Daly on Shaky Ground in 2007

by Mulligan Stu on Dec 28, 2006 12:55 PM EST

Fan favorite Long John Daly better come out smokin' - and I don't mean his ubiquitous cigarettes - on the PGA Tour in 2007. He needs a fast start to make up for his terrible 2006, when he barely cracked the Top 200 on the PGA Tour money list.

Daly will likely get into 18 or so tournaments in 2007, maybe a few more if he has some early success. Because of his finish on the '06 money list, Daly lost his fully exempt status.

So he's relying on several different types of exemptions to get into tournaments:

Minor medical exemption, which gets him into five tournaments. If he wins enough money in those five events - the equivalent of No. 125 on the 2006 money list - Daly would regain fully exempt status.
Sponsors exemptions. Daly gets eight of them. The first of them has already been announced as the FBR Open.
Past champions status at the Buick Open. Since he won that tournament in 2004, within the past five years, Daly gets into it this year.

Daly will get into other tournaments if the field is not filled out by everyone else who has higher status than he does.

(Photo courtesy of the PGA Tour)

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