Daly Sues Children's Charity, PGA Tour for Rib Injury; Makes Up Story?

The Palm Beach Post has been getting good at looking for interesting litigation related to pro golfers.  They ran a story on their PBP Live section yesterday about a lawsuit that John Daly originally filed in June 2008 against PGA National Resort for the rib injury he suffered in the '07 Honda Classic.  (The original filing from 2008 is embedded after the jump.)

The story claims that Daly is seeking some $100 million in punitive damages from the incident that caused the injury.  Daly is claiming that the resort did little to nothing to prevent a woman from stepping in front of his swing, forcing him to frantically stop his (very hard) swing, and pop out his ribs.  The initial suit seeks $15,000 in compensatory damages, plus whatever pain and suffering he can get. 

($100 million seems to be a sensational number more or less made up to make the story more shocking.  See: Evil, Doctor.)

In August 2009, though, the case was still stalled in the court system.  Daly, perhaps seeking to speed this thing up, added defendants to the suit - the PGA Tour and Children's Healthcare Charity, a beneficiary of the Honda Classic.  On April 26 of this year, the now three defendants named in the suit filed a motion to propose a settlement.  That settlement has not been accepted to date.

Children's Healthcare Charity was created in 2007 by Jack, Barbara, and Gary Nicklaus to run the Honda Classic. It filters the profits from the event to their own hospitalization foundation, as well as a slew of other charities.  The PGA of America's Joe Steranka and PGA Tour players Robert Allenby and Olin Browne are among the members of the board.

Here's where it gets a little hairy, though.  Daly's recollection of events from that fateful day in '07 do not even resemble the story told by the Associated Press about the incident.

First, read what Daly claims happened that day, according to the suit.

The defendant was holding a professional golf tournament in which the Plaintiff, John Daly had entered and was playing in. The defendant by and through its agents were in charge of security for the players in the tournament. There was an unknown patron at the tournament that was a security risk. Priorto the incident security was called by other players or their agents due to the security concern of the patron. In addition, prior to the incident, security was told by John Daly's agents and informed them that there was a patron that was a security risk. The defendant did nothing. After the same patron caused a security concern for the second time, security was told by John Daly's agents of the security risk. Security did nothing for a second time. On the third occasion, John Daly's agent told security, the patron was security risks. After the third time, security came to the hole where Plaintiff, John Daly was about to his drive. Prior to the drive, security guards took control of the patron that was the security risks, but did not remove her from the area and did not remove her from the course and let her go prior the incident. While John Daly was in the process of driving the ball, the woman jumped in front of him. In mid-swing he saw the woman directly in front of him. Inorder to avoid hitting her with either the driver or. the ball and to avoid either killing her or causing serious damage to her, he had to stop his swing, as a result he was injured.

Frankly, that reads more like a jihadist short story that would appear on Al Jazeera, but I relent.  Now, though, take a gander at what the Associated Press said happened that day.

PGA Tour officials said Daly injured his rib area, along with his shoulder. The severity or exact nature of either injury wasn't known.

The fan, who was not identified by the tour, is a resident of the PGA National complex where the tournament is being held and, because she lives on-site, it wasn't clear if she went through standard security screening. She was unaware of the tournament's no-camera policy, Honda executive director Ken Kennerly said.

"Like the rest of us, she is devastated that her use of a camera resulted in an injury to John," Kennerly said. "We will continue to examine all options in our effort to eliminate cameras and cell phones from the course."

Daly, playing in a threesome with Shigeki Maruyama and Joe Ogilvie, started on the back nine and parred his first two holes before getting to the 12th tee with one of the day's largest galleries in tow.

The clicking could be heard almost at the same instant he started his backswing. He stopped and reportedly glared at the woman before trying to swing again, but immediately complained of pain and walked off to seek treatment in the tour's medical trailer.

So, according to the Tour and the tournament, the woman was behind Daly, had a camera, and it clicked so loud that Daly blew out his rib due to the distraction.  If you believe Daly's account, he was downright heroic to give up his rib to save a woman - almost biblical, really.

Maybe that gap in the story is why the Tour won't settle.

John Daly vs. PGA Tour, PGA National, & Chidren's Healthcare Charity