'It's The Worst I've Ever Seen' - John Daly Details Loss Of Florida Home After Hurricane Helene

John Daly reveals his home and three others belonging to friends and family have been lost in Hurricane Helene

John Daly looks on during the 2024 Ally Challenge
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Paul Higham
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John Daly suffered the "total loss and devastation" of his family home in Florida as a result of Hurricane Helene.

The two-time Major champion took to social media to report that his home in Clearwater near Tampa had been lost in the storm, as well as three other properties belonging to close friends and family members.

The historic storm landed just outside of Tampa and caused a massive path of destruction up to North Carolina, killing 166 people at the last estimate, knocking out power to millions and causing unprecedented flooding.

So while the former US Open and Open champion is thankful to be safe and healthy, he is reporting a huge personal loss in terms of his property.

“For everyone that has reached out, my family are all safe, but all our homes are not as water is pouring out of every crevice," the 58-year-old wrote on Facebook.

"Total loss and devastation after living here all my life! I still cannot imagine ALL we have lost, but we are SAFE and all can be replaced! Praise God!”

Daly also spoke ahead of this week's PGA Tour Champions event in Jacksonville, where he revealed the full extent of the devastation. 

"It was bad, I feel for everybody," Daly said. "I'm surprised we didn't lose more people, but it's sad for the ones that we did and it's devastating.

"It's the worst I've ever seen. I hope everybody is safe and gets their homes back. But my heart just goes out to everybody."

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And while he's back out on the golf course on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, his recently refurbished home has gone while those of people close to him are still locked in the floods.

"We're going to have to re-do about three and a half homes, almost four," Daly added. "I just haven't even gone back into mine, I've restructured it and fixed it up.

"I haven't even been in it for two years getting all the stuff in there and then it's all gone.

"Anna's mom lost her house, Matty's burned down yesterday morning and Chrissy had to get a boat to hers so they're all pretty much gone."

The almighty storm also caused sizeable damage to Augusta National in Georgia, with pictures of trees scattered across Magnolia Lane.

Paul Higham
Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush. 

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