Shotgun Start: Feeling the heat, Daly and ... sex changes?
CBSSports.com staffers Steve Elling and Ross Devonport take a scattershot look at three compelling and timely topics in the game.
1. With the 2009 season set to begin Thursday in Hawaii -- is there really an offseason in golf? -- identify the player you believe has the most to prove over the next 11 months.
Steve Elling
Ross Devonport
Man, there are so many options here, including '08 breakthrough players Boo Weekley, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas or even Tiger Woods coming back from his injury. But my pick is defending Masters champion Trevor Immelman, who never really followed up on his breakthrough victory at Augusta last year. Immelman has a terrific set of tools and hasn't yet reached his potential, but he has had a pair of uncharacteristically inconsistent years. He finished inside the top 10 just once after the Masters in PGA Tour play last year. Is he an elite player? Or more of a second-tier star like, say, Luke Donald or Paul Casey? His prime years are right in front of him.
New year, same Brit-bashing from Elling. Donald and Casey might be second-tier stars here, but they're legends in Europe. OK, maybe not legends, but certainly among the elite. While those two could certainly prove something by winning a major in '09, I'm going with Kenny Perry. He proved last year he can turn his play up a notch when he has a goal like the Ryder Cup, but Perry blew off all the majors and outside of his superb 2003 campaign, he has just two major top-10s. After his sizzling second half, can he keep the momentum going or will the 48-year-old fade away now that he has had his moment of glory? Let's see what you got, K.P.
2. Perpetual problem child John Daly was finally kicked to the curb last week by the PGA Tour, banned from participating in tournaments for six months. Though the reasons were, predictably, never announced by the PR-sensitive tour, we know most of the details. The question is whether the suspension went far enough.
Steve Elling
Ross Devonport
No way. Nobody has been a bigger critic of the tour's reluctance to boot Daly than I have. In my view, failing to give him anything more than a slap on the wrist was akin to enabling the guy to continue his self-destructive behavior. After his litany of embarrassing miscues, he made it worse by angrily heaving a fan's camera against a tree in an Aussie event last month. Based on unbecoming, unprofessional conduct alone, he should have been suspended for a year. Let him go make a disgrace of himself in somebody else's yard. Let's see if some tough love might work, because nothing else has.
I certainly don't condone Daly's behavior. But things like this suspension do nothing to help golf shake off its stuffy image. With the economy as bad as it is, the PGA Tour should be all about bringing in as many dollars as possible. Daly probably has more fans out there than anyone not named Woods. He constantly has a sizeable gallery at events because people feel a connection to him -- he's one of us. OK, so he takes things to the extreme on occasion, but a six-month ban wasn't necessary. Thing is, J.D. won't be too concerned, because he can just go over to Europe and be loved for half a year and then come back here and scoop up sponsor exemptions in the final six months of 2009.
3. It sounds like one of those corny old golf jokes, where the punch line is something along the lines of, "What, and all this time you've been playing me from the pink tees?" The reigning women's long-drive champion is a former male bartender and policeman who underwent a sex-change operation, according to a published report. The LPGA, by the way, permits players who have undergone sex-changes (with some restrictions) to compete as women on its tour. Is this a good idea?
Steve Elling
Ross Devonport
I'm more than a little uncomfortable with any codified rule in golf that includes the term gonadectomy. But it's in the books, believe me. As insane as it sounds, it's hard to imagine anybody would have sex-reassignment surgery in order to gain an advantage in golf. It's just too much of a stretch, and the money in women's golf just isn't there. Now, if we were talking about Chinese gymnasts lying about their ages in the Olympics, then I'd get a little more worked up. People who undergo sex changes have plenty of deep-seeded psychological needs for such a drastic measure. Hard to see sports as an overriding reason.
Oh man, the places I could go with this but won't. OK, maybe just a little. I'm not opposed to having "chicks who used to have Phil Mickelsons" playing in regular events, as your sex doesn't determine whether you can putt well, but this move by Lana Lawless (honestly, could a former cop have picked a more ridiculous name?) was just plain gutless. I mean, the longest player on the LPGA Tour (Lorena Ochoa) hits it just 269 yards. In comparison, 196 players on the PGA Tour averaged more than that number in 2008. Come on Lana, show some cojones -- even if you don't have 'em any more -- and somehow get yourself in a PGA Tour event in 2009 so you can test yourself against (mostly) real men and a few drunk fans, too.
Man, there are so many options here, including '08 breakthrough players Boo Weekley, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas or even Tiger Woods coming back from his injury. But my pick is defending Masters champion Trevor Immelman, who never really followed up on his breakthrough victory at Augusta last year. Immelman has a terrific set of tools and hasn't yet reached his potential, but he has had a pair of uncharacteristically inconsistent years. He finished inside the top 10 just once after the Masters in PGA Tour play last year. Is he an elite player? Or more of a second-tier star like, say, Luke Donald or Paul Casey? His prime years are right in front of him. 
New year, same Brit-bashing from Elling. Donald and Casey might be second-tier stars here, but they're legends in Europe. OK, maybe not legends, but certainly among the elite. While those two could certainly prove something by winning a major in '09, I'm going with Kenny Perry. He proved last year he can turn his play up a notch when he has a goal like the Ryder Cup, but Perry blew off all the majors and outside of his superb 2003 campaign, he has just two major top-10s. After his sizzling second half, can he keep the momentum going or will the 48-year-old fade away now that he has had his moment of glory? Let's see what you got, K.P. 
