John Daly

1966-

American golfer

John Daly has won two major golf tournaments, one of them against unspeakable odds. He has also self-destructed through substance abuse, only to repeatedly bounce back. People admire his personal tenacity as much as his towering tee shots; many fans see Daly as one of them. "They've stuck by him through two PGA Tour suspensions, two trips to alcohol rehab centers, three failed marriages and counteless embarrassing moments," Bob Carter wrote for ESPN.com.

Family Moved to Arkansas

Daly moved from California to Arkansas when his father, Jim, landed a job with a nuclear power plant in Dardanelle. John Daly hit golf balls at age four, but also

began drinking at age nine. He won the adult club championship at Lake of the Woods in Virginia when he was still underage and was miffed when the club's sponsors refused to give him the trophy.

Daly was a prized recruit when he came to the University of Arkansas in 1984, but also weighed 235 pounds. Coach Steve Loy wanted the golfer to lose 60 pounds and insisted on a restrictive diet and daily weigh-ins. Daly dropped the weight using a liquid diet of his own devising—Jack Daniels, right out of the bottle. "A fifth a day," Daly told Mark Seal of Golf Digest.

In 1987 Daly dropped out of Arkansas and turned pro. He competed in mini-tournaments, winning $6,300 in his pro debut, the Missouri Open—after borrowing $300 from his mother. Daly estimates he won $40,000 before even enrolling in PGA Tour school. But he still drank heavily, often carrying whiskey with him in his golf cart. Sometimes his drinking led to violence. Nicknamed "Wild Thing," Daly destroyed a hotel in South Africa in 1990 while on the verge of divorcing his first wife, Dale.

Cinderella PGA Champ

His life turned in 1991 at the PGA Championship, one of golf's four Grand Slam events. Daly, the ninth and final alternate, got to play when Nick Price was scratched, his wife about to give birth. Upon getting the news, Daly drove all night from Memphis to Crooked Stick Golf Club outside Indianapolis. He played without a practice round and won the tournament.

Dan Davies, writing for the British Web site Rivals.net, said the Sunday gallery served to inspire Daly, not intimidate him. "They simply loved Daly's 'Grip it and rip it' mentality, the way he walked after his ball, sent it into orbit and then walked after it again." Daly, inspired by a good-luck note on his locker from the redoubtable Jack Nicklaus, overcame a first-hole bogey and some jitters on the final three holes to claim the $230,000 first prize and an avalanche of endorsement deals. The money went to his head and contributed to his quick decline.

Problems Eclipse Success

Though Daly landed about $10 million worth of endorsement deals, earned the PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year award for 1991, and won the B.C. Open a year later, his life was sliding down a slippery slope. He was disqualified from two international events over scorecard-signing procedures, and was charged with assaulting his second wife, Bettye, at a Christmas party (he pled the charge down to harassment) in Denver and entered his first rehab. While not drinking for a while, Daly admitted to heavy gambling, saying he was cross-addicted.

Commissioner Deane Beman suspended him for three months after he walked off the Kapalua International. He rebounded to win the BellSouth Classic the following year. But Reebok suspended his endorsement deal after he resumed heavy drinking. Gambling problems also mounted.

The final shining moment of Daly's career came in the 1995 British Open at storied St. Andrew's golf course. The wide fairways suited Daly's hard-driving game. Daly, a 66-1 long shot, won an 18-hole playoff against Constantino Rocca by four stokes, one day after Rocca had forced the playoff by making a 70-foot putt from the "Valley of Sin" on hole number 18. Daly's game and life, however, backslid again. St. Andrews was his last pro victory.

"When the downward spiral revived, all the old nightmares, plus a few new ones, came calling," Carter wrote. Daly threw clubs, withdrew prematurely from tournaments, battled depression and even suicide attempts, after he escaped from the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, California. He also amassed $2.6 million in gambling debts and lost the sponsorship of Calloway Golf, for whom he endorsed Big Bertha drivers. His third wife, Paulette, left him.

Feels Alone

Daly, in a commentary in Sports Illustrated in March, 2001, wrote about feelings of abandonment. "I'm the Tour's forgotten man—not by the fans, who have been awesome although I've had five rough years—but by the sponsors and some of the players I considered friends. From 1991 to 1998 they begged me to play in their off-season events. Now they don't want anything to do with me."

Daly rebounded with an upbeat 2001, finishing 66th in money winnings on the Tour. He also wed Sherrie Miller that summer, his fourth marriage. In addition, he founded his own business, John Daly Enterprises. Playing in a tournament in the Australian PGA Championship in November 2002, shortly after his mother died, Daly was disqualified after he threw his putter into the lake and did not sign his scorecard.

Despite Daly's problems, Golf Weekly writer Lance Cagle says no golfer is more loved. "Not Tiger [Woods] , not Greg Norman , and certainly not one of the countless Orlando/Phoenix robots with their perfect swings and perfect portfolios," Cagle wrote. "When fans look at Daly, we see both the talent we wish we had and the insecurities that we cannot shake.… Here's hoping John Daly's movie ends the way Rocky Balboa's did. Here's hoping John Daly is well enough to deal with it."

Chronology

Awards and Accomplishments

SELECTED WRITINGS BY DALY:

(With John Andrisani) Grip It and Rip It, New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Wartman, William. John Daly: Wild Thing. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1966.

Other

Cagle, Lance. "Why You Have to Love John Daly." eGolf Weekly, http://www.egolfweekly.com/daly.html (November 15, 2001).

Carter, Bob. "Excesses Undermine Daly's Potential." ESPN.com, http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/daly_john.html (January 14, 2003).

Daly, John. "My Shot." Sports Illustrated, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/golf/news/2001/03/13/my_shot (March 13, 2001).

Davies, Dan. "Crooked Stick and the Birth of a Legend." Rivals.net, http://ukgolf.rivals.net (August 14, 2001).

"John Daly—Biographical Information." PGA Tour, http://www.pgatour.com/players/00/12/49bio.html (January 14, 2003).

Mack, James. "Exit Daly with Club in Lake." The Guardian, http://www.sport.guardian.co.uk/golf/story/0.10069,851032,00.html (November 30, 2002).

Seal, Mark. "Still Afloat." Golf Digest, http://www.golfdigest.com/features/index.ssf?/features/gd200108daly.html (August, 2001).

Voepel, Mechelle. "Daly's Big Hitting and Big Personality Part of Children's Mercy Field." Kansas City Star, http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/4870043.htm (January 4, 2003).

Sketch by Paul Burton