Golf: John Daly and Costantino Rocca recall old times

SEVENTEEN years after they faced each other in a play-off for the Open Championship, John Daly and Costantino Rocca are playing partners again today at the start of the Sicilian Open.

Rocca is now 55 and plays nearly all his golf on the Seniors Tour, but 45-year-old Daly is still striving to get back into the big time. No longer a full member of the PGA Tour, he has been travelling the world to try to do it.

After the promise of fourth place at the Qatar Masters early last month, the American then injured his elbow in India. He was 51st on his return to action at the Transitions Championship in Florida two weeks ago but missed the cut at the Hassan Trophy in Morocco last Friday.

“Seems like yesterday,” he said of his showdown with Rocca at St Andrews in 1995.

Rocca made a dramatic 60-foot par putt from the Valley of Sin to force the play-off, but Daly won it to add the Claret Jug to his 1991 USPGA Championship victory. He should have happy memories as well of the last time he and Rocca were at the same tournament. That was the 2009 Italian Open in Turin and Daly finished joint runner-up behind Argentina’s Daniel Vancsik.

The highest-ranked player this week is 18-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero who, despite finishes of second and sixth in the past fortnight, could not get back into the world’s top 50 in time for next week’s Masters.

The field contains ten Scots, led by world No 107 Richie Ramsay and also including Lloyd Saltman, who is playing here rather than on the Challenge Tour.