John Daly has been hospitalized in Florida and has undergone emergency surgery on his hand.
The 58-year-old revealed the news on Instagram with a picture from his hospital bed, and captioned the image: ‘Emergency hand surgery… thankful (it) went great and Doc McClimans for taking care of me. Be back playing in no time!’
In a separate post, with the location tagged as Tampa, Florida, he added: ‘Should be hitting ’em again soon! Thanks for all the messages.’
Daly did not reveal much more about his condition but the hospital picture appears to show his left hand bandaged up.
Daly is a huge fan favorite in the golfing world and has never made any effort to disguise his hard-living lifestyle.
He is always seen with a lit cigarette on the course and says that he doesn’t drink water or eat vegetables.
‘I drink diet coke, I like to have ice which to me is water so I get plenty of water in my diet coke,’ he said in a 2016 interview.
‘Rich Beem calls me “the camel”. I don’t drink water. I hate water. I cannot stand to drink water. I used to drink 12-20 diet cokes a day, I’d go to McDonald’s three or four times a day. To me they always had the best fountain drink.
‘I don’t eat beans, spinach, broccoli, any of that stuff. When I was young my dad would force it down me and I would throw it up.’
Recently, in an appearance on Bryson DeChambeau’s YouTube channel, he claimed he had drank ’20 vodkas’ before filming with him.
In September 2020, Daly was diagnosed with bladder cancer that he later said was benign but would need regular trips to his doctor for the next five years.
‘Oh I started drinking at nine this morning,’ Daly said into the video to DeChambeau. ‘Might be the 20th. I’ve slowed down a little bit.’
CBS reporter Will Brinson once notoriously tweeted that, after following the golfer during at the 2008 Wyndham Championship, Daly smoked 21 cigarettes.
‘Followed him for 18 holes, hawking his every move, taking meticulous notes every time he reached for his golf bag, took a bite or a sip or a puff,’ Brinson said.
‘First few holes were just kind of eye opening. By the back nine I realized I was essentially watching someone pitch a perfect game.
‘The final tally of literally everything he put into his body over a full 18 holes: 21 cigs 12 Diet Cokes 6 packs of Peanut M&M’s 0.0 ounces of water.’
Despite his cancer scare and other health struggles, such as being diagnosed with osteoarthritis in 2019, Daly hasn’t showed too many signs that his lifestyle is catching up with him until now.
He brought in 2025 by sharing a video of him hitting a drive over a road – after checking for oncoming traffic – all with a lit cigarette in his mouth.
Daly ended 2024 by competing at the PNC Championship with his one – going up against Tiger Woods and his son Charlie.
