John Daly Cards Unbelievable 19 on Par 5 in PGA Tour Champions Event

The 59-year-old is no stranger to big numbers, but his round on Friday had one hole go sideways into uncharted territory.
John Daly drives his ball during the first round of the 2025 Kaulig Companies Championship.
John Daly drives his ball during the first round of the 2025 Kaulig Companies Championship. / Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Golfer John Daly has been known to card a big number or two.

The swashbuckling pro has never been the cleanest player on Tour, a fact that is both a part of his brand and part of his charm. But even with his somewhat laissez-faire approach to golf, his round on Friday at the PGA Tour Champions’ Sanford International at Minnehaha Country Club went absolutely off the rails on one particular hole. See if you can spot which one.

It’s something of an upset that the online scorecard displays even have the ability to go up to 19, let alone that a golfer actually needed that many strokes to finish out a hole.

Daly’s tetradeca-bogey came as a result of seven balls landing out of bounds, either in the water hazard in front of the green, or the wooded area off to the left, according to NBC Sports, and is believed to be the highest single-hole score of his playing career.

Unfortunately, PGA Tour Champions events don’t feature the shot-tracer data we’ve come to know and love at PGA Tour events, so you’ll just have to use your imagination on how this one played out.

Taking a look at the hole, it’s not hard to see how Daly got into trouble, though carding a 19 is a whole lot of trouble.

Apparently Daly’s 19 included him getting up-and-down with his last two shots, so good save there John.

Daly finished the round in 88 strokes, putting him at 18 over on the day. He heads into the second round on Saturday 24 shots off the lead.


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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.