Andrew “Beef” Johnston, the affable English golfer who recently re-entered the top 100 in the Race to Dubai rankings, has shared a tale of his encounter with golfer John Daly — and it adds to Daly’s already significant legend.
The story, recounted during a DP World Tour “Life on Tour” interview, offers a glimpse into Daly’s legendary drinking prowess and Johnston’s inability to keep pace.
The incident took place at the Turkish Airlines Open, where Johnston met Daly for the first time.
After the final round, the two larger-than-life golfers decided to have a drink together.
“We got a chat in and I was having a beer, and he was like, ‘we’ll get a bucket of these beers.’ And he was obviously straight on whisky. And he was like ‘look, go back to the hotel and come meet me and we’ll carry on,'” Johnston recalled.
As the night progressed, Daly’s drinking intensity escalated.
“I remember sitting there… and he ordered like two large whiskeys. And he’s got the can of coke on the side. As the waiter put them down, [Daly] went, ‘can we order two more?'” A shocked Johnston responded, “Mate, they’ve just come!”
“Next thing, I’m in my pants, and I’m shaking a tree, and then I’m jumping in the pool, and I’m like, ‘he seems OK! I’m not, he seems OK!'” Johnson recounted.
The next morning, Johnston pieced together the night’s events with help from his less-than-amused partner.
“And I wake up and I was like ‘what happened?’ And my missus at the time was like, ‘yea you stripped down to your pants, and you were kinda shaking this bush for some reason, and you kinda jumped in the pool.'”
Daly reportedly ended the night without incident. When Johnston inquired about Daly’s state, he was told that the American golfer “was fine and had just walked back to his hotel at the end of the night.”
This encounter adds to the many tales of Daly’s legendary drinking capacity.
“John Daly is just like every other golfer in the sense that he has lost far more golf tournaments than he’s won in his career, but he is unbeaten in one thing, and that’s drinking,” one source claimed.
Johnston’s resurgence in the 2024 golf season has brought him back into the spotlight. He earned his best result in years at the Omega European Masters in July, finishing in solo third.