At first glance, the new Twitter page, "letJohnDalyplay," suggests he has been unfairly banned from playing somewhere. In fact, it is the start of a grass roots movement dedicated to getting John Daly a sponsor exemption into the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
"@PGA_JohnDaly get this petition going!!! Let's get some followers!!! Phoenix Open here you come!!!" the first post read on Tuesday.
It's unclear who started the page, though the bio associated with the account says, "John Daly fan who wants Long John to play in 2011 Phoenix Open! Let's get as many people to follow and use this as a petition to get him in!"
Daly, meanwhile, has wholly embraced this effort on his behalf, predictably. He is again without a PGA Tour exemption and must depend on the benevolence of sponsors to get starts. He has re-tweeted two posts from "letJohnDalyplay," and responded with his own post: "Just logged on & just beside myself on the campaign! Thx to all my Blue Collar golfers out there!"
The goal of the campaign is 10,000 followers (at last count, on Wednesday morning, it had 388 followers). Given that Daly himself has more than 84,000 followers and that he no doubt will continue to support the campaign on his own Twitter account, it's not unreasonable to assume "letJohnDalyplay" will get its 10,000 followers.
To what end? Daly hasn't finished better than 188th on the PGA Tour money list since 2005, which also was the last year in which he had a top-10 finish.
Daly, meanwhile, hasn't played the Phoenix-area tour stop since 2007. In his last three starts there, he withdrew twice and missed the cut the third time. Clearly, he needs the tournament more than it needs him.
-- John Strege
