John Daly and Tiger Woods enjoyed plenty of battles while out on the PGA Tour, and the former infamously got the better of the golfing legend at Sherwood Country Club
John Daly took down Tiger Woods(Image: Getty Images)
John Daly once took down arguably golf’s greatest player in Tiger Woods back in 1994, all while hungover and enjoying a whiskey on his way around the course.
A two-time major champion in his own right, Daly proved to be one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour, and enjoyed many a battle with the game’s greatest. He now plays his golf on the Champions Tour, a circuit Woods could well turn to at the end of the year, as he continues to battle with injury.
Back in his prime, however, he was one of the most in-form stars on the Tour, and one round in particular saw him get the better of an up-and-coming Woods.
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Discussing his booze-fueled 1994 match-up with Woods, which saw him come away victorious, Daly previously told the Tucker Carlson Encounter podcast: 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 five or six hours and we’re still there just pounding, getting drunk, having a good time.
“I got a sponsorship out of it which I was happy about. TW comes out in a suit and I go: ‘Where are you going?’. He says: ‘I got a guitar on stage for you. You have to go to the dinner’. I didn’t know anything about a dinner.
“I got no shoes on, I got my shirt tucked out, I got shit spilled all over me. Just drunk. The bar room wasn’t very far, so I stumbled over there. There’s a chair and a guitar. I did ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ and got a standing ovation and said I’ll see you tomorrow. So [the next morning] we tee off, my caddie was drunk with us.
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“The funny thing about Tiger is, when I got on the tee, I had my caddie bring me a crown or a Jack and Coke. If you’ve never played Sherwood, the first hole, he’s walking and walking through all the cactuses on this hill trying not to spill my drink.
“I grab my three-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.” Daly is well-known for wanting to enjoy himself both on and off the golf course.
The former Champion Golfer of The Year has thrown his name back into the limelight this week, after playing a key role in Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2. The sequel that dropped on Netflix last Friday includes a number of big names alongside Daly.
Veterans on the cast include Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Fred Couples and Sir Nick Faldo. The world’s current crop of top talent are also involved. The likes of Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Will Zalatoris and Justin Thomas.
Sandler also rolled out the four current biggest names in the sport aside from Woods, with Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler all part of the cast alongside Daly, who features as Gilmore’s neighbor.
