John Daly Urges Calls to Florida Times-Union Writer Garry Smits After Embarrassing Article

Yesterday, the Florida Times-Union published an article by long time writer Garry Smits that contained the full details of John Daly's PGA Tour personnel file.  The FTU obtained the file because of a lawsuit instigated by Daly against Morris Publishing.  As a result of a summary judgment against Daly, the personnel file became a matter of court, and therefore public, record.

As it turns out, that file is pretty large. 456 pages large. And it has some really embarrassing details of Daly's career off the course.  The summary is:

• PGA Tour ordered John Daly to undergo counseling or enter alcohol rehabilitation centers seven time
• disciplined him for hitting golf shots off the top of a beer can during a pro-am
• cited him 21 times for "failure to give best efforts"
• Daly was fined nearly $100,000
• suspended from the Tour five times
• placed on probation six times
• cited 11 times for "conduct unbecoming a professional"

Naturally, Daly was embarrassed by the revelation.  He was so embarrassed that Daly went on a tirade on Twitter against Smits.  There were three tweets sent.  Two of which have since been deleted, but one deleted message reads:

Over the haters--To me, this isn't journalism, it's papparazzi--like gossip BS! Please try harder to find some REAL news next time Gary

The final tweet - still active - contains Smits' cell phone number.

The phone number that Daly handed out is Smits' cell, though the article itself contains Smits' email address and work phone number.  Smits says that 10-12 people have called him.  As of 1pm ET, Daly has removed all messages with Smits' phone number.

The Associated Press reported on the incident today and spoke with Daly via text message.

"Gary left his cell number and e-mail address from phone number he left in the article public record far as I'm concerned," said Daly.

Daly lied, though.  The phone number associated with Smits' article is his office line, 904.359.4362.  That is not the number that Daly tweeted.  Therefore, it is not public record.

Daly commented last week in interviews that he would like to see Tiger Woods come back at the Masters, offering conjecture into a subject highly stalked by the papparazzi.