When it’s the prime week on the golf calendar, everyone wants to see John Daly. It’s hard to miss.
This week, he arrived at The Open, which was held at Royal Liverpool in the north of England, wearing a stars-and-stripes graphic T-shirt with Donald Trump’s name woven into the sleeve. His bright, erratic clothing is one of the reasons he’s loved throughout golf, but it’s not the only thing that makes him so famous.
Daly is a proud American, but the British tournament holds a special place in his heart after he won it in 1995. And on both sides of the pond, fans are fascinated by Daly because they want to see what he wears, how much he smokes and what he eats during his round.
CBS sports reporter Will Brinson once tweeted his hawk-eye findings of Daly’s diet, taking “meticulous notes every time he reached for his golf bag, took a bite, sip or puff” during the 2008 Wyndham Championship.
“Final count of literally everything he put in his body for a full 18 holes: 21 cigarettes, 12 Diet Cokes, 6 packs of Peanut M&M’s, 0.0 ounces of water,” Brinson tweeted.
John Daly pictured during his first round of The Open at Royal Liverpool on Thursday

He was seen smoking while warming up for The Open on Wednesday afternoon.

Daly, 57, has made no secret of his incredible diet and how he refuses to drink water.
Daly is very open about his diet and probably wouldn’t reject Brinson’s findings.
‘Rich Beam calls me a ‘camel’ because I never drink water. I drink Diet Coke, I like to have ice, which to me is water, so I get a lot of water in my Diet Coke,” Daly said in an interview with Graham Bensinger in 2016, wearing a stars-and-stripes blazer.
‘I don’t drink water. I hate water. I can’t stand drinking water. She used to drink 12-20 diet cokes a day, she would go to McDonald’s three or four times a day. For me, they always had the best fountain drink.
The American then revealed to Bensinger that he had recently started drinking whole milk.
I drink about five gallons a week of whole milk. I like to mix Hershey’s into my vitamin D milk,’ he said, before being questioned about his love of McDonald’s and Burger King.
‘Burger King, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, I love them. I used to be able to eat two Big Macs, two or three cheeseburgers, chocolate shake, and regular coke back then, sitting down pretty easily.
‘My 17th birthday, I was a kicker for the football team. I bought 17 tacos and was still hungry and bought a couple burritos after that.
I don’t eat a lot of fast food anymore. Burger King has the best burgers, McDonald’s has the best fries. I’ll go to Burger King and buy the BK and just take the meat out and eat it. I have a hard time with bread. Sometimes I can eat bread, sometimes I can’t.

Daly is pictured with a Diet Coke in hand during practice for the 1999 US Open

Daly has Hooters as an endorser and has been known to visit the bar after a round of golf.

Daly has sometimes used a golf cart to get around the course due to knee problems.
Bensinger then said that he had heard that Daly is physically sick when he eats vegetables.
“More or less, yeah,” Daly said. I don’t eat beans, spinach, broccoli, anything like that. When he was young, my dad would force me to swallow it and I would throw it up.’
Daly is also sponsored by Hooters and in 2022 went there for a night after the first round of the PGA Championship in Oklahoma. He apparently enjoyed some wings before ending his night at a casino slot machine.
In September 2020, Daly was diagnosed with bladder cancer which he later said was benign but would require regular visits to his doctor for the next five years.
“Bladder cancer is benign right now,” he said. golf channel in March 2022. ‘I’m coming back in May and now I have to do it once every six months instead of three, but I still have to do it for five years.’
“Some days I feel like Superman, some days I feel like Jimmy Hoffa 6 feet under.”
Daly was also diagnosed with osteoarthritis in his right knee in 2019, making walking long stretches of the golf course a chore for the 57-year-old, which is why the PGA allows him to use a cart to traverse the courses.
Earlier this year, in May, Daly was forced to withdraw from the Senior PGA Championship because he was struggling with the ‘low grade’ tee boxes which he claimed caused his legs to swell.

Daly won The Open in 1995 and is always welcomed to Britain with open arms.

The love that Daly receives is mutual, he always has time to sign with his fans.

Daly, 57, is a cult hero on the golf circuit, on both sides of the pond.
“It’s so hard to play on tees that are degraded,” Daly tweeted. ‘The golf course is great but I wish they would level their tee boxes!
We are no longer young!! Some guys are ADA and we can’t keep going downhill on the tees!
“Sorry @PGA you are going the wrong way in golf but I love you all.”
It’s Daly’s honesty that makes him a cult hero on the PGA Tour and always brings fans in their thousands to watch him play.
Next week when he returns to the US he has a line of cannabis gummies on the shelves. By Daly’s own admission, it’s probably about as green as it gets.