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Why Does John Daly Keep Getting Sponsor's Exemptions?


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Writer John Strege wrote an article bringing up a good point about John Daly and his sponsors exemptions.  Obviously he keeps getting them because he's still one of golf most recognizable players and potentially brings in fans to watch him.  But his play has been so poor that past 2 years that he isn't even deserving of these exemptions.  What do you guys think?

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Daly was nine shots better on Sunday, though a 77 is more fodder for the argument that he doesn't warrant the sponsor exemptions that continue unabated. The attraction is what, bad golf or bad behavior? He has finished in the top 10 only twice in the last seven years and has withdrawn from tournaments 12 times in the same period, while playing almost exclusively on the benevolence of sponsors.

Daly, 46, at least is closer to earning his starts than he has been at any time previously in those seven years. He began the Timberlake tournament 132nd on the money list, then positioned himself to break into the magical top 125, before spending the weekend slapping the ball around and jokingly asking on Saturday whether he can get his amateur status back.

Rymer noted that after Saturday's round, "he stayed, he signed autographs, he did the interview." Kudos, in other words, for meeting the minimum obligation of a professional.

Mike McLoughlin

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Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Originally Posted by Fozcycle

Probably because His presence sells tickets.

This and his play this year was certainly good enough to warrant getting into this and many other tournaments.

Despite the weekend blow-up JD is ranked top 200 in the world (higher than many who played this week), has made 10 of 13 cuts this season, ranks ahead of guys like Charles Howell and Martin Kaymer in $ won per PGA Tour event this year, and ranks top 125 in % of available purse won.

Also, I would guess that some of his 13 starts this year came out of the Past Champions category and were NOT sponsors exemptions...he is currently ranked pretty high in the category 31 reshuffle http://www.pgatour.com/r/player_exemptions/

These are a list of the guys who played last week who are still BELOW Daly on the 2012 money list.  Why have all of them and not JD?

+ CUT 138 USA Brendon Todd color 71 73 144
+ T36 7 141 USA Stewart Cink -7 F 1 color info 68 69 68 72 277
+ CUT 142 USA Chris DiMarco color 67 72 139
+ CUT 144 AUS Nick O'Hern color 69 71 140
+ CUT 145 USA Charlie Beljan color 71 69 140
+ T46 2 146 USA Scott Brown -6 F* -1 color info 69 67 72 70 278
+ CUT 148 USA D.J. Trahan color 68 73 141
+ T30 9 153 COL Camilo Villegas -9 F E color info 70 66 68 71 275
+ T58 1 154 USA J.J. Killeen -4 F* E color info 66 68 75 71 280
+ CUT 155 USA Kyle Reifers color 71 72 143
+ T54 14 158 SWE Robert Karlsson -5 F* 1 color info 69 68 70 72 279
+ CUT 159 USA Kevin Kisner color 74 69 143
+ T61 8 161 USA Erik Compton -2 F* -1 color info 66 71 75 70 282
+ CUT 162 AUS Stuart Appleby color 72 71 143
+ T46 16 163 AUS Nathan Green -6 F* -3 color info 68 68 74 68 278
+ T64 3 165 USA Matt Bettencourt -1 F* 1 color info 68 70 73 72 283
+ CUT 166 USA Mark Anderson color 69 73 142
+ CUT 167 USA Jason Kokrak color 70 71 141
+ T22 7 168 ARG Angel Cabrera -10 F -2 color info 68 70 67 69 274
+ CUT 169 NZL Danny Lee color 69 70 139
+ CUT 171 IND Arjun Atwal color 76 70 146
+ T13 7 173 SCO Russell Knox -11 F 1 color info 66 67 68 72 273
+ CUT 174 RSA Garth Mulroy color 70 76 146
+ CUT 176 AUS Gavin Coles color 70 72 142
+ WD 177 USA Rocco Mediate color 69 68 74 211
+ CUT 183 JPN Ryuji Imada color 73 67 140
+ T13 27 185 AUS Mathew Goggin -11 F* -5 color info 68 69 70 66 273
+ CUT 186 CAN Stephen Ames color 71 77 148
+ CUT 189 KOR Sung Kang color 70 71 141
+ CUT 190 USA Derek Lamely color 75 69 144
+ T33 7 191 USA Chris Riley -8 F* -2 color info 68 70 69 69 276
+ T36 23 194 USA Steve Wheatcroft -7 F* -3 color info 69 69 71 68 277
+ T46 2 201 USA Marc Turnesa -6 F* -1 color info 70 68 70 70 278
+ CUT 203 USA Scott Dunlap color 70 69 139
+ T46 2 204 USA Tommy Biershenk -6 F* -1 color info 68 70 70 70 278
+ T36 7 208 USA Edward Loar -7 F 1 color info 67 68 70 72 277
+ T46 2 209 SWE Daniel Chopra -6 F* -1 color info 68 67 73 70 278
+ CUT 213 USA Shane Bertsch color 72 73 145
+ CUT 215 USA Marco Dawson color 72 73 145
+ CUT 239 USA Hank Kuehne color 71 69 140
+ CUT 241 USA Bart Bryant color 71 68 139
+ CUT -- USA Casey Martin color 71 74 145
+ T22 1 -- USA Patrick Reed -10 F -1 color info 65 69 70 70 274
+ CUT -- USA Dennis Downs color 76 76 152
+ 70 2 -- USA Hunter Hamrick 2 F* E color info 69 69 77 71 286

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Originally Posted by Fozcycle

Probably because His presence sells tickets.

Bingo.

Now the question is why?

People like trainwrecks?

People like the 'everyman'?

People like ugly pants?

In my bag ... 12 year old Balvenie DoubleWood

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I wonder if there are actually people who live near Las Vegas who, upon hearing that John Daly is playing in a Fall Series event, drop $X on tickets. Aren't there better things to do in Las Vegas? Or does his appearance just gets people to talk about the event?

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Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

He's won two majors, a well known name (famous, infamous?) and given the fields at this time of the year are full of lesser known golfers he's a draw.

Joe Paradiso

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Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

The JD fan club probably buys a whole lot more beer than the standard golf fan, and when they can sell beers for $8 a cup that's bound to increase their profit margin significantly!

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Simple. He sells tickets.

Back in 2007 I was a volunteer at the Ginn Sur Mer Classic at Tesoro CC in Port St. Lucie, FL. It was a fall event so no big names. Daly got a sponsors exemption. Far and away he had the largest galleries, triple those that even followed the leaders (Daniel Chopra won).

The whole idea of sponsors exemptions is to create some kind of local buzz, to get people to want to go to the tournament.

To sell tickets.

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Originally Posted by jamo

I wonder if there are actually people who live near Las Vegas who, upon hearing that John Daly is playing in a Fall Series event, drop $X on tickets. Aren't there better things to do in Las Vegas? Or does his appearance just gets people to talk about the event?

Good question, I would venture not many people are going to the tournament to just watch Daly.  He definitely has a larger gallery than most players but it's not like he brings in droves of people.  There is something about watching the guy.  Whether it's the swing or the chance he can hit one of the greatest shots you've ever seen followed up by pulled shot out of bounds.  For tournament organizers, there is that potential that if he was to play well or even win, that would get a lot o exposure for the event.

Mike McLoughlin

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I do see a few mini tour players crying about Daly's exemptions, feeling he is taking *their* spot - in all honesty, in any tournament I have been to that he is in, he has one of the the biggest followings of anyone out there, rivaling the local boys in the tourney. If he brings crowds, his sponsor exemptions are well deserved.

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Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Originally Posted by meenman

I do see a few mini tour players crying about Daly's exemptions, feeling he is taking *their* spot - in all honesty, in any tournament I have been to that he is in, he has one of the the biggest followings of anyone out there, rivaling the local boys in the tourney. If he brings crowds, his sponsor exemptions are well deserved.

Well, they can cry all they want.

If you're a sponsor of a tournament, who would you rather have - some unknown Nationwide Tour player who nobody outside of family would recognize, or a 2-time train wreck in waiting major champion known worldwide?

It bears noting that of the 150 or so spots in a tournament, sponsors get like 3-5 exemptions to use. That means the mini-tour player has a crack at 145 or so of the 150 spots by playing their way into the field. If you are unknown outside of your immediate family or aren't a local hotshot, you ain't getting a sponsors exemption.

So if the mini-tour player wants to be in the field, play better. Or go win a PGA Championship & British Open.

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On the European and Asian tours many of these pros are getting massive 'appearance fees'.  You know Tiger and Rory are not especially interested in Turkish food yet they are traveling that way this week.  And all those 'tourneys' in China = big big bucks for the big big names.  Do you think John Daly gets nice appearance fees for some of his spots in Asia?  Last year Justin Rose, and Rory, got nice fees for showing up. Rose played like a doofus, but Rory won. JD was there too and drew some gawkers.

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Daly did shoot a 63 last Friday so he has the ability to be a top golfer, problem is he followed up with an 86 on Saturday.  I'd guess a number of people showed up on Saturday after hearing that he shot a 63 to see if he'd be in contention to win.

Joe Paradiso

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Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

I dare say that's true .... but some others showed up expecting to see a historic debacle. With Daly it's important to come up with alternative words for it - meltdown or collapse being rather overused. I wish him well though. Daly has received the highest compliment from TW regarding his talent, which is not in question. Zip: well said. Daly has 'earned' his exemptions and it's good for the game that he receives them - not just for him.

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Looks like we will see JD again this week at the Frys.com Open...it looks like he originally had a sponsors invite http://frysopengolf.com/2012/09/colsaerts-daly-and-guthrie-awarded-sponsor-exemptions-for-the-frys-com-open/ but sometimes a guy who gets into the field otherwise is able to return the invite for the sponsor to use on someone else.  I say this b/c I see that Patrick Cantlay is playing http://www.pgatour.com/2012/tournaments/r464/10/07/inside_the_field/index.html and I am not sure how he would have gotten in except for a sponsors invite...Daly could have gotten in via category 31.

Edit...seems Cantlay got his invite before Daly http://frysopengolf.com/2012/06/patrick-cantlay-to-play-in-frys-com-open/

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I was kind of a fan of JD's - until "Being John Daly" aired on The Golf Channel and I got a glimpse at his inner jack-ass.

I understand why he gets exemptions - because he sells tickets - but I don't understand how he sells tickets.  It would be one thing if he was winning from time to time . .or say if he was in the World top 50, even.  There are plenty of loudmouth idiots that can swing a club but not good enough to win PGA tour events.  Those majors were a long time ago and it's really doubtful to me that he will ever play at that level again.  I won't be watching unless/until he does.

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Originally Posted by AmazingWhacker

I was kind of a fan of JD's - until "Being John Daly" aired on The Golf Channel and I got a glimpse at his inner jack-ass.

I understand why he gets exemptions - because he sells tickets - but I don't understand how he sells tickets.  It would be one thing if he was winning from time to time . .or say if he was in the World top 50, even.  There are plenty of loudmouth idiots that can swing a club but not good enough to win PGA tour events.  Those majors were a long time ago and it's really doubtful to me that he will ever play at that level again.  I won't be watching unless/until he does.

JD might not be able to string together 72 good holes, but he makes shots only a handful of players can make, even with all the game improvement gear they're using. I'd love to have the chance to see him play a round of golf. Moreso than > 2/3 of the fully exempt players that's for sure. Who gets pumped about watching a Heath Slocum or Arjun Atwal?

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