John Daly - The Wild Thing !

Ladies and gentlemen, strap in. You think you know the Wild Thing? 

John Daly. Big JD. The man who took golf by the throat, chugged a Diet Coke, a cig dangling from his lip like he didn't care—because he didn't.

This episode is an absolute ripper because Tommy drops a story about the Wild Thing he's never told anyone before. Not on a podcast. Not in a bar. Not ever.

1995. A packed range. A crowd buzzing with anticipation—Big JD is about to rock up. What happened next? Tommy had a front-row seat. And let me tell you, golf's Wild Thing was true to form. He did not disappoint.

What JD brought to the game wasn't just power. He didn't ask for permission to be himself.

This episode's a cracker. A belter. A one-of-a-kind. So listen up as the lads speak about the Wild Thing.

To learn more about us or to get in touch head to: tommydoesgolf.com   

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Tommy Does Golf, the podcast where three old timers give you our opinions on everything golf. I'm Tommy Long, joined by fellow PGA professionals James Morgan and Paul Garman. With over a hundred years in counting in the golf industry between us, we are well into our back lines. We'll do our best to stay on topic, but just like our teasps these days, this podcast could go anywhere. We're hoping you enjoy the banter, and maybe, just maybe, we'll share a few pearls of wisdom along the way. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

I'll kick this episode off with a question. How does a guy who chain smokes, drinks Diet Coke like water and swings so hard it looks like he's trying to drive the ball through a barn door end up as one of golf's most unforgettable characters? The answer is simple. It's because he was real. John Daly didn't fit with the establishment, not on the fairway and certainly not in the clubhouse. But at the 1991 USPGA Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club, as the Knight Baltener, he found his way onto the biggest stage. And as a rookie, he blixed his way to victory with raw, ridiculous power. From that moment on, the blue collar crowd had their guy. He wasn't perfect. He never pretended to be, and that's exactly why we're still talking about him decades later. So settle in, because this episode's for the wild thing. Now, fellas, I don't normally do this, but I'm gonna kick this one off myself. I've made a couple of notes, but I'm gonna try my best to recite from memory, so please bear with me. Apologies to everyone in advance. It's story time from Tommy, I'm afraid. 1995, I was midway through my PGA apprenticeship. My boss, a proud Scotsman, kindly decided to take me to watch the Open Championship at St Andrews. Now, as luck would have it, one of his good friends, a guy called Rod Bins, just so happened to be the boss of the sporting tour truck, an absolute touch, because through that connection with Rod, we were able to get unrestricted access to the practice range. So instead of being behind the railings 10 metres or so back, I was able to stand literally a few feet away from the players whilst they were hitting balls. Unobstructed views, amazing. Now you could sense that the large crowd gathered at the range were waiting in anticipation for a certain someone to arrive, and that someone was the wild thing, John Daly. I guessed that he was about to arrive a few seconds before he did because I saw this cloud trail of cigarette smoke hovering above the crowd corridor that players walked through on the way to the range. JD sauntered onto the range with his caddy in tow and signed a couple of autographs before walking directly towards me. His mullet-styled shock of blonde hair, the gold Mr. T chain hanging around his neck, and if my memory serves me correctly, he was wearing a green Reebok wind cheater. Anyway, he strolls past me and stops when he finds a spot where he wants to hit balls from. I remember his caddy, Greg Ritter, placing the Wilson staff bag down. JD casually leant on it with his left hand and took some time to enjoy the last minute or so of his Marlboro line. It was almost as if he was teasing the crowds. He knew that they were all amped up, eagerly awaiting to see him grip it and rip it. Now I don't know if he'd done any stretches in the clubhouse or changing rooms before he'd come to the range, but once he'd finished his smoke, he immediately reached for the big dog, his Wilson Killer Whale driver, casually pegged one up, sat up to it, and then without a practice swing unleashed full throttle. The thwack of the impact immediately drew an appreciative ripple of applause from the crowd, even though he'd carved the ball 70 yards to the right. Completely unfazed, he pegs up another one, smashes it just as hard as the first, probably a little harder actually. Same result. Now I was close enough to hear it, but I won't repeat what he said as he calmly dropped the driver onto the ground and walked off the range. I thought maybe he'd gone off to answer a call of nature, but after 10 minutes or so when he hadn't returned, I wandered over to watch the big easy, Mr. Ernie Els, who turned up and was by now hitting some mid irons. Now this might be a stretch too far for my aging brain, but I'm pretty sure Ernie was rocking Lynx parallax irons at that time. It was the first time I'd seen him in the flesh, and I remember thinking what an absolute unit he was. Giant of a man, immensely strong, and it goes without saying what a pure ball striker he was. Pretty sure Ernie shot 75 in the final round, which I think saw him just miss out on the top ten finish that week, but I'm not 100% on that. Anyway, after watching Ernie for about 20 minutes, hypnotised by the rhythm of his swing, a burst of noise from the crowd behind me bought me out of my trance. JD was back. He was holding two large burgers that he picked up from the tented village. He sits down on the plastic base of his Wilson bag and proceeds to eat them one after the other, whilst drinking a can of Coca-Cola, of course. A couple of minutes after he'd finished his snack, he stands up, his caddy hands him back his driver, same routine, pegs up a ball, addresses it, and again with no practice swing whatsoever, just a couple of club waggles, he lets rip, full noise, co runch. This one he absolutely flushed it into the netting at the end of the driving range, on the fly, by the way. He then proceeded to do that another five or six times in a row. I can't remember how many it was exactly, but the crowd were absolutely loving it, as you can imagine. He then passes the driver back to his caddy, and just like everyone else, I thought he was then going to work his way through the bag, which is why I'll never forget what happened next. JD reaches into one of the back pockets, pulls out his pack of smokes, sparks one up, and after a couple of drags and double draggings, that's the double nostril exhalation for those of you that don't know, he turns to his caddy and says, Let's go putt! That was it. Off they went. So, in summary, my first time watching the Wild Thing Live. Two smashed but carved to the right drivers, a 20-minute interval, comes back to the range, devours two burgers with a can of Coca-Cola, of course, annihilates half a dozen drivers before sparking up another Durry, then stroll off to the putting green to warm up the flats. You couldn't make it up. And what makes that all the more legendary is that only a matter of days later, on Championship Sunday, he beat Constantino Rocker in a playoff and lifted the claret jug. Amazing. I also have to mention that JD used a two-piece Wilson Ultra Golf Ball that week. That still amazes me. And of course, he was rolling the rock with the legendary Wilson 8802 Glade Putter. The other thing about the Open Championship that made it so special for me was I was privileged to watch a very promising young amateur close up that week. I watched this young fella hit balls on the range for about an hour, and honestly, the sound of his ball striking was different to that of anybody else. I was so impressed by it that I followed him for his entire practice round. Any guesses who that was, fellas?

SPEAKER_03 6:47

It's got to be Tiger Woods. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Tiger played that open as an amateur. Even though there was a bit of noise about him that week, it wasn't crazy. The hype was all about John Daly. You can probably tell that that open championship, to this day, the only open I've ever been to, holds some very special memories for me. Watching JD stand there and just be the world thing, pretty cool. Now before we get into it, because the legend sometimes overshadows the resume, but here's the stat that stopped me cold. In 1997, John Daly became the first player in PGA tour history to average over 300 yards in driving distance for a season. Just think about that for a few seconds. 30 years ago, the equipment was primitive compared to what we use today. This was before track man, before launch monitors, before every kid new to the game started chasing ball speed. JD just stepped up, swung out of his shoes, and broke a barrier nobody had touched. Daly led the tour in driving distance for 11 seasons. From 1991 to 2002, nobody hit it past him. The only year in that 12-year spell he didn't top driving distance was 1994, when he was serving a tour suspension. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2024. Gents, thanks for your patience. I'm actually sick of the sound of my own voice now, so it's definitely time to crack on. James, what do you think? Come on, give us some thoughts on JD.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

So his idol was Jack Nick Clause when he was growing up, who was one of the longest players on tour when Jack was at his prime. And so that's part of where the grip it and ripping came from. But what he used to do is he used to practice on baseball fields.

unknown 8:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

So there'd be three baseball fields, and he used to stand and try and smash it over them, which is round about was around about 250 to 300 yards. And that's what his goal was. But then he'd then stand and practice, slicing it from the home plate over towards the second base. And then he would then hit like three of those, and he'd then hit three hooks to the third base. And that's what he keep doing. Shaping shots, just using his hands, just teaching himself how to do it. And then he would wind up like his swing was wrapped around his neck, which no one has ever done before or since. Well, they did in the old days with the wooden woods, but not quite as much. So he was grip it and rip it right from the word gut. Because his first set of golf clubs were a set Jack Nicholas golf clubs. And then he practiced, and this is what he's not known for, is his shortcut. So he used to practice flop shots to try and land it on the pitcher's mound. So that's all he was trying to do. He's just trying to land on the bag there. So not only did he have an amazing long game, he had uh a really good short game, and I don't think he actually had enough credit as far as that was concerned. So yeah, he just that was it. He just wanted to absolutely bomb it. It's interesting because when he did uh win that PGA, Nick Price was the person that pulled out. And his caddy, Squeaky, had been scouting the course with Nick for the first few days, and he hung around to see if he could get the job with John. John said, Yeah, you're caddy for me. And the second hole that they're playing, they've got 201 yards, and Squeaky turns to John Daly and says, Oh, what club do you think it is? And he goes, eight iron. So Squeaky goes, Okay, now I know you're four clubs longer than Nick Price. So it was a whole tournament. All they did was if he thought Nick Price was going to hit a seven-on, he'd go one back. Fantastic. Yeah, so that's how he worked it. He worked all his charges out from there.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

That's very, very cool.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

But for that PGA championship, they'd set up the course and they'd taken Greg Norman out to hit T-shots. This is the weeks before, to see if people could fly bunkers and stuff, and they'd put the bunkers at 270. And they go, no one's getting past those, no one's gonna bother taking them on. And that's what JD did was he stood there. He could fly at 285. Thanks, Greg. So he took all the bunkers out. I actually just stood there and smashed it. And the funny thing was a Billy Andrade played with him in one of the rounds, and he said, I didn't walk off the tea, he goes, because he was taking it over corners, and I didn't know if he was gonna have to get professional. So I kept hanging back after he did his tea shot to wait and see where it had gone. He goes, I never saw it. I just hadn't seen a ball come off a club face like it.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

John Daly, he's got to be the coolest staff player Wilson have ever signed, hasn't he? I mean, come on, give me another staff player, Wilson, that's cooler than John Daly. Oh, cooler. I don't know, you'd define a cooler, I mean that. They've had a few winners. Oh no, they've had winners, and they have one in every decade. Didn't Gary Woodland save that record and keep that record going when he won the US?

SPEAKER_02 11:16

I might be wrong. If you're on a treadmill at the moment, listen to this podcast, don't sort of stumble googling this one. But I think Wilson have had more major wins than any other major.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Potentially. But then again, probably a lot of those were pre-1950, wouldn't he? Yeah, probably. Maybe. Alright, so Paul, beyond the trophies, do you think Daly's trailblazing make golf excitingly relatable? Like I just said to another audience that might have found it stuffy and boring before he burst onto the scene. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Yeah, look, I've just put down here that I think JD is the real life Happy Gilmore. And I think it was ironic that John Daly ended up with a part in Happy Gilmore too. And do you know what? It was probably one of the best roles. You couldn't cast it, it was perfect for him. It was absolutely perfect. Even my daughter who doesn't play golf, she was like, oh, who's that guy that played that part of John Daly? I was like, that's John Daly. You know, that's cool. Interestingly enough, he was also the only player from either the US or Europe to have won two majors but never played in a Ryder Cup. But I would love to have seen him in a Ryder Cup. Oh my god, could you imagine? Would have been hilarious. He also still has the record for the highest score carded in a tournament, which was 18 shots on a par five at the Bay Hill International. I mean, seriously, that in itself hats off to the guy. He is who he is, and I think that's what is relatable. We love him for who he is. There's no airs and graces about him. I think he lost a tournament in a playoff to Tiger Woods. He went straight from the tournament to Vegas. I think he just picked up $750,000, something like that, for his second place or third place, whatever he came. And he went off and he lost the whole lot, plus more. He lost $1.5 or $6 million, okay, gambling. We've touched on the fact that he just loves a pack of cigarettes, loves his Coke, you know. Coca-Cola. Let's just clarify. Then you know there's the other thing, the temper tantrum, so the chucking of clubs and the disgust that he hasn't been able to perform at the level that he knows he can do, you know. And I I think sometimes that must have been very frustrating for him, knowing that he had it in him, had these shots, he had the ability, he's won two majors, but sometimes something else is going on in his life that hasn't quite just allowed those stars to align. But another thing as well is how many golfers are there on the European tour, on the PGA tour, who have got two albums? He's a singer-songwriter, he sung with the likes of Willie Nelson and Kid Rock. And to be honest with you, my favourite song that he ever wrote has to be All My Exes Wear Rolexes. Classic title. Classic title. Not that I've got any X's or I've ever owned a Rolex. But I just think sums up JD John Daly perfectly. You know, it's nothing to do with golf, it's a song that he wrote.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

When I think about John Daly, I just think of that phrase, live fast, die young. And he's still going. And thank God he is, because he's a breath of fresh air. We'd all love to have a beer with him. Not that any of us would probably keep up with him. When you think about his two major wins, so he wins his first one, 1991, ninth Foltener as a rookie, rocks up, like you said, James, just blitz his head, wins it. And in the second major he wins, 1995, at the home of golf. So the two tournaments he's won have been pretty significant. And maybe he'd already climbed his Everest. I I don't know. He was just that carefree attitude. And maybe he's just thought, you know what, I've done pretty well here. I'm just going to enjoy my life and give back to the people and smash golf balls out of David Ferdy's mouth and have a bit of a laugh with everybody. No, I mean he rocks up at the Masters every year in his tour van and he's outside and he's there signing autographs. So people love him.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

On that one, at the hit at Augusta, they've now closed it. Augusta have actually brought it out of the local Hooters. The bar. He used to go and stay there. He was there all week. They had a bed for him at the back. His own room was made. And people just used to go there and go for autographs, knowing JD would be in there.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

A little bit of humanity goes a long way, doesn't it? So yeah, he was real, wasn't he? And I think that I don't know many people that didn't like him. I mean, he might not have been their favourite, but there weren't many people that were handsome. I think people liked him or hated him. That's why he didn't. You think he was Marmite, do you? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

In his era, because if you go back to the 90s when he was at his peak, and he said he reckoned he should have got into the 2004 Ryder Cup team. But when you look at who's in there, you've got Davis Love, Jim Fuhrick, Jay Haas, all the old boys, you know, things have got to be done properly. This is not how we do things. He missed out on the Ryder Cup in 91 again, and he just should have been in that one. But who's there? Dave Stockton is the captain. Eisinger, Floyd, Irwin, Watkins, they don't want someone like that, do they? Whereas nowadays, with his talent, he'd be picked. Yeah. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Wouldn't he?

SPEAKER_02 16:20

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

100%. Obviously, when Tiger burst onto the scene, the gym was taken seriously and the Pilates and the yoga into what they were eating. Just as that was starting to creep in, even before Tiger's time, he kind of kicked back and went, hey, you can perform without doing any at that boys. You know, you can get on it, have a really good night, rock up on the tea, hit a few drivers on the range. And as long as I've got six packets of durries in the bag and 15 diet cokes, we'll be right. And yeah, it's just amazing. Just amazing to watch him. He was prime time. He was prime time, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_02 16:57

I think. He's becoming more of a legend.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

You know, as your memories fade of some of the stuff that he's got up to, you remember all the good stuff. And so that's what creates legends.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

It does. And I mean, like you say, the haters would have been the establishment. The stuff he did. Well they're all dead now. But wasn't it? Yeah, but wasn't it fantastic, right? That he rocks up in '95 at the home of golf. Yeah, thanks very much. Take that little claret shug over the Atlantic with me.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

There were a lot of players who uh in that era rocked up on the first tee, and in their golf bag was a packet of durries. There were lots of them, okay? But they were very, very much aware of when they were able to have a care.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

No, he didn't.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

He didn't care.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

He didn't care. Do you remember the famous picture of him where he's at the top of the back swing? And he's actually got the dry in his mouth. He's still got the cigarette on the go at the top of his back swing. Just about to let rip with his driver, and he's just very gently holding his cigarette between his lips. Unbelievable. I mean, don't get me wrong, we're not promoting smoking here. But if there was a definition of cool, he was it, wasn't he? Because he just didn't care. This is me. A definition of this is me. 100%. He was brilliant. Alright, well, look, that's that's probably enough about JD. We could talk about him for a lot longer than we have, but he's still making people smile. Thanks for listening, everybody. That's a wrap. Well done, boys. Good job. If you've made it this far, we hope it's because you've enjoyed listening to Tommy Does Golf. To make sure you never miss our podcast, please hit follow. For more of our content or to get in touch, head to TommyDuzgolf.com. So until next time, no matter how you're playing, smile, laugh, and most important of all, enjoy the walk.