Run 4 miles after getting up in the morning, go to the gym, hit balls for 2-3 hours, go to play, come back and work on the short game, run another 4 more miles, and then play basketball or, Tennis- roughly that’s how the daily routine goes for Tiger Woods. Indeed, very much like a 15-time major winner. On the other hand, there is this guy who would “hit balls for maybe 20 minutes, putt a little bit, smoke 4-5 cigarettes, drink three diet cokes, and then go to the first tee.” In fact, some days he won’t even go to the range! We bet, when you read this, you can not think of anyone other than John Daly, the 2-time major winner. But do we adore Daly just for winning those two majors?

Of course not. There is a reason why Daly wears the nickname ‘Wild Thing’. And really, didn’t you ever love those loud trousers, cigarettes, and that outrageously big swing lighting up the game of golf? Now please, don’t sit down to think how many Majors Daly could have won if he had the work ethic of Tiger. That is up for debate, but we can only say that then John Daly would not have been John Daly. After all, not every golfer has a plaque next to John Lennon at one of the world’s most famous nightclubs! As goes the saying, opposites attract. So do Woods and Daly. And the awe of each other’s talent started on the very first time they met each other.

It was two years before Daly won the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick. At the National Insurance Youth Golf Classic at Texarkana Country Club, when Woods, 13, was grouped with a 23-year-old Daly. Texarkana Gazette reported that after Davis Orgin’s travel plans were squashed, Daly was called in as a last-minute replacement. At just 13, Woods was much younger than most of the field, which also had future stars like David Duval and Justin Leonard. Not only Tiger, Daly also met Woods and his parents Earl and Kultida Woods for the first time that day. Surprised with Tiger’s talent, Daly made a promise to them. In the latest YouTube episode of the “Like the Farmer” podcast, Long John shared that heartwarming moment.

“I was 20, I was playing the Nike tour back in ’90… and we go to Texarkana Country Club and this little kid, 12 or 13 years old, I’m playing with him and people were talking how great he’s going to be and all this, and I’m excited, and it was Tiger Woods. They were playing the, I can’t remember what the Junior tournament was called but it was a big one it goes all over the world or country and I meet this kid and of course he’s playing way up… what an unbelievable kid, I met met his mom and dad that day and I said look I know he’s going to make it hopefully I will too, but you ever anybody to look out for him, I will.” 

Interestingly, Tiger was equally awestruck with a specific moment during their round together. Daly had only a few PGA Tour starts at that time and wasn’t as well known as he would become two years later by winning the PGA, but he was still not your usual golfer. On one hole during that round with Woods, Daly hit a five-iron about 220 yards with his HT Max Fly and demolished the golf ball.

“I hit this ball and the rubber band back there came out of the ball and like it was just pfzzzzzz the whole way and it got to the front of the green and Tiger to this day will, ask anybody it was the greatest shot you ever saw on golf, he’ll say that shot,” Daly revealed. His encounter with Woods marked the beginning of a special relationship between the two golfing legends. And in the days to come, Tiger’s appreciation for Daly’s talent would remain unwavering. Look at this exchange between the two at the 2004 Target World Challenge.

Daly invited Woods to grab a beer with him and his friends. Woods declined, saying he had to hit the gym instead. Daly jokingly told him he didn’t need to work out. Woods responded, “If I had your talent, I’d be doing the same thing.” Tiger was not wrong. How can he forget that a hungover Daly had stunned him at the 1994 match-up he had with Woods at Sherwood Country Club?

“We had the roundtable at Sherwood and I had my bottle of Jack Daniels then. I just meet these guys, right? Tiger came in and I said ‘T, come have a drink with us man’. And he said ‘No, I’m going to go hit some balls’. A few hours later, I said again, ‘Come have a drink with us.’ Tiger said, ‘No, I’m going to go work out’. This is going on for about 5 or 6 hours and we’re still there just pounding, getting drunk, having a good time,” Daly recalled. A while later, Tiger came out, suited, and asked Daly to go for dinner, saying “I got a guitar on stage for you. You have to go to the dinner.’”

Daly was caught off guard because in his own words, he was “just drunk”! Still, he somehow pulled it off and even performed Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’, earning a standing ovation. But the day ended with a warning to Tiger: “I’ll see you tomorrow.” The next morning, the mighty Tiger Woods, in all his senses, could not stand before Daly, who had whiskey running through his bloodstream. As Daly put it, “I grab my 3-iron and go on the tee. To make a long story short, I shoot like 65 he shoots like 71, he was shaking his head all day.” If there is anything that defines this colorful character more than golf, that is music, and Daly, being Daly, is quite a thing in that as well.

John Daly’s Beatles act before facing Tiger Woods

It is no secret that Daly was often found in a local Hooter, or a casino, knocking back drinks late into the night in between rounds on the PGA Tour. So at the 2006 Open Championship, no one might not have been surprised to see Daly in the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool on the night before facing Tiger Woods in the tournament. However, they probably were to see him playing guitar on the same stage where The Beatles were discovered.

Daly has released three studio albums and the track ‘All My Exes Wear Rolexes’ captures him better than any other. The 57-year-old has even featured on a song with Kid Rock – and he went down a storm at The Cavern. When the Open returned to Liverpool in 2014, Daly looked back on that 2006 night at the Cavern Club with fondness.

“Oh hell yeah,” he said when asked about it. “I love The Beatles. I was fortunate in ’06 to go to The Cavern club and I think they put my name on a brick right beside John Lennon – I got a brick!”

“In a hundred years from now they’re gonna go ‘Who the hell was John Daly? What music did he play?’ I played a song or two on stage and that was pretty cool. I just loved seeing all the names that have performed there. If you’re a music junkie like I am it’s great to think of the history. It seems like everybody started out there. Even some of the American people just thought they needed to come over and play The Cavern because all the great bands had played there,” Daly fondly said. He indeed fell behind Tiger in that 2006 tournament. But do we really care? After all, it is all things beyond golf that have earned Daly the cult status in the world of golf. Don’t you agree?