John Daly has a laundry list of accomplishments over the course of his storied career. He’s won five times on the PGA Tour, including two major championships, and he’s added another win on the Champions Tour in his advancing age. That’s not to mention the bad boy image he cultivated, which garnered him adoration from golf fans and non-golf fans alike.
But despite all of his success, there’s still one glaring hole in his resume — he never appeared on a Ryder Cup team. In fact, Daly is the only golfer in history with multiple major championship wins who’s never appeared on a Ryder Cup team.
During a recent interview with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz on GOLF’s Subpar, Daly explained his theory as to why he never got selected to represent his country in golf’s premier team event.
“Probably attitude,” Daly said. “Probably some of the things that I did off the course. And some of the things that I didn’t do that I was accused of doing, and there was a lot that I did that I really did.”
Daly has long had a reputation as a prominent figure in golf’s counterculture (he won the Open Championship sporting a mullet), so the thought that this image kept him off the team certainly has some merit. The decision to keep him off the team was especially head scratching in 1991, when he was left off after winning the PGA Championship — the biggest event held by the PGA of America, which runs the Ryder Cup. Daly pointed to that year and 2004 as the most disappointing of his snubs.
“Those are the two years that I know I really, really could’ve helped the U.S.,” Daly said. “I was playing probably the best golf of my life those two years.”
“It hurts a little bit,” Daly continued. “But in the early 90s, some of the things I did probably didn’t earn the respect from the players. I don’t blame them.”
Listen to this week’s Subpar in its entirety below as Daly discusses hitting the cover off the golf ball, why he thinks the Hall of Fame criteria should change and more.
