Golfer John Daly Threw $55,000 in Gambling Winnings Off Bridge

Posted on: December 21, 2016, 03:00h. 

Last updated on: December 21, 2016, 12:55h.

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Expertise: Commercial Gaming.

Golfer John Daly is known to like a wager or two but did you know he once threw $55,000 in gambling winnings off a bridge?

Talk about throwing your money around: it seems Daly ejected the aforementioned sum through the window of his car into the Mississippi River after an argument erupted with his then-wife Sherrie over his gambling habits.

This, incidentally, is the one he claims tried to stab him with a steak knife.

The two-time Major winner recounted the tale on the Dan Le Bartard sports talk radio show on ESPN last week:

“I won like $55,000 in the casino, and I said to my fourth wife, Sherrie, if you’re going to yell and scream at me about this … I threw it over the bridge going over to Memphis from Arkansas,” Daly explained.

“I threw all the money out the [car] window and said, ‘You know what, if you want that money, you can go find it. But let me tell you something: You don’t have a job. You’re not working. I’m supporting you. I’m paying all the bills.”

“I’m Like Jesus”

Daly then got his “buddy” to take her to McDonald’s drive-thru for two cheeseburgers, some French fries and a soda, which she presumably sipped while fantasizing about steak knives.

“It was like, ‘OK, this is how you can live from now on if that’s the way you want it,’ ” explained Daly triumphantly.

We’re starting to see why Sherrie was his fourth wife, although when asked later in the interview if he had trouble finding the right person, he replied:

“No, I’m like Jesus. My problem is I love ’em all.”

$55 Million in Gambling Losses

Of, course when we said Daly liked a wager or two, we should point out that the $55,000 he threw in the river was just a drop in the ocean. In fact, it was just one-thousandth of the amount he lost gambling in casinos during a 15-year binge.   

Daly announced in 2014 that he had pieced together his gambling losses over the period from tax returns, and it didn’t make pretty reading; a net loss of $55 million, thrown over a metaphorical bridge.

“We went through all my tax records to find out, because I really didn’t know, and it just came to that. I was shocked,” said Daly at the time. “I thought it might have been $20-25 (million), but I had no idea that it was $55-57 million.

“It’s crazy,” he added, as if anyone still needed convincing.

Asked if he had regretted his behavior, he surprised the interviewer by confessing that, in fact, he had “had a lot of fun.”