ROCHESTER—John Daly has pulled out of the 2023 PGA Championship.
Daly, 57, has been a mainstay at the event since earning his breakthrough win at the 1991 PGA Championship. Getting a spot in the field at Crooked Stick as the ninth alternate, Daly had to drive through the night to reach the course in time and had never seen the property before teeing it up. Playing with Nick Price’s caddie Jeff Medlin (Price’s late WD bestowed Daly a spot in the tournament), Daly opened with a 69 and never looked back, winning the Wanamaker by three shots over Bruce Lietzke to catapult Daly to fame.
Though he would win the 1995 Open at St. Andrews, Daly never contended for a PGA Championship again, posting just one top-20 finish in 28 following starts at the tournament.
Still, Daly remained a popular figure at the event and had a penchant for staying in the headlines, such as memorably tossing a club into Lake Michigan at the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, and his battle to ride in a cart due to a disability becoming something of a fierce debate at the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.
This is only the third time Daly has skipped the PGA Championship and first since the 2020 pandemic-delay championship. Recently Daly played in the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic with David Duval, where the former major champs struggled and finished last by over a dozen shots.
Daly will be replaced in the field by Stephen Jaeger.