John Daly once called his friend at midnight, and that friend picked up the call to ensure Daly was still alive. But that call was for Daly to invite him for a $5,000 money match against a former NFL tight end. What happened next was completely on brand for John Daly.

Daly and the friend shared the full story on the Fore Play podcast. The two then arrived on the range and found the Tennessee Titans’ tight end chunking shots on the range like sh-t while being hammered. The ask of the bet was simple: show up at 7 a.m. for a $5,000 money match. But when Daly saw the guy’s condition, he thought of offering an alternative bet: $100 per hole, which he took.

“Hey, I’ll let you out of that $5,000 bet if you want to, because $5,000 is awkward for anybody,” said Daly.

🤔 golf trivia

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01/10

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The response was immediate: “No man, f–k you. You said $5,000. You’re giving me five strokes. We’re doing this.”

John Daly tried to explain, but the tight end responded, “No, you can go f–k yourself; we are doing this sh-t.”

Hearing this, Daly got pumped and responded, “Alright, motherf—er,” and then proceeded to hit a 330-yard drive on the first hole. Through the first 10 holes, Daly was 7 under, and for the last putt of the match, Daly did it in style with one hand on the club and a cigarette in his mouth.

The final tally of the bet came to $5,800 once the per-hole side bets were counted.

This was not even the first time a fan badly miscalculated around Daly. During a night out back in the day after a missed cut, Daly ran up a tab of roughly $9,700 at a strip joint. A heavily intoxicated fan then saw him clearing the bill and decided to pick it up. Daly tried to talk him out of it multiple times, but the fan refused and paid for it.

Interestingly, the $5,800 money match is not even Daly’s wildest story.

The night before John Daly made PGA Championship history

Jim Nantz recalled that the night before Daly’s 1991 PGA Championship run, the Colts had invited the golfer to kick a field goal at the Hoosier Dome between quarters. Daly accepted, and Nantz showed up purely to watch, half-expecting a hamstring injury that would end everything the next morning.

Nantz remembered that Daly was already drawing media attention and right there in contention by Saturday, and he was visibly loving every second of it. Daly, a straight-on kicker by technique, knocked it clean through from 40 yards and walked off the field in one piece, uninjured. Nantz headed to Sunday, genuinely relieved, not knowing what was about to unfold on the golf course.

Then came one of golf’s greatest stories. On Sunday, Daly shot 71 and won his maiden major. What made the entire story noteworthy was that Daly had entered the major as a ninth alternate.

Daly’s charisma hasn’t changed much, and stories like these are proof.