John Daly is on the cover of the current ESPN The Magazine, and inside can be found an excerpt from his book, “My Life in and Out of the Rough.”

ESPN is no dummy. The U.S. Open began Thursday, and who better to help sell magazines than the man best known for overindulgence – for how much he can drink to how much he can lose at the slot machines to how big his waistline can grow? What could Tiger Woods’ two Open victories do for circulation in the face of that kind of inspired excess?

If only Daly were actually playing in the tournament. He’s not.

Western Open officials are no dummies either. In a current newspaper ad for the tournament, four golfers’ photos are featured: last year’s winner Jim Furyk; the royalty of golf, Woods and Phil Mickelson; and Daly, who ranks 160th on the PGA money list. Daly is committed to playing in the tournament and, if he does, there will be mobs of spectators following him.

What’s the allure?

It’s apparently that when you’re watching Daly, you know there’s a decent chance you’re watching a man spiraling back toward rock bottom. Daly owns property down there. And for many, many people, it’s impossible to take their eyes off of him, in case he implodes or nails a drive 350 yards.

Over the years, the gist of a lot of the magazine and newspapers stories about Daly has been that he’s a lot closer to us than he is to Woods and Mickelson. He’s one of us, the writers say, full of human weaknesses.

He knocks himself down, dusts himself off and gets up again. OK, but why didn’t former pitcher Steve Howe get the same aw-shucks-that’s-just-him treatment? He got ripped for being incapable of helping himself. Major League Baseball suspended him seven times for drug usage before banning him for life in 1992, though an arbitrator reinstated him after the season. He died in an April 28 rollover accident in California.

For the record, Daly drives a motor home from tournament to tournament.

Here’s a guy who came out of Arkansas with that wrap-around swing and the ability to hit a golf ball a country mile. And making it even better, he was right out of central casting for “The Dukes of Hazzard” – a mullet, a taste for moonshine and all.

Where many other athletes try to hide their failings, he always has been upfront about his.

Swell, but at what point do you shake your head and force yourself to look away? How long can you watch this for entertainment value? People can’t help but follow Daly because they like him. A lot. But for those of us who see a guy headed for disaster, it’s hard to take in.

All that talent, wasted. He says in his book that after finishing second to Woods at the WGC-AmEx Championship in San Francisco last year and winning $750,000, he went straight to Las Vegas and lost $1.65 million in five hours at the slot machines.

Yeah, woo-boy, you go John! You show ’em you’re one of us. Maybe it’s the concept of redemption, that somewhere along the line, Daly is going to be a winner again and chase away his demons. Maybe hearts go out to him, and people want Everyman to get better.

It could be that. Or, it could be that some people are following around Daly waiting for the next bomb to go off. That sounds more like it.