ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL REACTION

Here it is ... the REACTION! This shows you how badly Tiger wanted this one.

Why was this one so important? There are lots of possibilities, but here's my take on it. There's a special camaraderie between Tiger and Arnie. Arnie's pride in the kid is almost fatherly. And Tiger expresses a deep affection for the older duffer when the two are face to face.

Arnie was pretty obvious about his desire for Tiger to win his tourney once again. "Get off your butt and go out there and shoot a low score." he ordered Tiger as he left the locker room. Later, on the practice range he walked over and gave him a little more prodding.

At the treacherous 18th,Tiger was preparing to make his 162 yard approach with a 7- iron in his hand, tied with Bart Bryant at -9. As he started to move forward to address his ball, Stevie suddenly stepped up and interrupted him. The wind was gusting and changing directions. And Stevie offered him a 5-iron.

That could be dangerous. There was just a little slip of green with water on the right and a bunker on the left. If the wind should suddenly go quiet, that could send the ball way off into the unknown.

Tiger took the 5-iron. "I hit an aggressive swing to a conservative spot," he later said. It landed 24-25 feet on the left side and behind the hole taking the water in front out of play. He called it his best shot of the week.

This was the moment of truth. Would he birdie this hole and win the tourney? Would he par the hole and move into a playoff with Bryant? Or, would he end up with a bogie and finish in second place. Not many were expecting the third possibility. But many were betting on number two -- a playoff.

It was going to be a tricky putt. It was a downhill slider and everyone except the Tiger was holding their breath as he stepped up and made his putt. The ball moved ever so slowly down the line eventually breaking left to right and trickling into the hole. WOW!

In the meantime, Arnie stood on a rise of ground with some of the officers and other observers. As Tiger moved toward the ball, Arnie predicted that it would drop. When it did, Tiger tore off his hat, slammed it into the turf and let out a rebel yell and a roar that far exceeded anything we have heard out of him before.

When it subsided, Stevie handed him his hat. Tiger looked at the hat in amazement and asked how that got off his head. He had been so caught up in the moment, that his celebration was a blur to him.

A gleeful Arnold Palmer gave him a bear hug and asked, "What else is new?"

DALY DQ'D FROM THE ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

A day after Butch Harmon fired John Daly, John received another big disappointment. He had played in the Monday Pro-AM at Bay Hill and was asked to play in the Wednesday pro-am too. He was playing on a sponsor's exemption. But when he called in on Tuesday and asked for his tee time, he was given a starting time of 9:47 a.m. What he got was his Thursday tournament time. His Wednesday time was actually 8:40 a.m.

In Arnie's tournament, if you miss the pro-am tee time you don't get to play the Invitational. So when John arrived that morning, he was told he was disqualified from the tournament. Bummer.

"I didn't even know that was my Thursday tee time," Daly said. "I should have looked into it. It stinks for me. I want to do anything I can for the tournament as a sponsor exemption. I wanted to meet the people I was playing with in the pro-am. I love Arnold Palmer to death. I called and talked to him and apologized

"And the thing that upsets me is I cost Nick O'Hern and Ryuji Imada, so now I got these guys mad at me, too."

Imada and O'Hern were alternates for the pro-am, and both thought they were assigned to the afternoon group. Instead, they were the first two names called when Daly didn't show, and when neither was around, they also were disqualified from the $5.8 million event.

Well, this is Sunday and Tiger just spiked his hat at 18. More on that later... Marion

March 17 -- Here's a little update on the above.

After calling Arnold Palmer to help set it up, John Daly played the Celebration golf course Sunday with three UBS sponsors to make up for his missed Pro-Am tee time Wednesday that disqualified him from the Arnold Palmer Invitational, according to a tournament official.