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Bet on this - John Daly is facing tougher times now than he ever did when his drinking was out of control. After spending time in 1993 in an Arizona rehab center when he came to the conclusion he had to do so or face the possibility of drinking himself to death, Daly's addictive personality has latched on to gambling with a vengeance.
In excerpts from his book, John Daly: My Life In and Out of the Rough, due to be released next week, Daly acknowledges the destructive nature of his problem but falls short of recognizing its seriousness. You've seen the numbers. By his own estimate, Daly believes he has lost between $50 million and $60 million gambling in the last twelve years.
That bears repeating. Fifty to sixty million dollars. The sheer magnitude of those numbers is staggering, even in the rarefied air of millionaire professional sports figures. As a way to gain a little perspective, consider this: John Daly's career earnings on the PGA tour are $8.7 million. Not bad for a career, certainly more than you and I are going to make, but not enough to personally support every casino in Vegas, either.
Obviously, most of Daly's earnings, as is the case with most high-profile professional golfers, come from endorsement deals. It speaks to Daly's ability that even with his many highly-publicized problems, including once walking off the course during a tournament because he was shaking so badly, he has been able to remain competitive and popular with fans on the tour. This has enabled him to cash in on those endorsement deals to help feed his gambling habit.
Clouds may be gathering on the horizon, however, even in the area of endorsement money. According to Golf Digest.com, last year Daly earned a relatively paltry $1.25 million in off-course income, including endorsements, tournament appearance fees, speaking fees, etc. Combined with his nearly $2.7 million in on-course earnings, Daly last year made just under $4 million, not bad until you consider that if his estimates are correct, he has averaged losing around $4.6 million a year for the last twelve years gambling.
So far this year John Daly is languishing in 137th place on the PGA Tour's money list at $163,936. Ahead of him on the list are names like Tag Ridings, D.A. Points and Henrik Bjornstadt. The point? To continue financing his destructive and dangerous lifestyle, Daly must continue to play competitively in order to maintain the visibility needed to support his endorsement deals and continue that influx of money. If his playing performance drops off, the entire house of cards could collapse on top of him.
Meanwhile, John Daly continues gambling. "If I make a little bit [on $25 slots], then maybe I move up to the $100 slots or the $500 slots, or maybe I take it to the blackjack table. It's their money. Why not give it a shot, try to double it?"
In reality, what Daly is doing is not gambling. "Gambling" implies winning once in a while. What he really is doing is destroying himself just as surely as he did with alcohol, it's just taking him a little longer.