John Daly: The Biography

Legend has it that one of the things you really should see if you’re a true golf fan is the swing - the awesome ‘killer swing’ - of John Patrick Daly. Rewind to August 1991 and the USPGA Championship at Crooked Stick, Indianapolis. Twenty-five-year-old rookie pro John Daly tees off as an eleventh-hour replacement for Nick Price and blasts his way to a spectacular and entirely unexpected victory. Now fully updated, Gavin Newsham’s award-winning biography examines how that triumph, which, which should have signalled the start of the big time for Daly, instead prompted a shocking descent into alcoholism, gambling addiction and more indidents and accidents than most people encounter in one lifetime - maybe two. He has been arrested, suspended and seen his world ranking plummet to 507. Yet, his no-nonsense ‘grip it and rip it’ philosophy has struck a chord with golf fans the world over and his length off the tee is legendary. ‘It’s all good because I’m still living,’ he shrugs. Despite his trials and tribulations, John Daly remains one of the biggest draws in the game.