The folks at ESPN always do an outstanding job with the “30 for 30” documentaries, but they slapped it out of the park with the most recent one.
Maybe it’s because I once met John Daly and have always pulled for him or maybe it’s his incredible life of ups and downs, but the “Hit It Hard” documentary that debuted Tuesday was my favorite so far.
It’s been 25 years since the long-hitting, long-haired Daly became an overnight golfing sensation with his historic PGA Championship victory at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana. In the ensuing years, particularly during the 1990s, no golfer lived a more public life of occasional highs — two major championship wins — coupled with lots of lows — gambling losses, divorces, heavy drinking, depression and rehab.
In retrospect, it’s a made-for-TV story. My only question is what took ESPN so long. Maybe Daly wasn’t a willing participant at first.
Golf Digest reports Daly said he agreed to do the documentary when agent Bud Martin noted he would be the first golfer profiled in ESPN’s “30 for 30” series. “At least I could say I did something in the game of golf before somebody else did,” Daly said.
Directors Gabe Spitzer and David Terry Fine and ESPN did a great job showing us a wild journey that eventually ends with Daly at a happy, relatively calm place in his life. A life that includes excitement about playing on the PGA Champions Tour and about being a doting father.
JD is must-see TV.
I met him on the practice range at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point about a year after it opened in 1988. He was guzzling Budweiser beers and smoking Marlboro reds while pounding out 350-yard drives.
Daly was quite entertaining. I must admit I didn’t know who the heck he was back then. That put me in the boat with just about everyone else in America at the time.
All I knew was that he was a newly turned pro golfer who hit it deep. This was well before he became a member of the PGA Tour in 1991 and had the surprise win at the PGA Championship that same year.
Daly was the ninth and final alternate for the Championship. Just days before the tournament started, Nick Price dropped out since his wife was about to give birth. The eight other alternates could not make it to Crooked Stick in time, thus opening the door for an incredible four days of golf.
Daly shot scores of 69-67-69-71, giving him a three-stroke victory over Bruce Lietzke.
I remember telling people that I knew this Daly guy. OK, I quickly confessed that was an overstatement.
Daly’s surprise victory and powerful swing provided the impetus for a cult-like fan base, composed of many people who had not been previously attracted to golf, including me.
Daly is one of the most colorful, controversial and popular figures in the sport’s history. That’s why he is the first golfer to be featured on the popular ESPN series.
This confession during the show came as no surprise: “I played a lot hungover. I played a few rounds where I was still drunk from the night before. One time (during a PGA Tour event), I played the front nine, drank four Coors Lights at the turn, then shot like four or five under on the back nine and finished seventh at the tournament … those beers released all the pressure.”
Here are a few other interesting details from “Hit It Hard” that may surprise you:
nAfter his breakthrough win at the 1991 PGA Championship, Daly celebrated with dinner at a McDonald’s drive-thru. “I couldn’t cash the check yet,” he says, “so I really didn’t have any money.”
nAnyone familiar with Daly’s early years knows that his father was an angry alcoholic. Less well-known are the harrowing details of that rage, like the times the elder Daly would come home in such a fury that he would “put a gun in your eye.”
nDuring an especially self-destructive gambling streak, Daly won $40 million to $45 million at the tables. Unfortunately, he says, he lost $95 million to $98 million over that same span.
I hate to think what Daly could have accomplished on the course if he hadn’t had so many problems off it.
Some call him an underachiever. I call him one of my favorite golfers ever. Obviously not because he’s perfect, but because he’s honest about when he’s not.
“I kind of love the way it turned out,” Daly says toward the end of the documentary. “I’m still just going to be John Daly. I’m going to hit it hard. I’m going to grip it and rip it. And I’m going to grip it and sip it. I ain’t changing.”
