No wonder John Daly is still a favourite with the fans despite his misdemeanours over the years, and there have been many. Daly is not one to open his mouth and mutter mere platitudes. When Daly speaks he tells the whole story in lurid Technicolor. Yesterday he opened his heart to tell a story golf fans the world over will warm to.

Daly returned a four-under-par 68 in the second round of the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond to get to six under par and into contention going into today's third round. Afterwards he put his improved play this year down to getting control of his own life.

The 1995 British Open champion's life has been well documented. He won the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick, Indiana, at the age of 25 after driving through the night to take the last alternate place. He won the tournament without a practice round and later said his philosophy was simple: "Grip it and rip it".

He was a good old country boy from the backwoods of Arkansas, who chain-smoked, drank beer and chased women. He was soon nicknamed "Wild Thing". The fact that he hit the ball prodigious distances made him a cult hero in a game known for faceless automatons. The fans loved him.

Unfortunately Daly tried too hard to live up to his nickname and through the early 1990s his name was more on the front pages of the newspapers than the back.

He ran through red lights after heavy drinking sessions, trashed hotel rooms after bad rounds and went through three marriages, yet still managed to win the 1995 Open championship.

His antics cost him lucrative sponsorships with Wilson and other backers. He seemed to be turning his life around in 1997 when he signed a $3 million-a-year (£2.1m) contract to use Callaway clubs. The late Ely Callaway took Daly under his wing and made him promise to stop gambling and drinking.

The contract ended on September 15th, 1999, after Callaway claimed Daly had violated the drinking and gambling clauses. Daly said yesterday his actions were just a natural part of his upbringing.

"Where I was raised up you drank beer at eight years old and fished and hunted," he said. "Dardanelle where I grew up was the home of the 16-year-old pregnant woman. That's where I grew up. We were sort of free to do what we wanted. I didn't know any better."

The twice major champion says he is playing better now because he has started to take control of his own life.

The twice major champion says he is playing better now because he has just started to take control of his own life.

"I've got a lot of good people around me now at home that just want to be my friend. They don't want anything from me. I've pretty much eliminated the hangers-on who want something from me and bleed me dry. I don't need that shit any more. Nobody does."

Part of Daly's Callaway contract stipulated that he had to follow doctor's orders. For two years he put himself in the hand of medical experts who tried to help him fight his addiction. He says that was a mistake.

"I listened to everybody and felt like a rat on medication. I had no energy. My kids would come and see me and I didn't want to get off the couch. I didn't have the energy to practice or anything. I'd bloated to 260lb, and I didn't feel like I was eating that much. I decided it was the medication and stopped taking it.

"In three months I lost 32lb and had more energy than I've had in my life."