“If you’re going to the Masters and you aren’t coming to Hooters after, then where are you at?” said a John Daly fan once. There was once a time when it was hard to imagine Masters week without the bright orange glow of the Hooters sign on Washington Road. It’s the place where Daly would park his RV, light up a Marlboro, and turn the lot into an after-party scene. The same place took its last breath yesterday.

As per reports, specifically from OutKick’s editor Joe Kinsey, the Hooters was demolished on Monday, November 17. Bulldozers were seen moving in, and overnight, the place was flattened to nothing but rubble. “This is a tweet I don’t want to send. This one is sad. They’re bulldozing the Augusta Hooters today… Guys, it’s gone,” Kinsey wrote. And with it is gone John Daly’s decades-long cultural legacy.

The demolition did not occur in isolation, though. The entire shopping plaza behind the Hooters has also been razed. A user, likely a resident, replied to Kinsey’s tweet and said, ” The section that had the pool hall, country club, hookah lounge, and crab restaurant is already gone… By April, it will all be gone.” But why such action?

This immediate step is taken as part of Augusta’s expansion of its footprint. The Hooters property was part of Augusta National’s decades-long land acquisition project. In 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that the club had spent over $200 M to acquire all the surrounding properties. That includes more than 100 parcels of land, which total at least 270 acres. The restaurant was officially shut down on July 23. Now, as the rubble clears, there’s speculation where Daly might take his iconic RV next year.

For many, the Hooters came to be a place they associated with him. Ever since 1997, Daly would sell his own line of “John Daly” merchandise out of a pop-up tent. It had everything, from $40 hats and $10 signed balls to a box of his cigars, priced at $250. On one side, Augusta was crowded for the Masters week, and on the other, fans would line up to get a glimpse of him. Kinsey also attested to the fact.

“I’d never bought cigs in my life, but I knew exactly what I wanted John Daly to autograph at the Augusta Hooters. Beyond thankful I had that experience in 2024,” wrote Kinsey on his account. At the Hooters parking lot, fans saw a different Daly. The one eating M&Ms and chugging down Diet Cokes, talking to anyone who would stop by. Dave Wilson from ESPN put it aptly: “They (fans) wait in the rain—young and old, foreign and domestic—to pay pilgrimage.” And what would Daly do? “Eat some good food, smoke, sell some s***,” Daly would say.

Even at 59, he could still move products, no matter in sickness or in health. His team reported that in 2024, Daly had roughly $780,000 in merchandise sales. That’s a whopping figure for a roadside stall. There was even a time when he was barred from parking his RV in the lot. But John Long did not give up. He simply moved to a small patio on the property, right beside the rock wall. Fittingly or by some universal sign, that is the only part of the restaurant that remains standing.

Whiskey Riff captured the mood perfectly, saying, “…John Daly is taking this news like he lost a loved one. Mr. Daly, if you’re reading this… please let the world know where you plan to park your recreational vehicle for the 2026 Masters.”

Well, we don’t know how Daly is actually taking the news. But this place held its importance in his heart. That is why he had recently solidified his relationship with it.

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John Daly’s last call for the Hooters

Just two months before its closure, the Hooters announced that it was extending its partnership with John Daly. The two have been in a deal since 2022. Now, it was signed for two more years. “We’re kind of a family here…Being on their team has just been awesome, and it’s been one of the best relationships any man could ever have,” Daly had said then.

But interestingly, this deal was done at a time when the company was running deep into bankruptcy of roughly $376 M. In the company’s defence, the bankruptcy was designed to be slow. It had started on March 31st, and the Hooters were expecting to come out of it within 90-120 days. They had a plan ready: they were going to sell all 153 company-owned locations, including the Augusta one. So the fate of the place was already sealed.

But before they could revamp their model and come out the other side, Augusta started closing its location. Apparently, they were not aware when the Golf Club would go on closing the entire location. The Hooters bankruptcy and Augusta’s land acquisition were two separate deals, with no connection to each other.

After its closure, when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to Daly for a comment, he did not reply to their questions. Now, as the place stands demolished, people wonder what the two-time major champion will do. For now, it’s the end of an era.