Coach Chipper Cecil has helped John Daly's game a lot in 2004. Warren Little/Getty Images

John Daly burst onto the golf scene in 1991 at the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick GC, where the legendary Jack Nicklaus, who was in the television tower commentating for ABC, claimed "He is playing a game in which I am not familiar with." Nicklaus was talking about Daly's booming 300-plus-yard drives on the narrow fairways of a major championship.

After a series of roller coaster years on the PGA Tour, Daly captured his second major title at the British Open in 1995, by defeating Constantino Rocca in a playoff. After another series of roller coaster years -- on and off the golf course --Daly's golf game hit an all-time low in 2003 as he made only eight of 22 cuts, sliding to 171st on the money list.

With the threat of losing his PGA Tour status (his 10 year exemption expires in 2005) Daly has recommitted himself to golf, and hired friend Chipper Cecil as his coach. I sat down with Cecil, my fellow teaching partner at The Golf Academy at Mission Hills Country Club, and we discussed Daly's game, and little more.

Stanger: When you and John started working together at the beginning of 2004, what was your goal for his swing?

Cecil: The objective was to shorten John's swing so he could control the club and the ball more effectively. This meant first having him become aware of the actual length of his swing, and second, having him become aware of what we wanted to the length of his swing to be.

What he felt with the left arm being at 10:00 was actually 12:00, with the club parallel to the ground. I had to change his thoughts about the golf swing being a dominant right-sided motion, and had to make the left side be more in control of his swing. Let's say the feeling that the left side is controlling up to 60 percent of the swing, and the right side is controlling 40 percent. With Daly making the left side more dominant for direction control of the shaft along the "target line," he's been able to hit more with his right side for power control.

This is the reason why John practices hitting a lot of short shots with only his left hand on the club. One thing about John, when he goes out and practices, you had better be ready for a long haul. He works as hard as anybody on Tour, and it has really shown up in his game this year. This is one reason why John is 5th on the PGA Tours' overall performance statistics.

Stanger: Has their been a change in his attitude towards driving the ball off the tee?

Cecil: As long as John has been on Tour, a lot of his incentive contracts with club and ball manufacturers have stated that John needs to finish at the top of the driving-distance statistics in order for him to receive bonuses, so his attitude towards driving the ball was to go all out, all of the time. Now, he doesn't care about being the longest driver on Tour. He's focused his all-around game on playing smarter from the tee in order to get the ball into play, thus increasing his greens in regulations percentages to give him more opportunities at making birdies.

Stanger: So with this change in attitude about driving the ball, has that changed his ball's flight off the tee?

Cecil: Yes, John went from playing a draw off the tee to playing a fade. Now, there might be a handful of players who can hit the ball longer than John, but I think he flies the ball off the tee further than anyone on Tour. He just doesn't get the roll on the ball because he is shaping his shots with cut spin in order to get the ball to land softer, have less roll and stay in the fairway a higher percentage of the time.

Stanger: What changes in Daly's swing have helped him shape the ball's flight to hit more fairways?

Cecil: This change was created by aiming his feet slightly further left than what felt normal to him. Since John, during his swing, crosses the line at the top of his backswing with the angle of his shaft, so by aiming slightly further to the left, this would actually make the crossing of the line now to be straight, where the club points to the target, or target line, in the distance. This made it easier for him to work the ball along that line with a slight cut spin to promote the desired fade.

John used to aim more down the middle of the fairway, so when he got to the top of his backswing, the clubs' shaft would be across the line to the right of his target. Then in the forward swing, he would have to flip the club with his hands to spin the ball to the left, towards his target. This change in turn has made John's swing to be more of a "blocking motion" rather than the "flipping motion" of the past. This blocking motion is the technique used by some of the great drivers who hit more fairways. Again, the "left arm only" practicing has helped John achieve this motion, and become more accurate from the tee.

Stanger: What do you see as the motivating force behind Daly's resurgence?

Cecil: John's motivating force is that he has a desire to play the type of golf that he knows he can play. He also understands that he always could play at the elite level, but sometimes he did not give all that he could. This is evident now because he will grind out the second round after a poor first round, when in the past he might have tossed in the towel early. The PGA Championship was a good example of him having a poor first round, but then coming back the second round, and playing harder rather than giving up.

He is on a mission to play every shot the best he can, regardless if he is 10-under or 10-over. He may not be ranked No. 1, but he now believes in his mind that he is No. 1, and with a renewed confidence, 2005 looks exciting for John --as long as he continues on the path of progression we have seen this year.

Rob Stanger is teaching professional at the Mission Hills Country Club Golf Learning Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Contact him at robstanger.com.