Daly thrives on early start

A crack of dawn start appeared to suit John Daly today when he resumed the Italian Open in Milan.

At four under par the former Open champion, now a lowly 609th in the world, had made it through the halfway cut with nothing to spare.

But, teeing off again just after 7am, three birdies in his first five holes and an outward 33 lifted Daly to seven-under and into a share for 25th place.

It was only the third time in 12 starts this season that the 42-year-old American had been involved in weekend action and, not for the first time in his turbulent career, most headlines about him concerned his drinking rather than his golf.

Daly, however, had insisted in Spain last week – he is on a two-week trip to Europe and did miss the cut there – that it was not a problem.

He had also made a promise to his fans – “I’ll be back.”

Playing partner David Park also turned in 33, but at seven under the pair were still eight strokes behind Swede Robert Karlsson, whose course record 61 in the second round had put him two ahead of England’s Mark Foster and South African Hennie Otto at halfway.