• John Daly filmed a video for the Trump Organization in which he said a bottle of vodka a day could cure the novel coronavirus.
  • Daly now says he was joking.
  • He told Golf.com it was a “shame we can’t have any humor in this country or this world anymore, you know, without somebody busting your you-know-what.”
  • Vodka cannot cure COVID-19.
  • Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The American golfer John Daly has walked back his suggestion that a bottle of vodka a day could keep the coronavirus at bay, telling Golf.com it’s a “shame we can’t have any humor anymore.”

In a YouTube video shared last week by the Trump Organization, titled “A Message From John Daly | Trump Golf,” the 54-year-old offered his method for curing COVID-19: Belvedere vodka and a McDonald’s diet coke.

“Hopefully we’ll get over this thing pretty soon – we’ll get back out playing a lot more golf and everybody go back to work,” Daly said in the video.

“But I kind of got a cure for this, you know. I only drink one drink a day: It just happens to be a bottle of good ol’ Belvedere. You just drink one of these a day, you know sippy sippy on a little McDonald’s Diet Coke, wash it down pretty good and never have a hangover.

"And that's the way you kill this coronavirus, I believe."

The suggestion goes against advice from the World Health Organization, which said in a statement that alcohol was harmful to health in general.

WHO added that alcohol consumption during coronavirus-related lockdowns "can exacerbate health vulnerability, risk-taking behaviors, mental-health issues, and violence."

"WHO/Europe reminds people that drinking alcohol does not protect them from COVID-19," it continued.

Daly recently clarified that he was only joking

Speaking with Golf.com, Daly said he filmed the video "for fun."

The two-time former major winner said it's a "shame we can't have any humor in this country or this world anymore, you know, without somebody busting your you-know-what.

"I didn't mean to hurt anybody's feelings. Hell, I was just doing it for fun, just try to get some laughs in the tough times we're going through.

"We all need some [fun] right now, we all need a sense of humor right now. We pray for the people who have fallen and pray for this virus to get over. I didn't mean any harm by it."

There were 1,158,041 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US as of Monday morning, with 67,682 deaths linked to the virus.