised lifestyle and you have a litany of failed relationships and personal disasters behind you, like Daly has.

JD is such a likeable person. He is always friendly, warm and respectful on the course. He has his own quick way of playing but he doesn't try to upset his playing partners in the process. He has held an endless fascination for the golfing public for a number of reasons.

All amateurs love to see a player beat the cover off the golf ball and launch it 330 yards down the fairway. To do it with such a long and powerful swing as Daly does is even more enthralling. He is the darling of the German golfing public and plays two events there each year. As much as he is the polar opposite of the standard German amateur, who is staid, conservative and in no danger of hitting it 330 yards, they love him. It is probably as much the fables of his drinking, gambling and failed marriages that attract them to him as much as his golf game.

At Augusta and other events throughout the year, John's travelling shop flogs his branded clothing, named Wild Thing. The appropriate nickname was tagged on to him after his wild swing became so recognised in the mid-90s. His style is his own and I cannot imagine that Brown Thomas's will be looking to stock it in its present state of fashion.

When he arrived on the first tee last Friday with his traditional Maxfli hat adorned by red flames on the peak, there was a suggestion he was taking his advertising a little too seriously with matching stripes on his cheeks.

It might have been a relief for Daly to get on the course last Friday and away from the steak-knife story. With survival instincts on high alert, he went on to shoot four over par and make the cut.

Daly was the first of the maverick rock and rollers of the modern golf era. With his fast pace of life it is hard to see how he can keep re-inventing himself and sustaining such a destructive lifestyle.