Rookie Card of a '90s Golf Legend

Alright, just soak in the following image of 57-year-old professional golfer John Daly during a practice round a few years ago at the British Open:

 

 

Mullet. Beard. Sunglasses. USA shorts. Smokin' a dart. Swingin' a golf club. 

 

Only John Daly.

 

You'd have to go back quite a while to find the big-hitting golfer in his first year on the PGA Tour—a little more than 30 years, in fact. But recently I picked up a small piece of that history. Check him out on his rookie card from 1991: 

 

 

Now when collectors were first opening packs of Pro Set golf cards early in the year, Mr. Daly would have still been a relative unknown. He was doing alright on the Tour, making a decent amount of cuts and posting a few top-10 finishes, but overall, he wasn't exactly taking the golf world by storm.

 

Here's an image of the card back.

 

 

There's a good write-up about his successes on the Ben Hogan Tour in 1990 (kind of like the minor leagues of golf). But overall, it's pretty tame. 

 

However, by the second week of August 1991, this rookie card would have been the most sought after in the set. 

 

Why?

 

Well, John Daly came out of nowhere to win the PGA Championship—one of golf's four majors—and did so playing a brand of golf no one had really seen before. Look at that card front and back again. You can see traces of the mullet. But what you can't see is how long his backswing was, and how hard he hit the ball. Or how he smoked cigarettes and ate M&Ms and drank Diet Cokes on the course.

 

It also doesn't mention just how unbelievable it was that Daly even made it into the field at the PGA Championship. You see, he was an "alternate".

 

If you're an alternate, it means you came pretty close in the overall PGA Tour rankings list to qualify for the tournament, but not close enough. The only way you'd make it in was if one of the approximately 150 players in the tournament had to drop out a day or two before it started. And that meant you'd have to be ready for a phone call. Because the PGA Tour would call you to let you know a spot had opened up.

 

Now if you're the first alternate on the list, there's a halfway decent chance that one of those 150 golfers will have to withdraw—most often due to a nagging injury that they were trying to play through, but couldn't. And for the 1991 PGA Championship, one of those golfers did in fact withdraw.

 

The thing is, Mr. Daly wasn't the first alternate. Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. Or the fifth. 

 

Want to know where he was on the list?

 

Ninth.

 

That's right. He was the ninth alternate. That means in order for him to make it into the 1991 PGA Championship, eight golfers ahead of him on the list of alternates would have had to decline the invitation.

 

Let's go over the play-by-play: 

 

• The first alternate was injured, so he couldn't play.
• The second alternate's wife was expecting a child. Out.
• The third alternate was a British golfer, and he'd gone back to England. Out.
• The fourth alternate had an ear infection. Out.
• The fifth alternate was injured. Out.

 

It was at this point that a PGA Tour representative called Daly to let him know he was now fourth on the alternate list. 

 

Well, John decided that was close enough, and set out to make the 500-mile drive to the tournament, just in case. That's where the play-by-play continues. While Daly was making that long drive, more results came in.

 

• The sixth alternate's wife was also expecting a child. Out.
• The seventh alternate was injured. Out
• The eighth alternate hadn't been playing very well, and didn't think he was up for the rigors of a major championship. So he declined. Out.

When Daly finally made it to his hotel room early Thursday morning, the message light on the phone was blinking.

 

"You're on the tee at 1:58pm on Thursday." 

 

That's right. Daly had just arrived at his hotel, and now there were only a few hours to prepare. No practice rounds. No scouting out the golf course. Nothing. He'd never even played there before.

 

So he did the only thing he knew how to do. He gripped it and ripped it, and finished the first round with a 3-under par 69. In the second round he shot 67, and found himself leading the tournament. He followed that up on Saturday with another 69, and a 3-shot lead going into Sunday. And by this time, media coverage was big. The entire city had embraced him. On Sunday morning he got to his locker and found a lot of notes from players, including Jack Nicklaus. 

 

Go get 'em.

 

And that he did. Daly, the ninth alternate, won a major championship by 3 shots. He finished under par in all four rounds.

 

What a story. 

 

By the end of the season, Mr. Daly would be selected as the 1991 PGA Tour rookie of the year. 

To see his swing in action, here's a clip from the U.S. Open in 1993, where he reached the green of a 630-yard par-5 in 2 shots: 

 

 

 

630 total yards with a driver and then a 1-iron. That's outrageous, even if you're using today's golf clubs and golf balls. 

Daly would finish his career with 5 PGA Tour wins, 4 international wins, and 2 major championships. (1991 PGA Championship, 1995 British Open Championship)

 

And now I've got his rookie card in my collection. I'm pretty happy about that! 

How about you readers and collectors? Even if you're not golf fans, do you remember hearing about John Daly back in the '90s? 

 

Do you think you could have ever swung a golf club like he did?

 

Let me know in the comment section, and thanks for reading!