Ten Minute Takeover
INTERVIEW FEATURE INTERVIEW
John Daly
We spent ten Minutes with Golfs ‘Marmite’ John Daly. Love him or hate him one thing we certainly discovered is that ‘Long John’ certainly is not afraid of speaking his mind and his life literally is an open book. Photo: Getty Images
Q: How old were you when you started playing Golf? JD: About 4 I think Q: How did you first take to the game? Did you have many lessons? JD: No I was pretty much self taught. I used to look at a Jack Nicklaus Cartoon that was in some newspaper and I started to copy it really Q: So now I guess the practice and tuition comes from better sources than a cartoon? JD: Nope. Me and practice does not seem to mix well. The Harder I work the worse I get, Practicing brings out my problems. I suck at it! So I have realised now not to practice and I seem to do ok! Q: It is no secret that you had a serious gambling addiction. You are reported to have gambled away almost $60 million dollars. Firstly is that actually possible and secondly if it is how did you manage that? JD: Well the people that reported that haven’t got a clue. Yeah I probably lost close to it when you account that there were some winnings, which then became losses. Q: So what was your favorite gambling game? JD: I played slots. Lots of slots! Q: Did you ever actually win anything on them then? Yeah I think my biggest win was after our wedding, me and my
wife won $1.8 million on slot machines. Q: But surely when you were getting paid millions of dollars in endorsements, appearance fees and winnings, what was the drive to win a bit more? It must have almost seemed an insignificant amount to win! If you had invested wisely what you earned surely you would have been made for life! JD: Yeah but I’m not doing all that badly now so its not all bad. Like I said there were wins as well as losses. Gambling was a part of my life and a big one at that. Q: Do you now look at your kids and think that I could have left a huge legacy there if I had not lost all that money gambling? JD: No not really as they are certainly taken care of. My family will never have to worry about money and will never go without. I know I have lost a load but I also have made a load and still do. People are very quick to look solely for the bad points and they soon forget the good. I have experienced a great career and won a vast amount of money. Aside from winnings I have done very well with sponsorships and appearances. Its very rare to ever here a reporter lead with something like ‘John you have done so well’ as apposed to John, basically you are a f#’/ing idiot’
Q: You still do well with endorsement deals, even though due to your lifestyle you have lost a fair few along the way. JD: Yeah I seem to lose one then gain two. I think people have started to call me the Nascar Guy now due to the amount of Logos all over me. Sponsors must see something in me to keep it up. Who knows if I was good all the time maybe no one would have cared about me. But I am who I am and that’s just me. I Remember once playing with Tiger and he said to me ‘JD Look at the state of your shirt, on one breast you have a sponsor for a weight loss procedure and on the opposite side of your shirt you are advertising Dunkin Donuts’ That made me laugh! Q: I Know this is a personal question but save the best for the last! Do you feel the PGA See you as an embarrassment to golf or do they love you? As forget the opinion if people like you or hate you its no secret that when you play both live visitors and tv viewing ratings go up! JD: I guess my life is my life. I don’t try to hide anything and I guess some people like the fact that I am a real person with real emotions and I do show them both on the course and off the course. People can learn a lot from me I guess. I have made a few mistakes, well ok a lot of mistakes but that’s just me.