Page turners: My Life in and Out of the Rough

The PGA Tour must have a secret factory that pumps out generic golfers: lean country-club types in perfectly pressed Dockers with indistinguishable swings and all the personality of a sand wedge.

So when a husky, mullet-headed Good Ol' Boy from Arkansas won one of golf's premier events in 1991 - clobbering colossal drives and high-fiving fans - it was as if one of the rest of us had stormed the country club.

Since his PGA Championship win, John Daly has been one of golf's most popular players - and troubled souls. "My Life In and Out of the Rough" is The Lion's thank-you to his fans, who, he says, saved his life. It's a life that has had three failed marriages (his fourth wife is currently in jail), bouts with alcohol abuse and depression, gambling losses of $60 million, and a career that has been both surprising - he won a 2nd Major, the British Open, in 1995 - and disappointing, with only one Tour win since. He considered ending his life, only to be talked out of it. "I needed to hear somebody I trusted and respected tell me that I was worth something," he writes.

"My Life" is the blunt assessment (in blunt language) of a man-child who's trying to cast out his demons and become, in his own eyes, the person that so many others love. He could start by loving himself. Grade: B