Daly hits out at Harmon, claiming that coaching guru 'destroyed' his life

John Daly in practice at Birkdale on the eve of the Open Championship

‘Butch told the Golf Channel that I’m just a drunk. He just made up stuff ... he didn’t really know the facts ... and by putting it all over the world and not talking to me, it’s kind of ridiculous.

‘Real men just don’t do that. I tried talking to him on the phone at the Byron Nelson and he said he’d retract what he said and he never did. The Golf Channel, or whoever it was, he denied ever talking to them. I don’t know what his problem is, but he needs to stay as far away from me as he can.’

Harmon, who disputes Daly’s version of events, was yet again quick to respond.

‘That’s typical John Daly, blaming everyone for his problems but himself,’ he said yesterday.

‘Until he takes responsibility for his own problems he will never solve them.’

Harmon, at Royal Birkdale to keep well oiled the swings of Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els among others, had also been working with Daly until dropping a bombshell in March.

‘The most important thing in his life is getting drunk,’ the coach said.

This season Daly has started 15 tournaments but finish only four. He has missed nine half-way cuts and withdrawn twice. His record in The Open is no better, just two cuts made in the past decade.

Daly puts his poor form down to two years of injuries, citing rib and shoulder problems as well as elbow tendinitis and a cyst in the right hand.

But the truth is he is now a golfing irrelevance.