Texas Children's Houston Open

Memorial Park Golf Course



The Loop

Daly's ex-wife paints sordid picture in book

March 23, 2011

For nine years, Sherrie Daly was married to one of golf's most recognizable figures. After reading her new book, readers are bound to wonder: how did the couple last that long?

In "Teed Off: My Life As A Player's Wife On The PGA Tour," Sherrie, John Daly's fourth wife, delves into the golfer's problems with drinking, gambling and sex, as well as his anger-management issues that sometimes resulted in verbal and physical abuse. Some of these off-the-course issues have been documented in the past, but that doesn't make Sherrie's side of the story seem any less shocking.

For instance, there's the time she claims John's father, in a drunken stupor, pulled a gun on both John and his brother, before the weapon went off mistakenly as it was pulled from him. And the time she alleges he earned a $750,000 check after losing in a playoff to Tiger Woods at the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship and promptly went to Las Vegas and blew it all -- and then some.

"John lost $1.65 million in less than five hours that day," Sherrie writes.

Sherrie claims that the book, which goes on sale April 5, was written mainly so she could tell what really happened during the infamous 2007 incident in which John claimed she attacked him with a knife. Sherrie claims her former husband fabricated the story to get her in trouble so he could spend more time with his son.

/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2015/07/20/55ad7398b01eefe207f6a276_golf-tours-news-blogs-local-knowledge-assets_c-2011-03-Sherrie%20Daly%20Cover-thumb-300x453-28382.jpg

"I might have done a lot of things I'm not proud of in my life," she writes. "But I did not stab John Daly."

Of course, Sherrie's credibility isn't impeccable either. In 2005, she served a five-month jail sentence on federal charges for an alleged drug and gambling ring. She is candid about her own problems, though, and doesn't shy away from divulging information, except for on one topic.

With a title like "Teed Off," and a back cover that says, "Many of the guys aren't just players, they're players," people may expect for Sherrie to name names when it comes to other golfers cheating on their wives. However, she sticks to her husband when it comes to giving such details, despite saying "Don't think for a second that Tiger's the only one who's ever strayed, or that the rest of them are devoted husbands. No way."

She does allude to players' wives getting back at their husbands for their nomadic and sometimes unfaithful lifestyles by hitting them where it hurts -- in the wallet. Sherrie describes one particular shopping spree with Amy Campbell, wife of tour player Chad Campbell, while their husbands played in a golf outing in Delaware.

"We had the limo take us to the mall, and the retail marathon began," Sherrie writes. "We were having the day of our life, just shopping and shopping without pause. We went to Versace. We went to Chanel; that was the first time I ever bought a $5,500 bag. It was hot pink, of all colors. By the time we were done, we had bags and bags of stuff."

Sherrie also writes about John's three distinct personalities. As she describes it, there's "John," the charming and fun guy she first fell in love with in 2001, "Johnny," an apologetic figure who would sometimes curl up into a fetal position and beg for forgiveness after a night of misbehaving, and "JD," the party animal who is destructive and wild enough to do anything.

Perhaps one story sums up how unpredictable living with John Daly could be. According to Sherrie, after being in Germany, the couple returned to their Arkansas house with John's mother, Lou, and some neighbors to see the progress interior decorators were making on some changes she wanted. When they discovered the walls of the kitchen had been painted in the wrong color, John did the unthinkable.

"So in front of everyone, in front of his own mother, John whipped it out and started peeing all over the wall," she writes.

If that sounds unbelievable, keep in mind that Rick Reilly wrote about Daly doing the same thing into an empty Diet Coke bottle while in the back of a moving vehicle to avoid having to make a rest stop in his book, "Who's Your Caddy."

So what's true and what's embellished? Should Sherrie be taken seriously? Will this book hurt John Daly's popularity or is it too late? Does anyone even care about the golfer anymore?

At this point, there are plenty of hard-to-believe stories out there about Daly. As a result, "Teed Off" may not draw the attention Sherrie desires, but it certainly won't dispel those myths about her former husband, either.

-- Alex Myers

Follow on Twitter: @AlexMyers3