John Daly says home suffered ‘total loss’ from Hurricane Helene

As rescue and recovery efforts continue following the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene, the full scope of devastation is only just starting to come into view.

Few in the long path of the historic storm — stretching from Florida to western North Carolina and beyond — were spared. Two-time major champion John Daly is among them.

On Thursday, Daly took to Instagram and posted a story with a radar map of Hurricane Helene approaching Tampa, Fla., along with an emoji representing his home in Clearwater, Fla., just outside of the city.

“Please be safe during Hurricane Helene!” Daly wrote in the story. You can see a screenshot of the story in SI.com’s report here.

According to the Associated Press, Hurricane made landfall late Thursday night in Perry, Fla., just north of Clearwater. So far 166 people have been confirmed dead across the Southeast, with many more still missing. The storm knocked out power for millions and brought devastating floods to multiple states resulting in the loss of thousands of homes and businesses.

It appears Daly’s home in Clearwater was among the properties destroyed by the storm.

On Friday, he sent an update on the status of his family and his home via a Facebook post, writing that while he and his family are safe, their Florida home is not.

“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. 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 wrote in the post.

Daly, 58, is one of the most popular pro golfers of his generation. He broke onto the scene with a shocking victory at the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick as an everyman with a mullet and an attitude to go along with it.

He added another major win at the 1995 Open Championship at St. Andrews.

In recent years, Daly has competed on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, where he captured a win at the 2017 Insperity Invitational.

More recently, Daly teamed up with his son, John Daly II, to win the 2021 PNC Championship.

Many golf courses across the Southeast were also damaged by the hurricane, including Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, home of the Masters, though a full picture of the damage is unknown at this time.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.