John Daly, wearing a blue polo and multi-colored shorts, hit one driver. He hit an iron — with a cigarette in his mouth. In the video shared by the PGA Tour Champions circuit, he was shown hitting another driver. And another. And another. On the last one, he joked to someone nearby.
“Want to hit this one?” he asked as he stood over a ball.
Daly then hit.
“Just don’t hit it any better than that, OK?” he quipped.
That was how his week, and his golf year, started for the two-time major winner, one of golf’s most popular players. Swings and some smack.
It ended, though, with another social media post. Some words, and a single photo. On it was a needle and a wince.
Daly was playing the Chubb Classic, the 50-and-over tour’s second event of the year, and he appeared ready. In his second-to-last event of 2023, at the Sanford International, he tied for seventh. Three months later, at the PNC Championship, an always entertaining event where major winners play with a relative, Daly and son John Daly II tied for fifth. Last year, Daly also played the Open Championship, which he won in 1995, but shot two rounds of 77 and he missed the cut.
On Friday, during the Chubb’s first round, Daly opened with a two-under 70. He had five birdies. On Saturday, during the second round, he bogeyed the 2nd hole, but he rebounded with two straight birdies.
But on the 541-yard par-5, Daly made an 11. His scorecard read like this on the Champions’ online leaderboard:
Shot 1: From the tee box
Shot 2: From the intermediate rough
Shot 3: Penalty
Drop
Shot 4: From the fairway
Shot 5: Penalty
Drop
Shot 6: From the fairway
Shot 7: Penalty
Drop
Shot 8: From the fairway
Shot 9: From the green
Shot 10: From the green
Shot 11: In the hole
From there, Daly birdied the 9th, but he bogeyed 12 and 13 (taking penalties on each), double-bogeyed 14, parred 15 (taking another penalty), bogeyed 16 — and he was done. He withdrew.
John Daly was asked why he’s popular. His answer was very John Daly.
What happened? Back to 6. He’d hurt himself. On Sunday, over social media, he wrote that he struck the ground awkwardly on his second shot on the hole, and that osteoarthritis had flared up in his left hand. He said he would now need “injections.”
A photo next to his words was proof.
There was Daly. He was wincing. A man to his right was holding down his left arm. A man across from him appeared to be injecting a needle just below his left wrist.
But there was some good news.
Daly, who’s battled injuries throughout his career, wrote he’d travel to Morocco for this week’s Champions event.