John Daly is the weekend hacker that hit the big time. I think that's the major appeal. He was something like the 10th alternate for the PGA championship and was notified the day before he could play, drove all night and teed it up and won with a no BS style.
He had the talent talent, it's just he liked to drink, smoke and eat junk food more than practice.
And he really lucked out because his only real talent was driving the ball a mile. He can't putt for squat and never had motivation to work on the rest of his game. If the same situation happened today, he would have missed the cut. People find him in approachable because he acts like the average lazyass who drinks a sixer while watching it on TV.