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 best-of-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 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.

The 32-year-old's European career has been one of real fluctuating fortunes. His seven-stroke Madeira victory two years ago came on his 50th start - and the previous 49 did not contain a single top 10 finish.

Now this win has come after almost a year without a top 10 finish, with his previous best this season being 42nd in Spain last week.

But at Royal Park, Vancsik made a nonsense of his 420th place on the world rankings, finishing with a 17 under par total of 267.

Only one ahead overnight he birdied four of the first six holes, turned in 32 and then added three more birdies in the next five holes.

"My putting was fantastic," he said. "I played more aggressively and thought if I got to six or seven under (on the day) the tournament is for me.

"Now my goal is to get into a major."

He has yet to make one, losing a qualifying play-off to amateur Gary Wolstenholme for the US Open last year.

Daly was still outside the top 10 when he covered the front nine in 35, but he came home in 31 with birdies at the 11th, 14th, 16th and 17th.

Rock, who destroyed his putter in anger after an opening 72, and Jacquelin both closed with 68s to deny Daly outright second, while South African Thomas Aiken was one shot further back in fifth.

Collated final-round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):

267 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 68 65 69 65

273 John Daly (USA) 69 69 69 66, Robert Rock 72 65 68 68, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 67 70 68 68

274 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 68 70 66 70

275 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 69 73 65, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 67 68 69

276 Roope Kakko (Fin) 71 64 68 73, Gareth Maybin 64 70 70 72, Robert Dinwiddie 72 67 68 69, Julien Clement (Swi) 70 67 69 70, Alastair Forsyth 73 68 67 68, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 74 68 64 70

277 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 73 66 73 65, Richie Ramsay 67 70 70 70, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 70 69 69 69

278 Michael Mcgeady 71 68 68 71, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 72 69 67 70, Ake Nilsson (Rsa) 68 69 69 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 69 69 70

279 Lee Slattery 72 69 71 67, Anders Hansen (Den) 73 65 70 71, Branden Grace (Rsa) 69 70 72 68, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 74 64 69 72

280 Chris Gane 71 70 68 71, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 72 70 68, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 72 68 73 67, Alan McLean 71 69 67 73, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 68 70 73 69, Metteo Manassero (Ita) 71 70 72 67, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 70 71 74 65, Mark Foster 70 71 68 71, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 67 72 68

281 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 67 72 70 72, Gary Orr 72 68 68 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 68 73 70 70, David Lynn 71 68 70 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 71 69 71 70, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 69 69 76 67, Gary Murphy 70 72 70 69, Inder Van Weerelt (Ned) 69 69 72 71

282 Anthony Wall 68 67 77 70, Stephen Dodd 70 71 75 66, Soren Hansen (Den) 74 67 72 69, Phillip Archer 71 70 70 71, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 74 68 70 70

283 Gary Clark 72 70 68 73, Wil Besseling (Ned) 72 69 74 68, Andrew Tampion (Aus) 70 67 70 76, John Mellor 69 73 70 71, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 72 65 76 70, David Frost (Rsa) 76 66 68 73, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 69 69 74

284 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 73 69 72 70, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 70 72 69 73, Matteo Delpodio (Ita) 68 72 70 74, Gregory Havret (Fra) 69 70 69 76, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 72 70 71 71

285 Gary Lockerbie 69 69 72 75, Garry Houston 68 73 71 73, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 69 71 75 70, Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha) 70 69 73 73

286 Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 68 74 70 74, Marcus Higley 67 70 72 77, Sion Bebb 73 68 73 72, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 70 65 76 75

287 Jonathan Caldwell 71 68 75 73, Marc Warren 74 67 75 71, Benn Barham 73 67 78 69

288 Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 69 74 77