Golf legend John Daly is set to make his long-awaited return to the sport just two months after being rushed to hospital for emergency surgery on his hand.
The 58-year-old sparked huge concerns for his wellbeing when he shared a photo of himself in a hospital bed back in January.
Alongside the snap, he revealed to his 800k followers that he had just undergone surgery due to an issue with his hand, before vowing to ‘be back playing in no time.’
And 64 days on from that emergency op, Daly is now poised for his first PGA Tour appearance of the year at this week’s Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, California.
The chain-smoking cult hero can be seen going through the gears on the course at Newport Beach Country Club in a series of videos shared by the Tour on Instagram.
‘John Daly is back!’ the caption reads. ‘He’s set to make his first start of the year at this week’s @HoagClassic.’
John Daly is set to make his long-awaited return to golf at the Hoag Classic later this week
The golf legend is back on the PGA Tour just two months after undergoing emergency surgery
Daly then says in another clip: ‘It’s good to be back,’ he said. ‘It’s been a little brutal, but the hand’s about 80 percent. So figured I’d come here.
‘I love playing in the Hoag Classic. Every year, the guys are so great. So we’ll see what happens.’
This week’s Hoag Classic gets underway on Friday and concludes on Sunday evening.
When asked how bad his hand injury was, he explained: ‘The tendons were all wrapped around each other. [The doctor] doesn’t understand how I played last year.
‘But he put it back, attached it to the forefinger or something.
’16 surgeries in four years, I’ve lost count pretty much.’
Daly, who hasn’t played an event on the PGA Champions Tour since last October, recently opened up on his battle with bladder cancer after revealing that he has been in remission for a number of years.
The two-time major winner made an appearance on the ‘Like a Farmer’ podcast and was frank about his health issues, recalling himself ‘peeing and puking blood’ before the cancer diagnosis.
Daly recently opened up on his cancer battle after revealing he has been in remission for years
‘I can’t set goals for golf anymore,’ he also admitted on the show. ‘Fighting the bladder cancer and all that crap with all the surgeries, it’s not an excuse it’s just nobody can play great when they’re not healthy.
‘I get out there and I do my best I can, but I still wanna play golf, I still wanna play on the Champions Tour. I just wanna compete better and right now there’s no way I can.
‘But I’m gonna keep grinding it out ’cause you never know. That putter gets hot… I don’t care if you got one arm, one leg, that putter gets hot you can play some really good golf. ‘Cause we all hit it good.
‘Everybody on the tours hit it great, it’s just the matter of that one chip in, that one 40 yard par putt or something like Tiger did for years. It’s not about an eagle or a birdie, sometimes it’s about a 20 foot bogey putt or a 25, 30, 40 foot par putt.
‘Man you make and you just walk off and you say “Okay I’m gonna go get it now.”‘
