Wait for it.

Wait for it.

Well, John Daly never was one to conform.

Yes, that is the best I’ve got. A press release this week confirmed that John Daly has signed on to be an ambassador for golf brand Polara. The 47-year-old Daly, who has played many clubs throughout his storied career, will now add Polara Golf to that list.

Or will he? After all, Daly still does regularly suit up on the PGA and Web.com tours (he does, look it up!) and for those events he will not be allowed to use products from his new sponsor. Unfortunately, I’m not referring to Loudmouth pants, the “loud” attire that will have you adjusting the color dial on your television — that is if you still own a television that has dials, but where were we? Ah yes, illegal stuff. Polara Golf fancies itself as “the leader in game improvement equipment for the recreational golfer,” and actually makes golf balls and a driver that are both not conforming to the rules of the USGA and R&A.

I’m not going to criticize a company for making non-conforming equipment; Callaway famously did it in the past with the ERC 2 driver, a club that was so controversial it caused people to do the impossible — get mad at Arnold Palmer. And recently TaylorMade CEO Mark King has made comments in interviews hinting at his own support for bifurcation of the rules, leading to countless online debates about whether or not TaylorMade would actually produce non-conforming clubs.

[youtube id=”og9iCF6FtwI” width=”620″ height=”360″]

Well, Polara DOES in fact currently produce non-conforming equipment. It makes a ball that it claims can reduce your slice by up to 70 percent (watch it above), but oddly it don’t boast about fixing a hook, so I guess if you hook it you are out of luck. But anyway, the company claims to have the best slice-fixing balls on the market, which are “approved for the recreational golfer” unless his recreation is playing in USGA-sanctioned events.

Polara also makes a 475 cubic centimeter driver, which is over the USGA’s limit of 460 CCs. I do find it curious, however, that the company went with 475 CC’s. I mean, if you are going to stick it to the man, maybe do so by more than 3 percent. That’s barely even noticeably bigger. Why not make a 600 CC driver that you anchor to your gut?

So yes, you will not see John Daly using Polara golf equipment in tournaments, even if you aren’t temporarily blinded by his pants, which is why I suppose they use the key word “ambassador.” Times are changing, this being 2013 and all. There has been some backlash at the USGA for its handling of the groove rule (my beloved Eye2’s!), as well as the decision by golf’s ruling bodies to ban anchored putters in 2016.

Several defenders of the recreational golfer have suggested amateurs play a different game than the pros anyway, and I suppose that the message here Polara is trying to get across is:

You don’t play the same game as the pros, so don’t play the same equipment and don’t feel bad about it.

Only now, the company has a pro ambassador who believes they share the same “grip-it-and-rip-it” mantra as it does. Well that, or maybe Polara offered more money than say, Titliest. But who am I to speculate?

I doubt John Daly will be as criticized as Arnold Palmer was — times are a bit different and thoughts about bifurcation are a bit different. And frankly John Daly doesn’t have the same profile as the king did when he made that decision. But it is interesting to once again see a pro golfer publicly back a company that boasts about making non-conforming equipment.

Oh, and if you run into Daly on a public course and he offers to make a wager, don’t do it. He might hit a lot of fairways.