SIOUX FALLS — Crowds about 15,000 — possibly a lot more — are expected on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the 2nd annual Sanford International in Sioux Falls.
Many of the 78 competing Champions Tour players will have a few people, maybe even a few dozen, following them.
But if this event is like any other on tour, the only player (besides Jack Nicklaus for nine holes on Saturday) with galleries by the hundreds if not thousands will be John Daly.
Daly tees off at 11:50 p.m. at Minnehaha Country Club on Friday, and you’ll know it if you’re there. Buzz will eminate from his domain.
The two-time major winner has won over fans for almost 30 years with his larger-than-life appearance, bright and outrageous clothes, and long and free-wheeling swing that produces towering drives of astronomical distance.
Daly’s legend goes well beyond the golf course and into bars and casinos all over the world.
His staggering stats go well beyond his booming drives. Daly claims he…
* Smokes 18,000 cigarettes a year
* Drank 35 to 40 beers in one sitting in his heavier drinking days (says he only has a few at a time now)
* Drinks 15 diet sodas a day
* Has blown $55 million in gambling, mostly on black jack and slot machines
* Sometimes spends 15 or more hours (sometimes “a day in a half”) in the same casino.
The clip starts with a funny story about Daly badgering a young Tiger Woods to stop practicing and start drinking with Daly and his buddies.
It should be noted: Daly also pours it on thick when it comes to charity.
Here is the list of some of his benefactors
Here is a feature on his soft spot for sick kids.
No doubt, the fact that all proceeds from the Sanford International are going to Sanford hospital children’s health care programs is a driving force for Daly’s presence in Sioux Falls.
