ANYBODY who thought John Daly was finished as a golfer will be thinking again after he stormed into a share of second place at the BMW Italian Open in Turin.

Argentina’s Daniel Vancsik took the title by a runaway six strokes, closing with a joint bestof- the-day 65, but from the depths of 794th in the world and a week after his 43rd birthday Daly lit up the event with more than just his trousers.

This was the former Open champion’s second event back from a four-month lay-off. In November he was given a six-month US Tour ban after being thrown in jail to sober up and in February he underwent gastric band surgery after his weight ballooned to 20 stones.

Daly has already shed four stones and perhaps he has also matured – there was no talk of him reacting this time in the way he did when he last finished second.

That was the 2005 American Express world championship in San Francisco. After losing a play-off to Tiger Woods he drove to Las Vegas and lost over £800,000 gambling – half of it in just 30 minutes on slot machines.

He had not had a top 10 finish between then and now, yet what Daly spoke about last night was not of wild celebrations, but of a comeback which next week takes him to the Irish Open.

‘‘That should be a blast,’’ he said after adding a 66 to his three opening rounds of 69. ‘‘I am way ahead of where I thought I’d be and I’m very happy.’’ Only a month ago he cut a sad figure selling his own merchandise from a trailer outside Augusta National while The Masters was taking place.

There was speculation then that he was close to bankruptcy and he admitted himself: ‘‘Everybody knows I need the money.’’ Sharing second place with England’s Robert Rock and Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin will certainly help. It earned him more than £86,000.

Vancsik picked up over £190,000 for his second Tour victory and, as with the first, he left the rest trailing in his wake.