John Daly (golfer)

John Patrick Daly (born April 28, 1966) is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour.^[1]

Daly is known primarily for his driving distance off the tee (earning him the nickname "Long John"), his non-country club appearance and attitude, and his rough-and-tumble personal life. Daly remains one of the most popular and intriguing figures on the PGA Tour. His two greatest on course accomplishments are his "zero to hero" victory in the 1991 PGA Championship, and his playoff victory over Constantino Rocca in the 1995 Open Championship.

Life and career

Daly was born in Carmichael, California. His family: Dad Jim, Mom Lou, older sister Julia, older brother Jamie and John moved from California to Dardanelle, Arkansas when he was four, and he began playing golf the following year.

[edit] Education

Daly attended Helias High School in Jefferson City, Missouri, and was a letterman in football and golf. In golf, he was a Missouri state champion, he held and continues to hold several kicking records in football. Daly attended the University of Arkansas, where he was a member of the golf team.

[edit] Golf career

Daly turned professional in 1987, and won the Ben Hogan Utah Classic in 1990. His first professional victory was the Missouri Open.

He joined the PGA Tour in 1991 and won the PGA Championship that year. This victory gained Daly a significant amount of media attention due to the fact that Daly was the ninth and final alternate for the Championship. He entered the competition when Nick Price dropped out and no other alternate could make it. He parlayed this opportunity into a first round score of 69, without a practice round. He finished the tournament with scores of 69-67-69-71, giving him a three-stroke victory over Bruce Lietzke. Daly was subsequently named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. He was also the first rookie to win a major title since Jerry Pate won the U.S. Open in 1976.

He won the B.C. Open in 1992 and the BellSouth Classic in 1994. In 1995, he unexpectedly won the British Open in a playoff with Italian Costantino Rocca at St. Andrews. Daly is the only eligible two-time major winner never selected to play in the Ryder Cup. This distinction is often used in quiz shows; in 2006, Scottish golfer Sam Torrance took over nine minutes to (correctly) answer this question on Britain's longest running game show A Question of Sport.^[2]

[edit] 2007 Exempt Status

Daly entered the 2007 PGA Tour season without full exempt status for the first time since his 1991 PGA Championship victory, which carried a 10-year PGA Tour exemption. Another such exemption was earned with his 1995 Open Championship win. When Daly won the 2004 Buick Invitational, he earned a 2-year exemption, which expired at the end of 2006. Daly finished 193rd on the 2006 PGA Tour Official Money List, thereby losing his full exempt status for 2007.

As he is not among the Top 50 on the PGA Tour's All-Time Career Money List, Daly must now depend heavily on Sponsor Invitations (PGA Tour Exemption Category 11). Some 2007 PGA Tour events have already extended such invitations. Outside of sponsor invitations, Daly can also play in most 2007 regular events via Exemption Category 30, "Past Champions, Team Tournament Winners and Veteran Members beyond the Top 150 Leaders on the 2006 PGA Tour Official Money List".

As far as individual tournaments are concerned, Daly is exempt for life in the PGA Championship and AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, up to age 65 in the Open Championship and up through 2009 in the Buick Invitational. In order to play in the Masters, U.S. Open, a World Golf Championship or a FedEx Cup Playoff Event, Daly would have to satisfy the particular invitational requirements of such events.

Fans and golf columnists point to the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship as the event where John Daly's post-2006 exempt status would be determined. Tied with Tiger Woods at the end of regulation play, Daly missed a short par putt on the 2nd extra playoff hole, giving Woods the victory. Had Daly instead made the par, and then had gone on to win, he would have earned a 3-year PGA Tour exemption through 2008.^[3]

Daly was invited to play in the Honda Classic on March 1, 2007 on a sponsor's exemption, but had to withdraw after two holes. He pulled a muscle near his shoulder blade when he tried to stop his backswing after a fan snapped a picture.^[4] In December 2008, he was suspended for six months by the PGA Tour.^[5]

[edit] 2009 'Comeback'

After his 2008 suspension, Daly was forced to head 'across the pond' and compete on the European Tour. After undergoing lap-band surgery to lose 40 pounds, Daly began donning Loudmouth Golf Apparel. He also began playing much better golf, even managing to finish 2nd[1] at the Italian Open. On May 26, 2009, Daly announced that he would return to the PGA Tour, via sponsor's exemption, for the St. Jude Classic. On July 17, Daly told The Dan Patrick Show that he had lost 80 pounds thanks to the surgery, dropping him to 205 lbs.

However, after shooting a personal-high 88 at the Buick Open in late July, he claimed to be losing confidence in his game, and his swing coach blamed the surgery for making him lose muscle along with weight, taking power away from his swing.

[edit] Golf style

Daly's golf swing is easily recognized, as he sends the club way "past parallel" to the ground on his backswing, an unorthodox method that nevertheless generates tremendous power. Daly is a consistent challenger for the Driving Distance crown and has won that title a record-setting 11 times as of 2004^[update], 8 of which were consecutive. His lifetime average for distance off the tee is 309.4 yards, and his single-season personal best is an average of 314.3 yards, which he attained in 2003. Single drives in excess of 350 yards are not uncommon, and Daly can reach very long par 5 holes in two strokes. Daly claimed on The Howard Stern Show to have done an 806 yard drive on the LA airport runway. He is also known for having soft hands and a deft touch in his short game around the greens.

Daly is sponsored by Loudmouth Golf, John Daly's Golf Shops, Gripmaster Golf Grips, Golf (Focus Golf Systems), Hooters restaurants, and 84 Lumber. In May 2009 his Hooters sponsorship was dropped. Also in 2009 he signed sponsorship deals with All Sport and Big Red.

[edit] Off-course life

Daly does not fly to tournament sites (except The Open Championship), but instead travels in a personal recreational vehicle. Daly's career has been interrupted from time to time by off-course personal incidents: He recorded an autobiographical album titled My Life, featuring guest performances by Darius Rucker, Willie Nelson, Johnny Lee, and Daron Norwood. He contributed background vocals for the "Half Your Age" track on the 2007 Kid Rock album entitled Rock And Roll Jesus.

[edit] Alcoholism

Daly once claimed that he drank a fifth of Jack Daniel's every day during the year he was 23 years of age, and the various reported incidents include being removed from a British Airways airplane by airport security for harassing a flight attendant while drunk. He has entered into various alcohol addiction programs, including the Betty Ford Clinic, at least three times, and has experienced three divorces since becoming a professional golfer.

In May 1993, he was upset by his opening round at the Kemper Open, threw his scoring card in the scoring tent, walked off, and was disqualified. In late 1993, Daly was given an indefinite suspension for 1994 after quitting in the middle of the Kapalua International and told to seek treatment for his alcoholism. He was at first suspended for the first 12 tournaments of the 1994 season, but he came a few weeks earlier than expected and played in the Honda Classic, finishing fourth. These incidents resulted in a stretch between 1996 and 2001 without a professional victory. During this stretch, Daly was especially known for having spectacular blow-up holes near the end of rounds such as knocking multiple balls into water or out-of-bounds for a double-digit score or hitting a ball while it was still moving and then walking off the course. During the 1998 Greater Vancouver Open, Daly was visibly shaking as he tried to play, causing the television announcers to audibly wince at the sight.

In March 2008, Daly's swing coach Butch Harmon quit, saying that "the most important thing in [Daly's] life is getting drunk."^[6]

On Sunday, October 26, 2008, Daly was taken into protective custody by Winston-Salem police after he was found drunk outside an area Hooters restaurant.^[7]

At The Open Championship on July 15, 2010, Daly said he was no longer drinking alcohol.^[8]

Due to Daly's various drinking escapades, the alcoholic drink consisting of sweet tea-flavored vodka and lemonade (also called a Dirty Arnold Palmer) is often referred to as a John Daly.^[9]

[edit] Gambling

In 2006, Daly revealed in the last chapter of his autobiography that he has had great difficulty with a gambling problem.^[1] He claims to have lost between US$50 and $60 million over the past 15 years. 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 $5,000 Las Vegas slot machines.^[10] Daly has been able to pay his gambling debts mostly through making more paid public appearances and through sponsorships opportunities.

[edit] Drugs and the PGA

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" ^[11] which brought an uproar among the golfing community.^{[citation needed]} Daly voluntarily missed the remainder of the 1994 season citing physical and mental exhaustion.

[edit] Health

Despite prodigious consumption of cigarettes and Diet Coke, Daly has never conquered his weight problem; he refused to partake in the British Open Champions Dinner because "You can't get this fat boy into a suit." He has admitted the only reason he does not lift weights is because the health club does not let him smoke there and he would get sick after he worked out.

In early 2009 he had "Lap-Band Surgery" which limits the amount of food that he can consume.^[12][13] He reportedly lost more than 40 pounds in less than 8 weeks after having the surgery.

According to an interview with Jim Gray on Live from... the PGA Championship (a Golf Channel show) on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, Daly claimed to have lost 91 pounds following the surgery and weighed under 200 lbs.

As of December 8, 2009, Daly had shed well over 100 pounds and was "a slim, trim 185"^[14].

[edit] Marriages

In the summer of 1987, he married Dale Crafton. They divorced in Feb. 1990. In the summer of 1992, he married Bettye Fulford. They had a daughter, Shynah Hale. In December 1992, Daly was charged with third-degree assault for throwing his second wife Bettye into a wall; although the actual circumstances of the incident, by all current accounts^[who?], indicate the charges were overstated and Bettye did not wish to pursue the matter^{[citation needed]}. Daly has said in his autobiography that he did not, nor has he ever, hit or hurt a woman.^[1] He apologized for the incident, which has now been characterized more as "shoving" than "throwing", and entered an alcohol rehabilitation center and took time off from golf tournaments in early 1993. He divorced Bettye at least in part because she turned out to be ten years older than she originally told him she was. In July 1995 he married Paulette Dean. They had a daughter, Sierra Lynn. They 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. [2] Authorities were contacted by him and came to his house, but his wife had already fled the scene and taken their children with her^[15].

Sherrie (at some point) pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and was sentenced to a five-month prison term.

Daly's third ex-wife, Paulette Dean Daly, has now been linked to baseball star Roger Clemens in an alleged affair during Clemens' marriage.

[edit] Lawsuits

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.^[16]

[edit] Charity works

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. Daly regularly plays in the celebrity Pro-Am Monday After the Master hosted by his friends, Hootie & the Blowfish.^[17]