Given the secrecy surrounding such matters, it is not possible to be precise about the payment John Daly will receive from the host club for appearing in the Murphy's Irish Open at Druids Glen next week. But at a rough estimate, it should be more than sufficient to cover three months' alimony payments.

They are currently running at $40,000 a month. Which is why the player, who seems to be working hard at reviving his Wild Thing image, is forced to avail of lucrative pay-days, wherever they may come. In fact he was in action in a skins match last Tuesday, two days after finishing last in the US Open at Pinehurst.

Daly has since expressed regret at his behaviour during a final round of 83, which included an 11 at the eighth, where he was guilty of hitting the ball on the run. "This is my last US Open - ever," he vowed, while walking to his car. "I've had it with the USGA and the way they run their tournaments."

Two days later, he said: "I don't know what happened. It was just the heat of the moment, coming off a bad round. I was just upset at my performance. I made some stupid comments. It doesn't get you popularity what I said the other day, but I sure hope the USGA will forgive me for it. It was stupid."

From my contact with David Fay, executive director of the USGA, the affair is a closed issue. "There will be no action on our part," he said. "His play of the eighth hole was covered by the two-stroke penalty. With regard to his comments about the USGA and the way we set up our courses, he is free to express his opinion. I wouldn't wish to inhibit him in any way, as far as that's concerned".

Fay then added: "As an exempt player for next year's Open at Pebble Beach, I hope he fills out an entry-form, sends us along the $100 entry fee and plays in the championship."

With regard to Daly's play of the eighth hole, Fay made it clear on Sunday that the USGA would not tolerate a repetition of such behaviour. And it is especially interesting that in my conversation with him, the official spoke about a breach of Rule 1-2, rather than Rule 14-5.

The latter rule, which states that "a player shall not play while his ball is moving", carries a two-stroke penalty. However, Rule 1-2 states: "No player or caddie shall take any action to influence the position or the movement of a ball except in accordance with the Rules." A serious breach of this rule could result in disqualification, which is clearly what Fay had in mind in Sunday's comment.

Meanwhile, indicative of Daly's dramatic mood-swings is that he is now expressing second-thoughts about Pebble Beach next year, having said he wouldn't want to see the USGA ruin that course, too. "I don't feel I have the patience for Pebble, but that could give me a better reason to play," he said. "I wouldn't be going into it as a tournament I felt I could win."

Daly currently sees himself as a classic Jeckyl and Hyde character. "The thing with me is that I don't know who is going to show up tomorrow," he said. "It's a little scary." Such behaviour is quite common to addictive people, which is generally why they need the help of support groups.

But there is also a sense in which Daly revels in his unpredictability, suggesting that it increases his appeal to the paying public. "They don't know where the ball is going and neither do I," he said

And there's no doubting the excitement he generates, like for instance in the climax to his opening round of 68 at Pinehurst on Thursday. With other scribes, I stood in what I considered to be a safe position well to the right of the tee. But when Daly took one of his more full-blooded swings, there was this sharp crack as the ball hit an obtrusive pine, no more than about 70 yards from the tee, close to where I was standing.

The ball could have gone anywhere. In fact it rebounded at right-angles across the fairway before coming to rest in pine needles on the other side. As I progressed up the fairway while Daly awaited a ruling on line of sight, I was besieged by photographers and American colleagues. Which tree had the ball hit? Did I see the shot? How did Big John react?

There is no doubting the drama of such exploits. But it is arguable if any serious-minded golfer got any pleasure out of watching Daly use his putter to smack a ball on the run and send it careering over the eighth green on Sunday, even if, as they say in the business, it all makes for good copy.

What next week's sponsors will be more interested in is the sort of excitement which Daly produced on a previous visit to the Irish Open at Mount Juliet five years ago. What was when he emulated Nick Faldo's achievement of the previous year by shooting a course-record equalling final round of 65 to claim a share of second place behind Bernhard Langer. Huge crowds followed him throughout the tournament. But his last-day performance really sent pulses racing as he opened the round with six successive threes - birdie, birdie, par, birdie, eagle, par. "I don't ever remember shooting six threes in a row - and if I did I must have been drunk," he said.

Earlier that week, on his arrival at Mount Juliet, he had talked about his embarrassment at forgetting to buy his mother a gift for her birthday. And how she had responded that he had given her the greatest present she could have wished for, simply by being sober.

There have been significant highs and lows since then, most notably his British Open victory at St Andrews in 1995, when he beat Costantino Rocca in a playoff. All the while, his addictions have dominated his every waking moment.

But he has been sober for 27 months and claims not to have gambled in about two-and-a-half years. "You name it, I bet on it," he said. "It was fast action. I always liked it." Then he added sombrely: "But I haven't recovered from all the losses."

Between 1993 and 1996, he claimed to have won $42 million from casino gambling. But his losses amounted to $51 million which, by any standards, represents decidedly dodgy accounting.

About $3 million of those debts remained after his last visit to an alcohol rehabilitation centre in the spring of 1997. That was when he was signed by Callaway Golf who undertook to take care of $1.8 million of the debt, provided he handled the rest. And there is a strict understanding between himself and Ely Callaway that his gambling days are over.

Among his outrageous gambles were $200,000 on a hand of blackjack; $40,000 on an American football game and playing $500 slot machines. On one occasion, he won so much that he raked in all the chips in the dealer's tray. "That was the ultimate feeling, when they had to come and give him (the dealer) more chips," he said.

He claims that the last time he gambled in a casino was in November 1996, the week of the Greg Norman Shark Shootout in Thousand Oaks, California. He drove back and forward to Las Vegas three times that week - a round trip of about seven hours. "Those Tahoes (Chevrolet cars) Greg Norman gave us to drive - I think mine needed an oil-change," he said.

Divorced three times, he says that alimony payments and child support are "killing me." So it is that he has been compelled to sell his Mercedes car ("to pay taxes") and his house in California ("when finances got bad"). And the chances are that he may soon have to put his home in Memphis on the market.

Daly's main concern is an inability to lay his hands on ready cash. Unlike Darren Clarke, for instance, who may expect to amass well in excess of £2 million this year, the only valuable contract Daly has is with Callaway, who are taking care of his gambling debts.

His prize money for 68th place in the US Open last Sunday was $7,543 which means he has made $165,565 in 17 tournaments so far this year. In alimony payments alone, that leaves a shortfall of nearly $80,000. And in terms of his future on the USPGA Tour, his recent performances must give cause for concern. Going back to the Players' Championship at the end of March, he has failed to make the cut in three tournaments, has withdraw in three others - two after the first round - and has a highest-placed finish of tied 51st in the Houston Open.

Yet it is not as it he has played one dispiriting round after another. For instance, he opened with a 69 at Houston, a 66 in the Byron Nelson Classic and a 68 in the US Open last Thursday when, incidentally, he described Pinehurst as: "This is one of the best Open courses for me."

An extremely low boiling point, however, has led to crippling inconsistency. And he attributes this to a daily battle with his addictions, especially alcoholism. As he put it: "I'm tempted more by drink now, because I don't have the money to gamble."

No doubt there are people who get a sort of twisted pleasure out of seeing Daly destroy himself. But there are many others - and it is to be hoped that discerning Irish golf fans are among them - who will wish peace to this tortured soul. For if he were to depart the scene, for whatever reason, a great talent would have been lost to the game.