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John Daly is a truly legendary figure in the world of golf, and it’s hard not to be fascinated by a man who’s taken a truly wild ride through life. That includes the many stories involving a gambling addiction he was thankfully able to kick—including a tale where he lost an absolute fortune in the amount of time it takes to play a round.
If you’re familiar with John Daly, you know he’s had trouble resisting plenty of vices over the years.
The man who posts up in the parking lot of a Hooters near Augusta National during The Masters each year would be the first person to admit he loves himself some junk food, and while he might try to mitigate the damage by drinking plenty of Diet Coke, his affinity for booze and cigarettes probably cancels out that attempt to reduce his sugar intake.
There are plenty of guys in the world of golf who’ve developed an (at times problematic) love of gambling, and while it’s hard to top the estimated $1 billion Phil Mickelson allegedly spent on bets while losing $100 million in the process, Daly certainly gave him a run for his money.
The colorful golfer was largely able to put his bad habits behind him, but not before a number of incidents that probably should have served as a wake-up call—including one that transpired in 2005.
John Daly lost $1.65 million in the span of five hours while gambling
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In 2016, Daly sat down for an interview where he admitted he lost around $55 million while gambling over the span of 16 years (although he acknowledged “I had a lot of fun doing it”).
During that conversation, he admitted he would drop between $5K and $15K on a single hand of blackjack while playing up to seven hands at once, so it’s pretty easy to understand how that number added up.
Daly said he eventually started playing slot machines because he realized “you could last a little bit longer,” but that apparently didn’t help him cut his losses that much based on what transpired after the WGC-American Express Championship was held at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco midway through the 2000s.
That tournament saw Daly and Tiger Woods face off in a playoff that ended in fairly devastating fashion after the former missed a two-foot putt to take second place.
According to the autobiography he published in 2006, he opted to nurse his wounds by heading to Las Vegas with the $750,000 check he’d still managed to secure for being the runner-up and sat down at a slot machine that cost $5K per play only to lose $600,000 in 30 minutes.
He eventually got that same amount in credit from the casino only to see it disappear, and when everything was said and done, Daly said he managed to burn through a grand total of $1.65 million in the span of five hours before deciding he was done for the day.
As someone who thought losing $100 on eight consecutive hands of blackjack was bad, I’d like to thank John Daly for making me feel a lot better about myself.