John Daly
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Biography
The Daly planet
August 2006
ERIK LEIJON
Hard-drinking, chain-smoking and overweight golf pro John Daly discusses his book, his diet and Hooters.
Grown men love John Daly. There's just something about watching a fat guy in a Hooters golf shirt clobber 300-yard drives with a cigarette dangling from his mouth that draws a crowd of the exclusively male variety.
For the 40-year-old Arkansas native, there's always more to his hectic life than just golf. His sordid personal life was recently put on display in his New York Times bestselling book, My Life In and Out of the Rough: The Truth Behind All That Bull**** You Think You Know About Me. It included his battles with alcoholism, the bulge, gambling, three failed marriages and his father, who once held a gun to John's head in a drunken rage. Daly doesn't mind being so upfront about his life, just as he doesn't mind promoting his new wine set despite a drinking problem and participating in a golf tournament sponsored by a casino, even though he alleges to have lost between $50- and $60-million (U.S.) in wagers.
The Mirror joined the testosterone-heavy Montreal press corps at les Quatres Domaines golf course in Mirabel last week to watch golf's bad boy hit a few balls at Montreal's Celebrity Classic Pro-Am and answer a few questions.
Mirror: How exactly did you get into the wine business?
John Daly: I was approached through my Web site. A couple of guys out of South Africa wanted to do it. It took about a year and a half to do it; I think it's the same guys who did [Greg] Norman's and [Ernie] Els' wines, the same company. But mine's a lot less [expensive] retail; my highest bottle of wine retails for 48 bucks, it's called the Perfect Round, which is something we thought up-it's for a lower market.
M: The press release says it's supposed to "reflect unique and different aspects of John Daly." What would a John Daly beer taste like?
JD: It would taste like a Miller Lite (laughs).
An unbecoming life
M: When your book came out, the PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem talked to you. What did he say?
JD: Well, it was just one of those things that went back and forth. HarperCollins wanted everything [about Daly's drinking, gambling etc.], in which the facts are right, and the PGA tour didn't, so it went back and forth eight or nine times. Tim Finchem said, "This is almost unbecoming of a professional." I said, "My life is unbecoming of a professional, Tim." And he said, "Well it wasn't like the Tour was going to sell it," but next thing you know it's in the display of every PGA Tour store, so he must be okay with it.
M: You've seen a couple of courses in Montreal. How do they compare with the U.S. and Europe?
JD: This is unbelievable-this 36-hole place looks like a private country club but it's public. It's great because now you need a lot more public golf courses so everybody has a chance to play. A lot of courses being built in the States are private, and a lot of families can't afford it. So this is great what they've done; it doesn't look like a public golf course.
M: What are some of the perks you get, being sponsored by Hooters?
JD: Free food, man (laughs).
M: At any Hooters you can just drop in?
JD: Me and Dan Marino, I think, have the only cards that if you show 'em, everything is comped.
Booze, smokes and popcorn
M: Would you push your kids to become golfers?
JD: I'd never push my kids to do sports or anything. I'll just let them do what they want. But with Little John [his three-year-old son who supposedly sleeps with his golf clubs], it's just crazy. I loved golf when I started when I was four. I thought I was crazy, but he's insanely crazy, and it's great to see.
M: Your diet in college consisted of whiskey, popcorn and cigarettes. What side effects were there?
JD: I wanted to play on the [University of Arkansas golf] team and they weren't going to put me on the team unless I lost 40 to 50 pounds, so I ended up losing 62 pounds in less than two-and-a-half months, and it about killed me, basically.
M: Did it affect your grades?
JD: No, I breezed through college. I wasn't trying to make A's or anything, but I was a B/C student, and left my junior year.
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