ESPN 30 for 30 Hit It Hard: TV Schedule and Documentary Preview

The PGA career of John Daly has always been something out of a movie script. He's a gregarious, Hooters-eating, beer-swilling hulk of a man who smashed drives, made a series of questionable comments and could never get out of his own way. 

It was Happy Gilmore brought to real life. 

Daly burst onto the scene with a shocking win at the 1991 PGA Championship, nearly won the Masters two years later and took home the Open Championship in 1995. At age 29, Daly seemed destined for a career as the pre-Rob Gronkowski of the PGA—the lovable oaf who just happened to be awesome at his chosen sport.

Daly never finished better than 15th in another major championship. It would be nine years after the Open Championship triumph before he won another PGA event, with his off-course life sending his play into a spiral from which he never recovered. The old John Daly has and will occasionally perk up, but it is now novelty more than expectation.

It's a career rise and fall worthy of its own documentary, which only makes it fitting ESPN's 30 for 30 series would do just that. Hit It Hard will premiere Tuesday at 8 p.m., chronicling the highs and lows of one of the most interesting careers in golf history.

"You don’t change your life because someone tells you to change your life. You have to do it on your own. And I’m a late bloomer," Daly said, per Alex Myers of Golf Digest. “Some people just never grow up, and I can say I’m probably one of them. But I’m young at heart, and I hit it hard."

The documentary discusses Daly's rise to fame, but also his battles with alcoholism—arguably the central theme to the film. Daly admits to developing an alcohol habit early in his life, drinking fifths of Jack Daniels daily and playing while in hungover states.

One contention Daly does make: He never played drunk. Well, except for that one time at the Los Angeles Open.

"It was so slow and I played the back nine first," Daly said in the clip. "I think I'm two or three over. I went in the locker room and downed like five beers, and I think I shot four under on the front nine. That is the only time I know I drank during a round, and I played great. I played great that week. I finished strong."

Daly's battle with alcoholism created near-constant friction in his professional life, including a 2008 incident where he was called out by coach Butch Harmon.

"My whole goal for him was he's got to show me golf is the most important thing in his life," Harmon told reporters. "And the most important thing in his life is getting drunk."

Daly has entered rehabilitation clinics multiple times to deal with his alcohol issues. However, other vices have cropped up. He has gained and lost significant amounts of weight at various points in his career and admitted to binging on food when trying to quit drinking. Lap-band surgery eventually forced his weight down and made it nearly impossible for him to drink alcohol.

Gambling was another vice discussed heavily in the film, with Daly estimating he has lost more than $50 million over the course of his life. 

"The game of golf, if you’re in the hunt, you’ve got adrenaline going," Daly says. "But you got 140 to 300, 400,000 on the blackjack table you’re going to have adrenaline. And I think that’s what I loved more than anything. When you play blackjack, you could play all seven hands. (Whistles) Could you win some big hands."

Suffice it to say this is a film that will have enough quotables to keep fans coming back for second and third viewings.