There have been many Cinderella stories in sports over the years, but John Daly’s victory at The Open in 1995 might be the most shocking and unexpected of all. Daly’s victory occurred roughly four years after his equally stunning win at the PGA Championship, an event he won despite being the ninth alternate heading into the tournament.
That PGA victory put a then-25-year-old Daly on the map. His win four years later on the Old Course at St Andrews made him a certified golf legend.
“I look back at the PGA, it’s like winning the lottery, and the British Open was like proving myself,” Daly said in an ESPN documentary. “[Jack] Nicklaus said it: ‘Your life’s complete with you win a British Open at St Andrews.'”
Daly’s triumph 30 years ago was an all-time stunner given his place in life (on and off the course), the stage of the event and a jaw-dropping moment on the final day of competition. A 29-year-old at the time, Daly had fallen on hard times following his meteoric rise after winning the PGA Championship four years earlier. Years later, he acknowledged that he wasn’t ready for the immediate attention that came with being the No. 1 star on the PGA Tour.
Aside from his unbelievable win at the PGA Championship, Daly’s sudden popularity was also a byproduct of his unorthodox swing, Arnold Palmer-like boldness on the course, easygoing smile, blonde mullet and a mammoth drive that made him look like Babe Ruth with a golf club.
Daly embraced his new fans, especially during his victory at the PGA Championship. Unfortunately, other aspects of his newfound fame were harder to navigate, especially the financial element.
“The money just comes flowing in,” Daly recalled. “I got lazy. Didn’t work on my game like I needed.”
With fame came contentment. Daly acknowledged that he didn’t practice as much as he should have after his PGA Championship win. Instead of practicing, he often indulged in two of his favorite pastimes: drinking and gambling.
“I wasn’t taught success,” said Daly while looking back. “I wasn’t taught how to be successful. Swoosh, all this money starts coming, all these hands are out. Just things that I’m not used to dealing with and don’t know how to deal with them. And it gets to a point where, back then, I’d just say, ‘Screw this. I’m gonna go the bar, get absolutely drunk and I’ll deal with it tomorrow.'”
While his personal life was unraveling, Daly still had a solid 1992 season. He won one tournament (B.C. Open) while posting one runner-up, five top-10 and eight top-25 finishes in 25 events. While everything looked fine on the surface, Daly’s life was in the midst of a freefall.
Everything came to a head in December 1992 when Daly was arrested and charged with third degree assault. Shortly thereafter, he withdrew from the PGA Tour and entered himself into an alcohol rehabilitation center.
“That’s one of those times when the drinking got out of hand,” Daly recalled, “and I destroyed my house. … It’s the most embarrassing day of my life.”
Daly returned for the fourth tournament of the 1993 season, but his struggles on the golf course intensified. While he finished T3 at the Masters (his highest-ever finish at the event), Daly didn’t have any other top-10 finishes in 24 events. He had just four other top-25 finishes, missed the cut seven times, withdrew from the Southern Open (he walked off the course without telling his partners), and got disqualified from the Kemper Open (after he refused to sign his score card) and the Kapalua International (walked off the course during a round).
Daly’s actions led to a three-month suspension from the PGA Tour.
“John, I think, had so much pressure,” said Daly’s agent, Bud Martin. “From being a superstar, guy dealing with the pressures of family, of divorce, and he blew.”
One of the lowest points came in 1994 when Daly — back from his suspension — got into a fight in a parking lot with the father of another golfer who took issue with Daly hitting balls into the group ahead of him (including that man’s son) twice. The incident forced Daly to take a leave of absence for the remainder of the season. His career, by general consensus, was effectively over.
While he did win his second tournament (the BellSouth Classic) since the PGA Championship in 1994, Daly didn’t finish higher than T31 during his final 10 appearances of the season. Of those events, he missed the cut four times, got disqualified after submitting an incorrect scorecard (at the Hartford Open) and had another withdrawal after the opening round of the New England Classic.
“He really looked uncomfortable, so it wasn’t an act,” tournament director Ted Mingolla said at the time following a meeting with Daly. “He said that he was mentally and physically completely drained.”
Daly — in the process of getting a divorce from his second wife before marrying his third wife — lived up to lower expectations in 1995. In his first 16 events of the season, Daly had just three top-20 finishes, finished T45 at both the Maters and the U.S. Open, and had five missed cuts that included in two of his final three tournaments entering The Open at St. Andrews.
With 66 to 1 odds, Daly was virtually no one’s pick to win The Open. In fact, he said years later that someone offered him $1 million to intentionally lose a round during The Open, an offer he shut down quickly and emphatically.
“Even though he was a major champion, he was a long shot — at best,” former PGA golfer and longtime broadcaster David Feherty explained years later. “No one gave him a shot at St Andrews.”
While it obviously wasn’t factored into the odds, it seemed incredibly far fetched that a player with Daly’s history would win on the iconic Old Course. Surprisingly, Daly and St Andrews complemented each other like “The Odd Couple” in more ways than one. While the course — with its large fairways and greens — suited his game, there was something else St. Andrews had that played a significant role in Daly’s unexpected win.
Daly, who said that he craved sugar when he wasn’t drinking, was especially hooked on the chocolate chip muffins that were located on a stand just behind the 9th green on the 10th tee.
“They were fresh, and they were good,” Daly said. “I ate them every single day.”
The muffins were part of Daly’s winning trifecta of chocolate, Diet Coke and cigarettes. Because he couldn’t drink, he leaned on those vices to get himself through the tournament.
But Daly wasn’t just getting through the tournament, he was tied atop the leaderboard after the first round. His long drives were routinely made longer by the Old Course’s sloping fairways, yet he continued to play steady golf the next two days, entering Sunday’s final round in a tie for fourth place and just four shots off the lead.
“I just told myself, ‘I can win this; I’m not out of this golf tournament,'” Daly recalled. “It’s my favorite place to play in the world.”
The feeling was mutual. As the tournament went along and Daly continued to play well, the fans at St Andrews rallied around the American with the big swing and easygoing persona.
“The fans are my distant family,” Daly said. “They’re loyal. No matter what I do, great of bad, they’ve just been loyal. I don’t know if too many people can honestly say that. … The notes and letters people sent me by mail back then, I remember that. … I know I’ve let them down, but I also know I’ve made them all high-five at times, too.”
Donning a dark green Reebok windbreaker, Daly walked onto the Old Course that Sunday determined to capture his second major. For those who remembered what he did four years earlier at the PGA Championship, it was déjà vu.
“John started his round,” Feherty recalled, “and there was the feeling of, ‘No, no, he can’t do it again. Not at St. Andrews.'”
While the scene looked familiar, Daly was experiencing something completely different that may only happen once in an athlete’s career. He was in the zone, hitting seemingly every shot and every putt with a pristine level of execution. Daly’s putting was especially on point.
When he did happen to make a mistake, he was quickly able to save face, like on that Sunday after he hit his second shot on the 17th into the infamous “Road Hole” bunker. Despite his ball being literally inches from a brick wall, Daly was able to whack it onto the green on his ensuing shot, setting up a par.
“It was probably one of the first times in my career that I said, ‘I don’t think that I’m gonna beat myself in this golf tournament,'” Daly said. “Somebody’s gonna have to beat me.'”
As great as Daly played, someone nearly did just that after making one of the most iconic shots in golf history. In the clubhouse with a one stroke lead, he watched on TV as Costantino Rocca walked up to the 18th tee needing a birdie in order to force a playoff. Daly then allowed himself to dream of hoisting the Claret Jug after Rocca duffed his second shot, leaving him with a 40-foot birdie putt.
Daly’s odds were of winning The Open were long, but the odds of Rocca making that putt were a trillion times worse. In the spirit of what was truly a unpredictable week, that putt miraculously found its way into the bottom of the cup, leaving the crowd in a frenzied pitch, reducing an elated Rocca to tears and temporarily sucker punching Daly, who had to quickly gather himself for the playoff.
Daly’s response to Rocca’s magical moment may be perhaps the most impressive moment from his performance that week. Instead of letting it deflate him, Daly showed the focus and fortitude of a player worthy of winning The Open, which is exactly what he did after dominating the four-hole playoff (ironically, Daly pulled away after Rocca hit the “Road Hole” bunker’s brick wall twice during the playoff).
With victory in hand, Daly was able to enjoy a celebratory walk up the 18, the same walk his golf idol, Jack Nicklaus, twice took during his legendary career.
“To be able to cruise on 18, and all those people yelling and screaming, that’s when I felt like St. Andrews fell in love with John Daly just as much as I already loved it,” Daly said.
Pumping his arms, a beaming Daly strode up to the 18th green before sinking his short putt, thus completing one of the most expected victories in the history of sports.
Fittingly, Daly didn’t celebrate his historic win like most players who win The Open who typically drink an adult beverage or two out of the Claret Jug.
“When I won the British Open, I filled it up with chocolate ice cream and ate it,” Daly said with a laugh. “The real one, the one you keep for a year, got filled up with chocolate ice cream.”
Daly continued to face obstacles in the coming years, but as he approached age 50, he said his life was “surrounded by good things.” One of those things is his son, John Daily II, who is currently golfing at Arkansas, Daly’s alma mater. In 2021, the duo captured the PNC Championship, defeating Tiger and Charlie Woods by two strokes.
“I kinda love the way it turned out,” Daly said. “I know there was a low of lows, but lows cannot defeat me and cannot defeat the highs I’ve had in my life.”
The lows obviously can’t erase what happened that one week at St. Andrews 30 years ago when Daly conquered the world’s best golfers on the sport’s most hallowed ground