Do you remember your preschool toys? I do. I still can't figure out how some of them work. There is one that still really vexes me. The stupid one where you have to fit the right shapes in the right slots.

Call me stubborn, or stupid or even crazy, but sometimes I want the square peg to fit into the circular slot. I look at the Masters field and I see that all but one of the players fits into the circular slot. Then there's John Daly.

Daly is to golf what Whitney Houston is to music. They are both masters of their craft, but sometimes you have to wonder about their lives out of the arena. Daly has had more ups and downs than the stock market on a roller coaster at at Great America.

Daly has seen only slightly fewer battles than a World War II veteran. He's fought ex-wives over houses, he's battled alcoholism several times, he's battled money troubles and, of course, the mullet. Daly used to have a mullet that wasn't your average business-in-the-front-party-in-the-back haircut. He had a mullet that was CEO in the front, Dennis Rodman in the back.

Daly fits in the Augusta National Golf Club crowd like Rodney Dangerfield fit into the ritzy country club in "Caddyshack." Let's put it this way, Augusta National is a wine and cheese party and John Daly is a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon and a slice of Chicago-style pizza. As Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton just showed us on the big screen, something has got to give.

We all have a little John Daly in us. Tucked inside the back of everyone's mind is that voice you know will do you harm in the end. This voice should come standard with a self-destruct countdown it's so deadly. It's the voice that tells you to pull out the 3-wood when you have to carry the ball 240 yards over water. Not to mention there is sand to the right and hazards aligned down the left.

"Grip it and rip it," this detrimental voice whispers. You follow orders and watch the ball sail into the jaws of no return, utter a few words that would make George Carlin squeamish and break your 3-wood. That's the John Daly in all of us.

That's why John Daly is popular with the people. He listens to that voice in the back of his head, only he has the raw power and talent to pull the shots off. Hell, John Daly doesn't just listen to that voice, he is the voice. His unwillingness to lay up to the green makes him the most fun golfer on the tour. It's that fun that earns him the same thunderous applause for a final round of 80 as a final round of 65.

Here's to hoping there will be thunderous roars Sunday for the big man. Here's to hoping he won't lay up this weekend, or ever. Most importantly, here's to hoping that Hootie Johnson, chairman of Augusta, has to run to the big and tall store for a green jacket come Sunday afternoon of the Masters.