According to official performance statistics kept since 1980, Daly in 1997 became the first PGA Tour player to average more than 300 yards per drive over a full season.

[5] Daly also led the PGA Tour in driving distance 11 times from 1991 to 2002 with the exception of 1994 when Davis Love III took his spot that year.

He was primarily earning PGA Tour event entries through past champion status and numerous sponsor invitations.

Daly is the only man from either Europe or the United States to win two major golf championships but not be selected for the Ryder Cup since that event began in 1927.

Daly also won the Hollard Royal Swazi Sun Classic over South African veteran John Bland.

[14][15] He earned full playing privileges on the Ben Hogan Tour for 1990, winning the qualifying tournament for the new circuit early that year.

[7] He then won two Sunshine Tour events early in 1990, one in South Africa (where he edged David Feherty), and one in Swaziland (where established veteran champion John Bland placed second).

[2] This was encouraging for Daly to win good-caliber events, defeat more experienced and well-established international professionals, and play before good-sized galleries which appreciated his performances.

His feat generated enormous media coverage, propelling the hitherto virtually unknown Tour rookie to international fame.

He then became the first PGA Tour rookie to be invited to compete in the Skins Game, a made-for-television event featuring four top players, and he performed well there finishing 2nd.

[17][18] His surprise victory and powerful swing provided the impetus for a cult-like fan base, composed of many people who had not been previously attracted to golf, and from that point onwards, Daly became one of the most popular players on Tour.

[19] He added to his reputation as a power hitter in 1993 by becoming, apparently, the first (and still the only) player to reach the green of the famous 630-yard hole 17 at Baltusrol Golf Club's Lower Course in two strokes.

He was suspended by the PGA Tour from late 1993 into early 1994, due to behavior which included walking off the course mid-round during the 1993 late-season Kapalua International.

[21] He entered alcohol rehab for three weeks in late 1993[7] and then returned to the Tour and won the 1994 BellSouth Classic, claiming it was his first win sober.

In 1995, in the midst of a middling season, Daly unexpectedly won The Open Championship in a playoff with Italy's Costantino Rocca at the Old Course, St Andrews.

Afterwards, Daly's struggles at the time culminated into one of his worst seasons on the PGA Tour withdrawing from the U.S. Open after a first round 77 due to his physical condition and alcoholic shakes.

[34] In 2001, Daly won the BMW International Open with a one-stroke lead over Pádraig Harrington, with a personal best score of 27 under par for four rounds.

Daly started using Dunlop golf equipment before this tournament, and the Buick Invitational was his first victory in 189 PGA Tour events.

Then, he missed a two-foot putt on the second extra hole to lose to Tiger Woods at the WGC-American Express Championship in San Francisco.

Fans and golf columnists point to the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship as the event where John Daly's post-2006 exempt status would be determined.

[44] Later in his career, in addition to famously winning the 1995 Open Championship in Scotland, he performed very well in regular European Tour events.

[73] Daly is in partnership with Loudmouth Golf line of clothing, which includes licensing deals with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and Arkansas Razorbacks.

In order to unlock courses, players must defeat Daly in Challenges, including driving, short game, and putting.

One track includes Hootie And The Blowfish's lead singer Darius Rucker and a cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door".

[108] In July 1994, Daly claimed that many PGA golfers were cocaine users, and said that if drug testing was done properly on tour, he would be "one of the cleanest guys out there".

To reduce the chance of recurrence, Daly plans to improve his previously unhealthy lifestyle which involved smoking and drinking large amounts of Diet Coke.

Daly also expressed great difficulty at the time in paying alimony, child support, and other expenses as less money was coming in due to his struggles on and off the golf course.

[117] This includes losing $1.5 million in October 2005, after winning half that amount at the WGC-American Express tournament, most of it lost on a $5,000 Las Vegas slot machine at Wynn Casino.

On June 8, 2007, Daly and Sherrie got into a fight at a restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, site of that week's tour stop, the Stanford St. Jude Championship.

[128][129] Daly has advocated for the legalization of cannabis in Arkansas, endorsing a ballot measure in 2022 that he said would create "millions in new funding for our police, ... thousands of good jobs, [and] revenue for our state".