John Daly Shoots The Messenger

A story on the Jacksonville.com Web site reports that the Golf Writers Association of America has asked the PGA to suspend John Daly as a punishment for Daly’s use of Twitter to retaliate against reporter Gary Smits. Smits wrote a story detailing “highlights” Daly’s PGA Tour file. It’s quite a permanent record — since 1991, Daly was ordered to undergo counseling or rehab 7 times, suspended 5 times and cited 21 times for “failure to give best efforts.” After Smits’ story ran, Daly posted Smits’ cell phone number in two separate tweets and encouraged his followers to “CALL & FLOOD his [Smits’] line.” The irony is that Smits obtained Daly’s file only when it became public record as part of a civil suit filed by Daly against the Florida Times-Union newspaper. I doubt that Smits will file suit against Daly, but it would be interesting to see if a court considered Daly’s retaliation as some sort of wrongful interference. Hopefully the PGA will rule the conduct “out of bounds.” . . .

You had to see the golf pun coming.