John Daly was a legendary golfer whose off
the course exploits were as explosive as his game. Before we get into how he blew tens of million
dollars on gambling, let’s find out how it all began! Early Life
John Daly was born in the city of Carmichael, California, back in 1966. But it wasn’t until his family moved to
Arkansas that he started playing golf, when he was just 4 years old. His family moved around a lot when he was
a kid. But the one constant he kept in his life was
golf. Starting golf at such a young age made Daly
a prodigy. So much so that he won his first golf tournament
when he was only 13! He beat out all the adult male members at
the local golf club he played at. Obviously that’s not a good feeling for
any rich guy with an ego. As soon as that happened, the club changed
its rules to not allow kids to play in the tourneys! He continued to hone his skills and eventually
Daly went to college at the University of Arkansas on a golf scholarship. But he ended up not finishing school. Why? It was a combination of his drinking and partying. And the fact that he was good enough to go
pro. 1987 was when he started his infamous career
as the bad boy of golf! Daly looked like the complete OPPOSITE of a golfer at a country
club. He fit in more at a local dive bar in the
middle of nowhere. And it was this look, his infamous lifestyle
choices, and his reputation of being the biggest hitter on the PGA tour that made him a superstar
to nontraditional golf fans back then! Professional Volatility
Part of what made Daly famous among all fans was his unpredictable play. He could play exceptionally well one day,
while playing absolutely terrible the next day. To perfectly illustrate this, take what happened
at the Bay Hill Invitational back in 1998. On one particular hole, Daly famously hit
six different balls into the water! But then he just calmly birdied the next hole
as if nothing had happened! Then there were his unpredictable decisions. In the 2000 US Open, he hit three balls into
the water and then he hit another back out of bounds. Even though he could have had a respectable
finish, he just withdrew from that tournament after an opening round of 83! Then there were the anger issues. At the Australian PGA Championship in 2002,
he threw his putter AND ball into the pond at the 18th hole after he finished the round. He did this with the entire golf world watching! He was later disqualified because he didn’t
sign his scorecard and he had also verbally abused a tour official. That led to a fine and a subsequent apology
letter he had to write. This wasn't his only fine in Australia. In fact, Daly probably hates Australia. During the 2008 Australian Open, he broke
a fan's camera by smashing it into a tree in a fit of anger! Then at the Australia Open AGAIN in 2011,
Daly walked off out of the tournament after hitting seven balls in a row into the water. All these are examples of what could happen
with Daly on and off the course! However, Daly at his best was a championship
level golfer. He could have easily won many more Majors
had he completely focused on golf. His talent alone most likely put him on the
PGA tour. Personal Volatility
Daly’s personal life has been on full display in the media ever since he turned professional. One of his most well known personal stories
happened in June 2007. Daly and his fourth wife got into a heated
argument at a restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee during one of his tournaments. His wife went after him with a steak knife
during the argument! He started the second round of the tournament
with visible cuts on his face the next day. Then there are the countless incidents with
alcohol. Daly has been very blunt about how alcohol
took a toll on his career and life in general. He’s admitted that he’s played a lot of
golf while hungover or even still drunk from the night before. And one time, he admitted to pounding 5 beers
in between holes during the LA Open! But the come to Jesus moment for Daly arguably
came in 2008. Daly was taken into custody by local police
in Winston-Salem North Carolina after they found him hammered outside a Hooters. They actually didn’t charge him with anything,
but they released his mugshot to the press. That incident and the negative press was the
final straw for Daly. He committed to quitting alcohol after that
incident. Earlier that same year, his coach Butch Harmon
had quit because Daly’s problems with alcohol had become unbearable for him. Gambling
Then there was the gambling. Daly had a reputation as a reckless gambler. He admitted that gambling addiction nearly
ruined his life. One famous gambling story didn’t have anything
to do with him losing, but actually winning! Daly once threw $55 thousand dollars he had
won at a casino off a bridge. Why? Because he was having another huge fight with
his wife Sherrie. Well, ex-wife Sherrie. Ironically, the fight started because she
was complaining about how he kept losing money gambling. So just to spite her, he threw the money off
a bridge while they were both in the car! Daly reminded her that he was the one paying
all the bills, and she wasn’t working. So she had no right to be complaining. On top of all that, Daly then had one of his
friends drive her to McDonalds and show her how difficult it was to eat on a budget as
some sort of lesson for her to learn. He said he felt Sherrie wasn't appreciative
of all the things he had done to support her and pay for everything in her life. Amazingly, Sherrie ended up going back and
she was able to find the cash. And yes, this is the same wife who did all
the damage to him with a steak knife! They eventually got divorced in 2010, after
a string of public fights that ended with her running away with their son. This was Daly's fourth divorce. Earning power
So how much money did Daly make? According to the PGA Tour, Daly has earned
roughly $10.2 million dollars in his more than 25 years as a professional golfer. Then there are the millions of dollars he's
made with endorsement deals and media work. That makes sense because Daly has admitted
on ESPN’s 30 for 30 that he’s lost an estimated 55 million dollars from gambling! Amazingly, for supposedly blowing all those
millions gambling, Daly has only made over 7 figures a year from golfing twice, in 2004
and 2005. The rest of the money he made came from endorsements
and appearances. For example, Wilson signed him to a 10 million
dollar deal after his surprise PGA championship win in 1991. There was also the deal with Reebok, which
paid him half a million dollars a year for around 6 years. There were numerous other deals without clear
numbers, such as the endorsement he had with Hooters restaurant. The Rush
Everything changed for John when he had one of the biggest wins of his life in 1991 at
the PGA Championship. The ironic thing was, he wasn’t even supposed
to have played in the tournament. He was the ninth alternate! He got in because Nick Price’s wife was
having a baby at that time. Winning his first Major made Daly $230,000
grand. That was nearly 40% more than what he had
made TOTAL the year before! This was around the time when the reckless
spending started. As an example, he donated $30,000 dollars
to the family of Tom Weaver. He was a fan who was struck by lightning while
on the course during the PGA Championship that year! Because he won, Daly felt obligated to help
his family out since Weaver left behind kids and a wife. There’s no denying that Daly had a big heart. But sometimes his financial decisions didn’t
make the most sense. Couple his emotional decisions along with
a fixation on alcohol, and losing money quickly became a problem for Daly. Daly loved to chase a rush. And gambling was something that gave Daly
that rush. He’s openly said that he liked to quote
“take chances”, and the excitement of not knowing what was gonna happen was what
he loved. Amex Championship Rush
It was simply the action of gambling that was more alluring than the actual result. Daly only wanted the adrenaline and he didn’t
care about winning the money. He simply loved the action. One of his most famous gambling stories happened
after he lost a playoff to Tiger Woods in 2005. That was the American Express Championship,
where he got runner up. But he still earned $750,000 thousand for
getting second, but that money he won didn’t last long at all! Instead of heading home from San Francisco,
Daly headed to Wynn Casino in Las Vegas and sat down at a $5,000 dollar per play slot
machine. Within half an hour, he lost $600,000 grand! He promptly took out a $600,000 dollar line
of credit and burned through that too. By the time he was done, he had lost roughly
$1.65 million dollars in only five hours at the Wynn! Gambling Totals
All the millions Daly lost were done in a span of 17 years. From 1991 to 2007, Daly lost on average $3.2
million a year. How did he know so much about his losses? According to his autobiography 'My Life in
and out of the Rough...', Daly used his tax records to figure out the amount of money
he had lost during his gambling sprees. He ran the numbers and determined that his
actual gambling losses were roughly $90 million dollars, compared to the $35 million in gambling
wins. The numbers were so staggering and sobering,
that it even shocked Daly himself! He had only estimated the figures in his head
before actually sitting down to look at the truth on his tax records. Daly's net gambling losses from 1991-2007
totaled around $55 million dollars. In his head he had thought it might have been
twenty or maybe even 25 million. He had no idea that it was actually more than
double that! But, Daly took consolation that his big losses
weren't completely useless. Since gambling winnings are fully taxable,
he could also claim his losses. But the caveat was, he couldn’t report more
in losses than he claimed in winnings. In other words, unfortunately for Daly, he
couldn't use his net loss to offset other income! Let’s face it, Daly simply had a gambling
problem. It shouldn’t be a surprise that when he
was gambling hard, he’d sometimes play as many as seven different hands of blackjack
at the same time, with $10 to $15 thousand riding on each hand! Although Daly has had an up and down career
and life in general, he’s moved on from all of it. Health
Gambling, drinking and Daly’s obsession with Diet Coke were the constant topics in
the media. Daly claims that at one point he drank over
500 gallons of Diet Coke a year! He used to drink anywhere from 12-20 Diet
Cokes per day. But there’s the time when Daly lost almost
70 pounds on the tried and true diet of…….popcorn and whisky?! This was a story he revealed during his ESPN
30 for 30 interview. As a teenager in Arkansas, Daly was told he
needed to lose some weight if he wanted to play college golf. So in a matter of 2 and a half months, he
lost a whopping 67 pounds with a diet of popcorn and Jack Daniels! He was drinking a fifth of Jack Daniels a
day for about six months straight! Supposedly Steve Loy, his golf coach at the
time, told him that if he wanted to really forget about his appetite, he should smoke
a cigarette or two. Daly may have taken this one a little too
far. Because that’s when he started smoking a
habit that’s lasted him over 30 years and counting. In his autobiography, he claims to smoke two
to two-and-a-half packs a day. Obviously, Daly's approach to dieting is something
no one should do. It was as reckless as it gets! And of course, the weight didn’t stay off. It started coming back fast especially in
1995 when he decided to go sober. Daly started eating a lot to suppress his
need for alcohol. John Daly 2021
But where’s Daly now today? He’s still playing golf, and he still gets
paid to do appearances. And he also sells his own memorabilia himself
out of his tour bus all around the country! However, bad news struck in September of 2020. Daly found out that he had bladder cancer. He went to see a doctor to check on what he
thought were kidney stones, but his doctor found cancer instead. He had surgery to remove the mass, but the
chances of it returning is around 85%. But that’s not stopping Daly from continuing
golfing today. He’s still making an effort to eat better,
but he’s still having a problem giving up his Diet Coke. As a personal mission, Daly has decided to
let his beard grow out until he's completely cancer free. Here’s what’s next!
