The Day I Spent With Golf Legend John Daly

The country club I was working for back in 2005 would hold a celebrity golf exhibition every year. There would be a charity auction and cocktail party the night before the golf event, and the following day, there would be a golf outing in the morning and a celebrity shootout in the afternoon.

That year the celebrities hired for the event were John Daly and Natalie Gulbis.

My boss, the director of golf, gave me the assignment of being John Daly's chaperone. I was to take him on the course and visit with each foursome playing in the morning scramble. Take photos with the groups, have him hit a shot and keep him moving so we could visit each group.

In the afternoon, we were on foot during the shootout, playing a nine hole skins game. Essentially my role was to keep him moving and make sure there was enough cold beer readily available.

During the course of the next nine hours, John drank a minimum of 43 beers!

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We started the morning hooking up with a group on the tee of a short par 4 playing 305 yards. John hadn't warmed up at all.

I gave him the distance and the line of play, with his first swing of the day, he nearly holed it!

We kept moving through group after group, stopping for a picture, a golf shot and some quick banter. Once he had met all 30 foursomes we stopped for lunch. His lunch consisted of Bud Light and those orange cheese crackers. He was a little disappointed that the club didn't carry Miller Lite but he managed to survive on Bud Light.

Next on the agenda was a skills exhibition for the crowd. There was a small grandstand built around the first tee for the exhibition. He wowed the crowd by driving the first green which was likely a carry of 315 yards.

After that we were off on foot for the skins game, a nine hole competition. We no longer had a golf cart to work with. I was now carrying his cigarettes and holding his beer when he needed to play a shot. We were forced to enlist a chase car to follow us with bags of cold beer.

When we got to the par 5 13th hole. 520 yards. John had landed his second shot in the right hand, green side bunker, in two shots. Tough shot from a very deep bunker with the hole cut back on a small plateau. He handed me his lit cigarette and beer, pulled out his sand wedge and dug his feet into the sand.

After a mighty thump, he turns to me to retrieve his beer and smoke and says "It's in" Damn if it didn't end up dropping!

We finished up the shootout without issue. I had to make one last radio call for "MORE BEER" but we made it back to the clubhouse just fine. Natalie Gulbis was a real pro. This wasn't her first clam bake. She knew the crowd was as interested in her swing as they were in seeing her short skirts.

I was not looking up her skirt, I was merely leaning forward so the fans weren't blocked out.

Reflecting on that day, I have to say that John Daly is one of the nicest people I've ever met. He genuinely wanted to meet every fan that walked up to us during the shootout. He signed every autograph and posed for every picture.

Guys kept telling the same story about meeting him in the past. "John, remember that night in Vegas where you bought the whole bar a round?" Apparently that happens often.

I asked him at one point whether or not all these fans bothered him and he turned towards me and said:

"Matty, I love these people. Without them, I'm nothing"

That was a fun day at work. I hope you enjoyed the story.

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Image source: #1&3 Marty Tremarco, #2 pixabay.com