Most golfers would have waved the white flag by the third splash. John Daly just held out his hand for another ball. Strip away the scorecard, and one of golf’s most embarrassing holes is also one of its most lovable moments, which says plenty about why “Wild Thing” never needed trophies to keep fans on his side.
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Rewind to the final day of the 1998 Bay Hill Invitational, a 36-hole Sunday. On the 33rd hole of the day, Daly stood on the tee of the par-5 sixth at two under for the tournament, staring at a lake. His drive found the water, and so did five straight 3-woods. Asked about it afterwards, he said: “The pressure was really on, I had one new golf ball left.”
His playing partner Paul Goydos, who had to keep the card, said the attempts from the forward tee were right on line and simply didn’t carry. Daly finally got over the water on his seventh try, only for the ball to plug in the hazard. His 6-iron into the green then hit rocks and ricocheted into a bunker. A blast-out and two putts later, he wrote down an 18 on the way to an 85.
When the gallery began chanting “Tin Cup” after the third splash, Daly had the line ready: “I still say they made that movie after me.” The film, about a driving-range pro who wrecks his US Open chances by hitting ball after ball into a pond, had come out two years earlier.
Is John Daly’s 18 the Most Shots Anyone Has Taken?
Not quite. John Daly is not the only PGA Tour player to have suffered a nightmare hole. The record for the highest score on a single hole is 19, shared by Ray Ainsley, Hans Merrell and Dale Douglass. Ainsley reached that mark at the 1938 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. His ball landed in a creek, but he did not know he could take a penalty drop. Instead, he spent around 30 minutes trying to hit the ball as the current carried it away.
Merrell also made a 19 at the 1959 Bing Crosby Pro-Am, while Douglass matched the score at the 1963 edition. Tommy Armour was reportedly credited with a 23 at the 1927 Shawnee Open, but conflicting accounts have kept that score out of the recognised record books.
Then Daly beat Daly. In September 2025 at the Sanford International on the PGA Tour Champions, he took a 19 on the par-5 12th, a Champions Tour record by three shots. It was first recorded as a 17 until officials corrected it after he signed his card. He hit seven balls into hazards, got up and down, and still signed for an 88.
The 18 is the peak of a long list. A Golf.com count found he has made 10 or more on a hole at least 15 times in PGA Tour events and majors. Those include a 14 on the par-5 18th at the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach and a 13 at the 2011 John Deere Classic. In 2014 he made a 12 at the Valspar Championship while battling the yips, and shot 90.
At Whistling Straits, John Daly put three tee shots in the water on a par 3, then hurled an iron into Lake Michigan. His defence: “you throw a club, it shows you care.” A young fan dived in from a boat to retrieve it and held it aloft in triumph.
Even the 18 didn’t linger. According to the Associated Press, Daly birdied the very next hole. Years later, at 50, he was still joking about his age: “I’m only 18 with 32 years of experience.”
The clowning hides a softer side. After a spectator was killed by lightning at the 1991 PGA Championship, which John Daly won, he donated $30,000 to the man’s family for a college fund.
In an era of launch monitors and strokes gained, Daly’s 18 is the opposite of optimised golf. It shows a man who refused to lay up, kept laughing, and went birdie-hunting on the next tee. That, more than any trophy, is why a number that would end most people’s day is still a story fans tell with a grin 28 years later.