John Daly (golfer)
John Patrick Daly (born April 28, 1966)[4] is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. Daly is known primarily for his driving distance off the tee (earning him the nickname "Long John"), his non-country-club appearance and attitude, his exceptionally long backswing, the inconsistency of his play (with some exceptional performances and some controversial incidents), and his personal life. His two greatest on-course accomplishments are his "zero-to-hero" victory in the 1991 PGA Championship, and his playoff victory over Costantino Rocca in the 1995 Open Championship.
John Daly
John Patrick Daly
Wild Thing, Long John,
Big John, JD, The Lion
April 28, 1966
Carmichael, California, U.S.
5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
250 lb (110 kg; 17 st 12 lb)[1]
3[2]
1987
PGA Tour (joined 1987)
PGA Tour Champions (joined 2016)
European Tour (joined 2002)
19
23 (October 9, 2005)[3]
5
3
1
2
1
1
8
T3: 1993
Won: 1991
T27: 1996
Won: 1995
In addition to his wins on U.S. soil, Daly has won accredited pro events in South Africa, Swaziland (Eswatini), Scotland, Germany, South Korea, Turkey, and Canada.
According to official performance statistics kept since 1980, Daly in 1997 became the first PGA Tour player to average more than 300 yards per drive over a full season. He did so again in every year from 1999 to 2008, and he was the only player to do so until 2003.[5] Daly also led the PGA Tour in driving distance 11 times from 1991 to 2002 with the exception of 1994 when Davis Love III took his spot that year.[6]
Daly's last PGA Tour victory came in San Diego in 2004, earning him a two-year playing exemption. After 2006, Daly's career began to falter and he had trouble making cuts and staying on the tour. He was primarily earning PGA Tour event entries through past champion status and numerous sponsor invitations. Since 2016, Daly has competed on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, winning the 2017 Insperity Invitational.
Daly is the only man from either Europe or the United States to win two major golf championships but not be selected for the Ryder Cup since that event began in 1927.
Daly has been successful in multiple businesses. He is endorsed by LoudMouth Golf Apparel and owns a golf course design company. In addition, Daly has written and recorded music, and has released two music albums.
Early life[edit]
Daly was born in Carmichael, California, on April 28, 1966. His father is Jim Daly, a construction worker for industrial plants; his mother is Lou Daly, a homemaker. The Daly family, solidly middle-class, moved very frequently during Daly's formative years, living in small towns across the Southern states. His father frequently worked night shifts, and often had to commute significant distances between work and home.[7]
With his father, mother, older sister and older brother Jamie, John moved from California to Dardanelle, Arkansas, when he was four years old. John began playing golf the following year, at the Bay Ridge Boat and Golf Club there. From his start in golf, Daly admired Jack Nicklaus, the dominant professional player of the time.[8] When John was ten, his family moved to Locust Grove, Orange County, Virginia. John played golf there at the Lake of the Woods Golf Course in Locust Grove, where he won the spring club championship at age 13, defeating all the male members; the club promptly changed its rules, barring juniors from future open club competition.[9] The Dalys next moved to Zachary, Louisiana, where John completed ninth grade and half of the tenth grade.[10]
John then attended Helias High School in Jefferson City, Missouri, the state capital, from the middle of his sophomore year, and was a junior golf member at the Jefferson City Country Club. He was a letterman there in football and golf. With John handling both punting and place-kicking duties, Helias football compiled a 10–0 record in 1983. In golf, John was a 1983 Missouri state team HS champion with Helias; he also holds several Helias school kicking records in football.
For his first significant golf success, Daly won the 1983 Missouri State Amateur Championship and then followed up by winning the 1984 Arkansas State Amateur Championship.[2] Daly completed his final three months of high school at Dardanelle High School in spring 1984. Back at the Bay Ridge club that summer, Daly became friends with Rick Ross, who was a golf teaching professional there, and Ross assisted him with his golf game for the next several years.[11]
Amateur career[edit]
Daly attended the University of Arkansas, from 1984 to 1987, on a golf scholarship, and was a member of the golf team. His golf team coaches were Steve Loy and Bill Woodley. Daly had tempestuous relationships with both due to his drinking problems and infrequent class attendance. Daly qualified for the 1986 U.S. Open, one of the four majors of male professional golf, as an amateur, and missed the 36-hole cut with scores of 88 and 76.[12][13]
Charity works[edit]
After winning the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club in 1991, Daly gave $30,000 to the family of a man who died during the tournament due to lightning strike. The money was used by the family to pay college expenses for the man's two daughters. Daly was just starting his golf career and was not wealthy at the time.[65]
Daly is known for his involvement in many charities including several in northwest Arkansas. He has donated money to his high school, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Daly is also an active supporter of the sports programs at the University of Arkansas. He shaved his signature "mullet", and donated the proceeds from the event to various charities.[66] Daly regularly plays in the celebrity Pro-Am Monday after the Masters hosted by his friends, Hootie & the Blowfish.[67]
Daly is in partnership with Loudmouth Golf line of clothing, which includes licensing deals with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and Arkansas Razorbacks. As of 2012, sales had increased and made it difficult to meet demand.[68] In 2014, Daly signed an endorsement deal with Rock Bottom Golf, a discount golf retailer.[69] In 2006, he launched a wine label John Daly Wines that later went defunct.[70] In 2023, he launched a line of cannabis products.[71]
Daly also has a company which designs golf courses (JD Designs), including Sevillano Links at Rolling Hills Casino in Corning, California. Sevillano Links is one of the few links style golf courses in the Western United States, and named "Best New Golf Course" by Golfweek magazine.[72][73] Other golf courses that John Daly helped design include:
In 2010, publisher Oxygen Games released John Daly's Prostroke Golf for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. In the game, John Daly is the instructor, as well as the opponent, for players. The game includes twelve courses modeled after real-world courses, but these are locked at the outset. In order to unlock courses, players must defeat Daly in Challenges, including driving, short game, and putting. Unlocking a course allows the player to play against Daly and other players in tournaments.[79]
Personal life[edit]
Alcohol[edit]
One of Daly's biggest struggles in life is alcohol and this has occurred throughout his golf career. Daly claimed that he was around 8–10 years old when he started drinking.[85] Daly also claimed he quit drinking whiskey in 1990; he opted for other alcoholic drinks, as whiskey was interfering too much with his golf game.[86] However, from 1989 to 1993, he was hospitalized four times for alcohol poisoning.[87][88] After a stint in alcohol rehab in late 1993, he reportedly went on candy and burger eating binges to reduce the need to drink alcohol; this was in full force when Daly won the 1994 BellSouth Classic and the 1995 Open Championship.[85][89]
In 1996, Daly reportedly started drinking alcohol again, claiming he only drank a few beers.[90] He then fell back into his excessive drinking habits in 1997 and proceeded to check himself into an alcohol rehabilitation center for the second time.[91] During this time, he also lost his sponsorships with Wilson and Reebok.[92][93] During the 1998 season, as Daly was recovering from his alcoholism, he suffered alcoholic shakes during the first round of the Greater Vancouver Open.[94] During the 1999 season, Daly relapsed and started drinking again after missing the cut at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. He then lost his sponsorship with Callaway due to his relapse.[95]
Starting in 2000, Daly was reportedly drinking on and off throughout the decade. However, it seemed he had a lot more control over his drinking habits and rowdy behavior during the 2000s. [96][97][98]
In March 2008, Daly's swing coach Butch Harmon quit, saying that "the most important thing in (Daly's) life is getting drunk." Daly responded by saying, "I think his lies kind of destroyed my life for a little bit."[99]
On October 26, 2008, Daly was taken into protective custody by Winston-Salem police after being found drunk outside a Hooters restaurant. He was not arrested or charged with a violation. However, the police released his mug shot to the media which resulted in negative publicity.[100] Shortly after this incident, Daly committed to stop drinking alcohol, which resulted in a progressive resurgence of his game and a positive change in his personal life; this was confirmed by Daly himself at The Open Championship on July 15, 2010.[101]
In an interview on The Dan Patrick Show on August 6, 2014, Daly said that much of his past struggle with alcohol was due to growing up with an alcoholic and abusive father.[102]
Health[edit]
In July 1994, Daly claimed that many PGA golfers were cocaine users, and said that if drug testing was done properly on tour, he would be "one of the cleanest guys out there".[103] This statement brought an uproar among the pro golf community.[12]
In early 2009, he had lap-band surgery which limits the amount of food that he can consume.[104] As of December 8, 2009, Daly had shed well over 100 pounds and was "a slim, trim 185".[105]
In July 2019, Daly had a near-death experience after being bitten by a brown recluse spider while he was vacationing in England. He had developed sepsis and required an emergency surgery.[106]
In September 2020, Daly announced he had recently battled with bladder cancer. He underwent surgery to remove the cancer, but doctors said there was an 85 percent chance of relapse. To reduce the chance of recurrence, Daly plans to improve his previously unhealthy lifestyle which involved smoking and drinking large amounts of Diet Coke.[107]
Gambling[edit]
In 1999, Daly was reported to have lost $51 million from gambling in the mid-1990s and he was feeling the effects of his gambling when he had to sell his Mercedes and his house in California.[108] Daly claimed he would sit at blackjack tables with $220,000 on a single hand. He would bet as high as $50,000 on a football game but he never bet on a golf game. Daly also expressed great difficulty at the time in paying alimony, child support, and other expenses as less money was coming in due to his struggles on and off the golf course.[109]
In 2006, Daly revealed in the last chapter of his autobiography that he has had great difficulty with his gambling problem.[110] He claims to have lost between $50 and $60 million over a 15-year period.[111] This includes losing $1.5 million in October 2005, after winning half that amount at the WGC-American Express tournament, most of it lost on a $5,000 Las Vegas slot machine at Wynn Casino.[112]
Marriages[edit]
Daly married Dale Crafton in 1987. Crafton was a well-known hand model who came from a wealthy family in Arkansas. Daly was trying to support his wife and himself by making it to the PGA Tour. However, Daly was miserable living with Dale in her hometown of Blytheville.[113] They divorced in 1990 due to irreconcilable differences.[114]
In summer 1992, he married his second wife, Bettye Fulford. They had a daughter, Shynah Hale. In December 1992, Daly was charged with third-degree assault for throwing Bettye into a wall at their home near Denver. The actual circumstances of the incident remained unclear so far as public releases were concerned, since Bettye did not wish to pursue the matter.[12] Daly has said in his autobiography that he did not, nor has he ever, hit or hurt a woman.[110]
After Daly's divorce with Fulford was finalized in 1995, he married Paulette Dean that same year. A daughter, Sierra Lynn, was born on June 1, 1995. The couple divorced in 1999.
On July 29, 2001, he married Sherrie Miller. Their son John Patrick Daly II was born July 23, 2003. On June 8, 2007, Daly and Sherrie got into a fight at a restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, site of that week's tour stop, the Stanford St. Jude Championship. Daly claims that later that night his wife attacked him with a steak knife. He showed up for his second round on Friday afternoon with cuts and scrapes across his face. Authorities were contacted by him and came to his house, but his wife had already fled the scene and taken their son with her.[115]
Sherrie (at some point) pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and was sentenced to a five-month prison term. On December 17, 2010, in Memphis, Circuit Court Judge Donna Fields awarded custody of the couple's seven-year-old son "Little John" to Daly, and jailed Sherrie for interfering with Daly's court-ordered visitation rights and other failures to abide by the court's orders in their ongoing divorce proceeding, saying "She is not following this court's orders. That is criminal contempt."[116]
Lawsuits[edit]
In 2005, Daly sued the Florida Times-Union for libel after a columnist claimed Daly "failed the scoundrel sniff test." A judge threw out the case in 2009, saying that Daly had failed to prove the basis of the libel claim: namely, that the statements were untrue. Daly was also ordered by a judge to pay the newspaper over $300,000 in legal fees.[117]
In 2008, Daly sued Hippo Golf for using his name on a golf club they were selling without his permission.[118] The judge ruled in favor of Daly. However, the judge also denied the motion for Hippo Golf to pay Daly any damages.[119]
In 2010, Daly sued a children's charity and the PGA Tour for $100 million from an injury he sustained at the 2007 Honda Classic.[120] As of 2015, the litigation is still ongoing.[121]
Politics[edit]
Daly is a Republican and vocal supporter of Donald Trump.[122][123]
Daly has advocated for the legalization of cannabis in Arkansas, endorsing a ballot measure in 2022 that he said would create "millions in new funding for our police, ... thousands of good jobs, [and] revenue for our state".[124][125]
Video games[edit]
Daly became the first of two real people to make an appearance in the Everybody's Golf series, appearing in the third installment, Hot Shots Golf 3; the other is Shigeki Maruyama, who appeared in Everybody's Golf 5.
He also appears in the popular arcade golf game Golden Tee.
He appeared in the Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game series from 2004 to 2009.