John Daly Finds A New Masters Week Party Home

For nearly three decades, if you wanted to see the wild heart of Masters week, you did not go through the gates at Augusta National. You went to a Hooters parking lot, where John Daly held court like golf’s rock star in exile.

Then the building came down. The neon went dark. And the cult hero of golf had to find a new stage for his very specific brand of Masters magic.

Now he has one. The show is simply moving across the street.

From Hooters Sideshow To Augusta Tradition

John Daly has not teed it up at the Masters Tournament since 2006, yet his presence in Augusta never really left. While the sport’s elite battled Amen Corner, Daly turned a Hooters on Washington Road into his own unofficial fan headquarters.

The local restaurant, known for its wings and waitresses, became Daly’s home base during Masters week. He parked his RV, set up on the patio and turned the place into a one-man merch convention and meet-and-greet.

It was not just a vibe. It was serious business. Daly, who became a Hooters ambassador after signing an endorsement deal in 2022, revealed that he pocketed $780,000 selling his own gear from that patio. Fans snapped up $40 hats, $10 autographed golf balls and $250 boxes of cigars, along with other treasures branded with his unmistakable style.

He once summed up the annual ritual in a 2025 ESPN interview with a line only Daly could deliver. “Eat some good food, smoke, sell some s***,” he said, describing Masters week at Hooters as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

When Hooters Fell, Daly Pivoted

Then the walls came down. The Augusta Hooters that had hosted Daly for close to three decades was torn down in 2025, ending one of the strangest yet most beloved Masters traditions.

For a moment, it felt like a tiny piece of golf folklore had been bulldozed with it. No more Daly in his lawn chair outside the restaurant. No more impromptu parking-lot selfies. No more smoky, chaotic corner of Masters week that had nothing to do with green jackets and everything to do with personality.

But Daly is nothing if not adaptable. According to local station WRDW-TV, the two-time major champion will simply shift his traveling circus to Top Dawg Tavern, a similar establishment located right across the street that serves food and craft beer.

John Daly will continue his legendary Augusta run at a new locale. 🔥

More: https://t.co/vRPSp1ZUPS pic.twitter.com/8JIuEmptrJ

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) January 6, 2026

The address is changing. The formula is not. Daly, fans and a laid-back bar just off Augusta National. In its own way, that has become as much a part of Masters week as the ceremonial opening tee shot.

Inside Daly’s Masters Week Money Machine

Daly’s relationship with Hooters was part sponsorship, part performance art and part old-school hustle. He turned an off-course appearance into a mini retail empire while keeping the vibe completely unpolished.

Those numbers still stun. By Daly’s own account, that Masters week setup at Hooters brought in $780,000. Fans handed over cash for $40 hats, $10 autographed balls and $250 cigar boxes, often for the chance to chat with him for a moment or walk away with a photo.

It was distinctly Daly. A major champion who never pretended to be a country club insider, sitting in the parking lot of a chain restaurant, talking to anyone who wandered up. He made real money, but he also made memories for the kind of fan who might never set foot inside the ropes at Augusta National.

Moving to Top Dawg Tavern keeps that spirit alive. It is still Augusta during Masters week. It is still Daly holding court just outside the most tightly controlled property in golf. Only the logo on the sign out front has changed.

Health Scares, Hooters Pants, and a 19

The fact Daly is still showing up at all is its own storyline. Recently, he alarmed fans when he posted a photo from a hospital bed, explaining to his roughly 800,000 followers that he had undergone surgery on his hand. He tried to settle nerves with a promise to “be back playing in no time.”

He kept that promise. Months after the emergency operation, Daly returned to competition at the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, California, dragging a repaired hand and a long surgical history back inside the ropes.

When he was asked just how bad that hand injury really was, Daly did not sugarcoat it. “The tendons were all wrapped around each other. [The doctor] doesn’t understand how I played last year,” he said. “But he put it back, attached it to the forefinger or something.

“16 surgeries in four years, I’ve lost count pretty much.”

That wear and tear has not dulled his flair for spectacle. At the 2023 Open at Royal Liverpool, Daly arrived in pants covered in Hooters logos, turning the typically buttoned-up major into his own runway for the brand that had embraced him.

On the PGA Tour Champions circuit, he recently produced one of the wildest scorecards of his career at the Sanford International in Sioux Falls. Playing the par-5 12th at Minnehaha Country Club, where a creek snakes down the left side and forces players to hit over water, Daly lost complete control.

After finding the rough off the tee, he proceeded to hit seven shots in a row out of bounds. Some splashed into the creek. Others sailed into the wooded area left of the hole. When he finally reached the green, he needed only one putt, but the damage was historic.

He signed for a 19 on the hole. According to NBC Sports, that tetradeca-bogey is believed to be the highest single-hole score of his professional career.

Why Fans Will Still Find Him In Augusta

For purists, the Masters story lives entirely inside the ropes. Tiger Woods grinding through pain. Rookies trying to survive Rae’s Creek. Patrons whispering beneath pine trees.

For a different kind of fan, the story always included a detour to Hooters to see Daly. It was autographs on the hood of a car, photos in the parking lot, clouds of cigar smoke and the sense that you were standing inside a living, breathing piece of golf folklore.

Hooters may be gone, but Daly is not ready to retire that chapter of his life. By shifting to Top Dawg Tavern, he is preserving a Masters side-show that grew into an institution. There will still be food. There will still be cigars. There will almost certainly still be fans handing over cash for hats and golf balls signed by a man held together by surgeries yet determined to keep showing up.

The Masters has its champions and its Champions Dinner. Daly has a barstool across the street and a line of people waiting to see him. Different traditions. Same town. Same week. And for a lot of fans, it would not feel like Augusta without both.