Alleged JERK Garry Smits wrote a story about John Daly's "permanent record," which did not sit well with the golfer. But since he doesn't have a fancy newspaper job to respond with, he broadcast Smits cell phone number on Twitter.
Daly instructed his fans to flood Smits' personal cell phone line and tell them what they really think. Daly's take is that "this isn't journalism, it's paparrazi — like gossip." Smits' take is that he spent two weeks trying to get Daly and/or his agent on the phone and was ignored. (Which would probably explain how he got the phone number.) Smits also says he got about 30 messages, none of which were particularly angry or threatening. Guess Daly's fanbase was a little groggy that night.
The best part of the story is that the Jacksonville Times-Union only got the file because Daly sued them for libel in 2005, and it therefore became part of the public record—making it much easier for the Times-Union to slag on him in the future. Plus, now that they're in possession, they can just add this little incident to the file themselves and save the PGA bureaucrats a lot of time.
John Daly Posts Reporter's Phone Number On Twitter [Technorati Sports]
John Daly angry about story, publishes sportswriter's phone number on Twitter [ESPN]
P.S. Garry Smits writes in: "The number of messages is now more than 100, and counting. Apparently John's fans sleep until 11 or so, because it got to a heavy volume after that." Also, probably because I (and others) stupidly re-printed it even though the original Tweet was deleted. Sorry, Garry! (But thanks for reading!)