John Daly is still one of the most popular professional golfers in the game.
Daly won two major championships throughout his illustrious and often, controversial, PGA Tour career.
The now 59-year-old immediately endeared himself to golf fans the world over when he burst onto the scene and won the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick in 1991.
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However, it’s fair to say that the man known as the ‘Wild Thing’ is just as well-known for his controversial actions on the course as he is for his fine golf game.
Daly has been fined by the PGA Tour on more occasions than he’d like to remember.
That being said, golf fans flock to watch Daly mostly to see his prodigious power off the tee.
The distance John Daly hit a 1980s persimmon driver in 2025
Daly once claimed he would regularly clock 220 mph ball speeds with his driver during his prime.
“I looked at the monitor at The Masters last year, and [DeChambeau] was at 200 or 205mph ball speed,“ Daly said.
“I remember Nick Faldo was watching him, and I was like, ‘Nick, I was at 220mph’ and that was with the balata ball. I was carrying the ball 330 to 340 with the balata and that’s not even with a driver.“
Whether you believe that or not, the fact that Daly was the longest hitter in the game for pretty much two decades is not up for debate.
Last year, Daly had the chance to hit a 1980s persimmon driver ahead of a PGA Tour Champions event.
Fans waited with bated breath to see whether Daly still had a long drive in him with such inferior equipment.
The two-time major champion launched the ball 275 yards and that is incredible for two reasons.
It may not sound like a long drive given the distances that players are hitting the ball these days.
However, context is crucial.
John Daly’s amazing 275-yard drive
Firstly, Daly was 58 when he hit the persimmon driver last year.
While he obviously isn’t as long as he was in his prime, he clearly still generates plenty of clubhead speed.
And that is incredibly impressive, considering how he never works out in the gym!
Secondly, Daly hitting his ball 275 yards with a persimmon is utterly ridiculous, given the size and material of the clubhead.
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Advances in technology mean that ball speeds have increased by around 15mph on average over the past 40 years or so.
The average driving distance on the PGA Tour in 1987 was 262 yards. That was when players were still using persimmon before the metal-head revolution began.
In 2026, the average PGA Tour driving distance is 306 yards.
So it’s fair to say that the current technology has added around 44 yards to players’ tee shots on average.
Using that metric, we can argue that Daly, at 58 years old, would have hit a modern driver around 319 yards or so.
That’s pretty amazing considering his age!
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