John Daly once explained how he scored an 18 on a single hole at Bay Hill
It was the sixth hole at Bay Hill in 1998 that turned a normal Sunday afternoon into a everlasting fixture of golf’s blooper reel.
The par-five curves aggressively round a huge lake, daring lengthy hitters to chunk off as a lot of the water as they will abdomen. John Daly, by no means one to draw back from a dare or a driver, determined to take essentially the most direct route doable towards the inexperienced.
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What adopted was a repetitive cycle of splash after splash that left the gallery in a state of shocked silence. Each try didn’t clear the hazard appeared to encourage Daly not to surrender on this feat.
By the time he lastly discovered dry land and put out, his scorecard bore a staggering 18. It was a second of pure Daly theatre, showcasing the skinny line between legendary his aggression and aggressive collapse.
Dec 4, 1998: John Daly in motion in the course of the JCPenney Classic at Westin Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Laforet /Allsport
(*18*)John Daly mentioned he had braveness however no knowledge when capturing an 18 on one hole
In equity to Daly, he did not cover from the catastrophe when the spherical lastly ended, providing a candid look into his headspace in the course of the meltdown.
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“It wasn’t that I didn’t care, but I guess after 32 holes I lost my patience,” Daly admitted afterwards.
“I had the courage to keep going for it, but I didn’t have the wisdom to dance out right.”
Daly admitted that he did attempt to bail out considerably, aiming additional and additional proper by every tried drive. But he simply could not assist however attempt to sneak some additional yards.
He continued, “I kept aiming farther and farther right, but the more right I aimed, the more I hooked it left.”
It was a traditional case of a massive miss getting worse because the golfer tried to overcompensate for the hazard. But Daly would not be Daly if he gave up on this tee shot. After his third shot went into the water, he most likely stopped caring about his scorecard anyway.
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(*18*)The highest rating on a single PGA Tour hole
The report for the very best rating on a single hole on the PGA Tour is formally a 19. While followers usually level to John Daly’s notorious 18 at Bay Hill as the last word meltdown, three different golfers have really waded deeper into double-digit catastrophe.
The trio sharing this undesirable report consists of Ray Ainsley (1938 US Open), Hans Merrell (1959 Bing Crosby Pro-Am), and Dale Douglass (1963 Bing Crosby Pro-Am).
Ainsley’s 19 is probably essentially the most legendary. At Cherry Hills, he hit his ball into a creek and misunderstood the foundations to imply he needed to play it because it lay, spent half an hour swatting at the submerged ball whereas the present carried it additional away.
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More lately, in September 2025, John Daly managed to one-up his personal private disaster by carding a 19 throughout a PGA Tour Champions occasion at the Sanford International.
But whereas the PGA Tour report books cite 19, the unofficial report belongs to Tommy Armour. During the 1927 Shawnee Open, the Hall of Famer reportedly carded a 23 on a single par-five.
But since there are conflicting reviews as to how he achieved this rating, it is not formally acknowledged by the tour.
