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John Daly hasn’t played at the Masters since 2006, but that hasn’t stopped the iconoclastic golfer from cashing in at Augusta.
Just down the road from where golfers are competing for a prestigious golf tournament, a 58-year-old man is making a lot of money by selling his own line of golf products at a Hooters establishment.
Daly’s team told ESPN that last year, he made $780,000 selling $40 hats, $10 autographed golf balls and $250 boxes of cigars, among other wares — and they estimate it could be even more this year.
“Eat some good food, smoke, sell some s–t,” Daly told the Worldwide Leader of his annual pilgrimage to the patio of the Augusta Hooters.
Daly, who burst onto the scene in 1991 by winning the PGA Championship with long-bomb drives, became the bad boy of golf, known for smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and his unique sense of style — complete with mullet.
It has long endeared fans.
“John Daly’s my hero,” one Augusta resident told ESPN. “He’s the best, drunkest golfer there ever was.”
Despite his continual health issues — he battled bladder cancer in 2020 and has had 16 surgeries to fix various body parts — Daly remains a golf legend.
“I got more metal in me than the bionic man Lee Majors does,” he said. “But I’m still living, man. I’m like Lazarus, I just keep coming back from the f–king dead.”
Those who love him may have to settle for the next best thing: John Daly II.
The golfer’s progeny, now 21, has followed in his father’s footsteps, first by joining the Arkansas golf team, and then, in 2022, signing an NIL sponsorship deal with Hooters.
While fans take in the current generation of golfers playing on the hallowed Augusta grounds, the elder Daly knows where he and his legion prefer to hang out — all while he makes a little extra moolah, too.
“I may never get in the Hall of Fame, but you know what? It seems like I’ll always have the fans,” Daly said. “I love them, and they know that. We just connect. Blue-collar people are supposed to connect.”