The Real-Life Happy Gilmore

Presented by

Happy Sunday and happy birthday to my Dad! 🎉 

In today’s edition…

He was everything a golfer wasn’t supposed to be.

• Self-taught

• Smoking between shots

• Playing by his own rulebook

Here’s how a 9th alternate went from overlooked outsider to a PGA Tour sensation – drawing comparisons to a real-life Happy Gilmore.

Let’s dive in 👇

_{POWERED BY MOMENTOUS}

Unmatched Quality. Proven Results. Momentous Creatine.

Creatine is one of the most effective and well-researched supplements for improving strength, power, recovery, and cognitive performance. Momentous Creatine contains Creapure®—the purest, pharmaceutical-grade creatine monohydrate—single-sourced from Germany for unmatched quality and consistency. Every batch is NSF Certified for Sport®, meaning it’s independently tested for safety, label accuracy, and banned substances.

With no fillers, no artificial additives, and clinically validated dosing, it embodies The Momentous Standard™—a commitment to science-backed formulas, transparency, and uncompromising quality. This is why it’s trusted by professional teams, Olympic athletes, and the U.S. military’s top performers.

Whether you’re starting your creatine journey or returning after a break, Momentous Creatine gives you the confidence of knowing you’re fueling your body with the very best—precisely formulated for results you can feel and trust.

Head to livemomentous.com and use code HIVE for up to 35% off your first order.

Elevate Your Performance

_{Your support for our sponsors keeps these stories coming every week} 🤝

How John Daly Went From 9th Alternate to Party Crasher on the PGA Tour

No time to read now? Click here to save it for later 🐶

He looked more like one of us than one of them. And he still does.

Instead of the prim and proper appearance and PR-ready soundbites that come with most of the PGA Tour, one man made golf fans feel like he was one of their foursome, rolling down the fairways at the local public course.

Except he wasn’t.

Equipped with what became his famous blonde mullet, colorful clothing, an equally colorful attitude, and a swing that belonged on the long drive contest circuit, John Daly was the ugly duckling of professional golf.

Born in Carmichael, California, in 1966, John and his two older siblings came from a working-class family.

As a kid, he enjoyed the typical sports and activities of boys his age, but was soon drawn to the fairways. Due to his father’s job as a construction worker on nuclear power plants, the Dalys never stayed in one place while John was growing up.

At the age of four, then living in Dardnelle, Arkansas, John was given his first set of clubs, a men’s set that was cut down to size.

Six years later, the family found themselves in Orange County, Virginia, where at ten years old, John saw his game elevate from a kid casually hacking around the course to one that enjoyed a higher level of competition.

It was also around this time that he began drinking alcohol. 

Despite his adventures with adult beverages, John found success on the fairway, winning a local club championship, defeating a group of men who were not impressed by losing to a 13-year-old.

What made it worse for the local members was that his game was the complete opposite of what many of them had grown up on.

Rather than spending time with a golf pro at an exclusive country club, Daly was, for the most part, self-taught.

On his own, he developed what would become his famous “grip it and rip it” style out of natural talent.

More moves found the Dalys in Louisiana and then Missouri, where John won both the Missouri State High School Tournament and the Missouri Amateur title.

Then the family returned to Dardnelle, where John earned a partial scholarship to the University of Arkansas while playing for the Sand Lizards.

As a member of the Razorbacks golf team, Daly immediately butted heads with coaches Steve Loy and Bill Woodley, who demanded that he trim his 235-pound frame down to 170.

To make it happen, John turned to a combo of his long-time friend Jack (Daniels), Diet Coke, coffee, not eating, and smoking Marlboros, which clearly wasn’t the best plan.

“I'm flexible enough,” he said years later.

“There are probably some things I could do to keep my flexibility up, but I'd rather smoke, drink diet Cokes, and eat. I get enough exercise walking [the course] five or six miles a day."

Mix that behaviour with constantly missing classes, and it wasn’t hard to see how things ended up going sideways.

The relationship between Loy and Daly was as toxic as his daily diet.

Despite qualifying for the team’s road trips, Loy found a way to drive a wedge (pun intended) between himself and Daly by forcing him to “requalify” by putting the young golfer in a “do or die” situation.

“If you hit this one in the rough, you’re not going”, Loy would tell Daly on the first tee. 

Regardless of his talent and desire to play, John would take control of his own destiny, purposely hitting the ball in the rough.

"Basically, I was scared of him," he said. "I hated him."

While he qualified for the 1986 U.S. Open as an amateur, he missed out on making the weekend cut.

Despite being an All-American during his time with the Razorbacks, he ended his college career after his junior season, turning pro in the summer of 1987.

For a person like him, who danced to the beat of his own drum and refused to partake in the “politics” of college athletics, it ended up being his best decision.

Within six weeks, he earned approximately $17,000 playing in various small tournaments around the U.S.

As the wins kept piling up, so too did the amount of alcohol Daly put into his body.

Qualifying for the 1991 PGA Tour, he played well in several early-season tournaments before being called in as an alternate for the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club.

As the ninth – yes, ninth – alternate called, he had to drive through the night to get to the course.

There was no time for a practice round, and he didn’t have a caddie until he got there.

"I was just happy to get in [the tournament]."

Thankfully, Nick Price’s caddie stepped in to assist Daly after Price withdrew due to the birth of his child.

With nothing to lose and everything to gain, he bombed his way around the course, hitting 69-67-69-71 to win the tournament by three strokes.

Arriving at the Carmel, Indiana, golf course as a relative unknown, Daly turned himself into a star over the span of four days with his booming drives and fearless shot-making.

Pocketing $230,000, he donated $30,000 to the family of a spectator who was struck by lightning during the event.

“The fans played such a big part of my win in the PGA [Championship] at Crooked Stick. I’ve never been dishonest with the fans, whether it's good or bad, and I think they appreciate that.”

As the winner of one of golf’s four major championships, he secured nearly $10 million in endorsements.

Fans fell in love with his “Wild Thing” persona.

But most of the professional golf world didn’t see him as a serious contender thanks to his unkempt look, his smoking during rounds, colorful clothing, and renegade approach to the game.

What made Daly’s underdog story more compelling for fans was his approach to the game that the old-fashioned PGA community wasn’t ready to accept.

Rather than manage the course like a game of chess, John approached it like he was at a bowling alley.

Bombing 300-yard drives, his swing was pure violence and often out of control – grippin’ it and rippin’ it.

“I hit the ball as hard as I can," he said. "If I can find it, I hit it again.”

For the remainder of the 1991 season and through the 1993 schedule, he found himself on a rollercoaster of being able to live up to his zero-to-hero title, finding success at several events and failure at others.

For all of his heroics on the course, building a cult-like following, Daly’s demons started to rear their ugly head.

He started getting disqualified from events.

From walking off the course to not signing his scorecard to picking up his ball after missing a putt (and not finishing the hole), he earned fines and suspensions for various amounts and durations, all seemingly without much argument.

Sadly, it wasn’t just on the course that he faced these challenges. Away from it, he found himself in legal trouble.

Whether it was with any of his four wives (separately, of course) or members of the public, Daly’s battle with the bottle, gambling, overeating, and emotional struggles got the best of him.

“Everyone has addictions, and my problem is that I have 5,000 of them,” he said.

“If it’s not drinking, it’s gambling; if it’s not gambling, it’s eating anything from burgers, doughnuts to M&Ms. The only addiction I don’t suffer from is chasing women.”

The personal toll of his lifestyle became harder to ignore as time went by.

The number of trips to rehab soon matched that of his tournament appearances, with neither having much continued success.

His love life was in shambles, entering failed marriage after failed marriage, with each divorce not only impacting his bank account but also his emotional stability. 

Yet through the chaos, there were moments of brilliance on the course that reminded fans why they cheered for him in the first place.

Four long years after capturing his first major championship, Daly recorded his second, winning the 1999 (British) Open Championship.

On one of golf’s most traditional courses, his aggressive renegade style overcame Costantino Rocca in a playoff victory.

However, as spectacular as that accomplishment was, numerous meltdowns left peers, media, and supporters shaking their heads, such as the not-so-forgettable 18 that he carded during the 1998 Bay Hill Invitational after launching countless shots into the water.

Looking back on the misery that was the sixth hole, Daly noted, “The pressure was really on; I had one new golf ball left.”

As his eccentric behavior continued, his relationship with the PGA Tour suffered as their tolerance for his antics lessened and suspensions increased.

The negative publicity also impacted his endorsement deals, which started to dry up.

Yet somehow, Daly still managed to trudge on.

He won the PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year award in 2004, either by means of luck, sheer talent, or by sponsor exemption, as they felt he'd still be an attraction to their event.

Now in the PGA Champions Tour – open to golfers age 50 and over – “Long John” remains one of the sport’s most colorful characters, bringing his unique personal flavor to the course.

While his famous blonde mullet is sporting some grey strands, his belt has a few more notches on it, and his swing speed has lost a bit of torque, John Daly still draws a crowd.

Outside of the 2021 PNC Championship, which he won with his son John Jr., it’s been years since he’s won a tournament on any tour.

But that hasn’t stopped him from finding a new lease on life.

With his numerous charitable donations, business ventures, and course designs, Daly remains true to himself and the type of person he’s always been: one of us – just with a much longer shot off the tee.

"I think people relate to me because of the ups and downs I have had. I mean, I've shared a lot of strong emotions in my life...I'm not scared to tell everybody I'm a human being."

🐶 

Today’s story was written by our friend in the north, Steve Lee.

If you enjoyed this one and know someone else who might, please share it and encourage them to subscribe:

Then, check out these related stories 👇

• From Nothing (Literally) To Something: José de Jesús Rodriguez's Rise From Poverty to a Spot on The PGA Tour

• How Mark Eaton Went From Changing Oil To Blocking Shots in the NBA

Should we mix in more non-football or baseball stories like this one? Reply and let me know.

Thanks for reading!

Til next time,
Tyler

Extra Innings…

🌟 Trivia Answer: B) Only if he could stay in the marching band. Yup, a high school band kid became the greatest running back of all time.

👀 In case you missed it: How a former zero-star recruit became an unexpected secret weapon for a top NFL team.

🍕 Eli Manning helped this college long-snapper land an obscure NIL deal.

🕺 You have to admire this guy’s creative way of promoting his song.