John Daly and Tiger Woods shared centre stage for one of the most entertaining rivalries of all time.
The greatest golfer of all time went head-to-head with the long-hitting enigma that was Daly, who represented the antithesis of everything Woods stood for in the game of golf.
But they first met on pure chance. In 1989, Daly was a 23-year-old who had just started his PGA Tour career, and Woods was a 13-year-old with immeasurable promise.
Daly received a phone call at midnight asking whether he could play at 8am, and the rest was history.
How John Daly first met a 13-year-old Tiger Woods
Daly and Woods first played together at the National Insurance Youth Golf Classic, but Daly was never meant to be playing. After a last-minute dropout, Daly received a call in the middle of the night, and he had to jump in the car to make his tee time.
A member of Texarkana Country Club, where the event was played, told the story to Bryson DeChambeau on his YouTube channel: “I don’t know if you remember or if you ever looked at that, but the way they got paired together, John had just turned pro, and the tournament director, who is a member here, knew him.
“Well, it was right after the Western Open in Chicago, and one of the tour pros couldn’t come and play. And so Dennis, the tournament chairman, knew John, and he called him at midnight, and he was somewhere in western or eastern Arkansas.
“He said, ‘Hey man, I have a pro that can’t come and play with the kids tomorrow. Will you come?’ He goes, ‘Well, when do I need to be there?’ And this is like midnight. He says, ‘8:00 a.m.’
“He said, ‘Oh, s–t. Okay. I’ll get my car and come.’ So, he came, and Dennis switched the tee times around. So, he ended up playing with Tiger. And that was their very first meeting. First time.”
That was around a four-hour drive for Daly to play in that tournament, so fair play to him for doing that favour!
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