John Daly apologizes for putter throw, says it was an accident

After John Daly withdrew from last week’s PGA Tour Champions event, the Allianz Championship, in Florida just seven holes into his final round, the two-time major winner deposited his putter in the water hazard behind the final hole he played. That image, taken by Links Magazine, went viral.

Daly said Wednesday that his putter wound up in the water by accident, and that we would have known if he’d thrown it on purpose.

“If I throw a putter, it’s going to be in two pieces, not one,” Daly said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. “And it’s going to be 50 yards in the lake, not 5.”

Daly withdrew from the tournament with a sciatic nerve problem. In the process of walking off the green, Daly said he tossed his putter behind him to his caddie. The caddie flubbed the exchange, and into the water the putter went. No one has video of the incident to confirm or dispute Daly’s account.

Either way, Daly is sorry.

“I take responsibility,” Daly said. “I shouldn’t have tossed it.”

Daly regrets losing the putter, which was retrieved by someone on property at Broken Sound Golf Club, because it was a 50th-anniversary model of a Ping Anser putter given to him by company chairman John Solheim.

Daly plans to play in this week’s Chubb Classic in Naples.

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.