The Wild Thing is now the Auld Yin. In a colourful, controversial career, riddled with tales of boozing, gambling and tempestuous entanglements with a variety of women, John Daly has been hooked on more things than a worm at fisherman’s stag party. Given his penchant for some of life’s more destructive vices, it’s something of an achievement that he has actually reached his half century.

“I'm really excited, one, to make it to 50, and two, just to be able to have kind of a home to play again,” said Daly as he prepared for his debut among golf’s golden oldies in this weekend’s Insperity Invitational on the lucrative Champions Tour.

Time hurtles by when you’re having fun … or losing £32 million in the casinos or chalking up four wives or taking a number of tumbles off the wagon. It’s all part of Daly’s rich tapestry, of course. It’s 25 years ago now since this blond-haired Californian captured his first major in the 1991 US PGA Championship. As the ninth reserve and a rank outsider, it was an upset of sizeable proportions. It sounds a bit familiar given the week we’ve had with underdogs Leicester City becoming English football’s top dogs. “It's like me winning the PGA in '91,” said Daly as the man also known as The Lion waxed lyrical about those fabulous Foxes. “God bless them for winning it, my hat’s off to them for winning it all because they're like the underdogs, and that's what I've always been all my life. I'm a fan of theirs now, a big-time fan.”

Daly’s antics, both on and off the course, have ensured that he too has gained a vast army of fans down the seasons. Even when his actual golf has been at its most wayward and his regular run-ins with officialdom caused much muttering and tut-tutting, there has always been a fascination and ghoulish curiosity that makes a ticket for the Daly show highly compelling viewing. It’s a bit like peering at the Bearded Lady. “I've got the greatest fans in the world and no matter what, through thick and thin, they've always stuck by me,” he said.

As he clambers the brae on the age front, Daly can take time to ponder and reflect on a sporting life less ordinary. His purple patch in the 1990s was illuminated further when he captured the Claret Jug in the 1995 Open at St Andrews. The highs would be followed by numerous lows but that was par for the course as far as Daly’s career was concerned.

“I wish I would have had the mental attitude back in the 90s like I do now,” he added. “I think I wasted my talent in the 90s, especially towards the later part of the decade. All the money was coming in and I didn't work hard enough at it. I didn't do the right things to prepare myself to win golf tournaments. You know, that's definitely on me, and I admit that.

“If I lived in the past, I'd be dead. So you can't live in the past. It's just not worth it. I admitted the mistakes I've made and hopefully try not to keep making them. That's the key. I know I've kept making a few of them, but there's a lot of them that I don't make anymore.

“That's just life. You've just got to live and try and get through it the best you can, but for me I know I can say I've been honest about everything that's happened good or bad in my life, and that keeps me going, and it keeps me not having any skeletons in my closet.”

The chance to rejuvenate himself and get back into the cut-and-thrust on the ultra-competitive over-50s circuit is an opportunity to savour. It’s also a chance to catch up with some old faces. “I saw Fuzzy (Zoeller), John Huston, Mark Wiebe, Peter Jacobsen, Fred Funk and all of them, they're all excited that I'm out here,” he said. “These are kind of the guys that I grew up with when I first came on the tour and they kind of took me under their wing in some aspects, telling me when I'm screwing up and telling me when I'm doing good. Just a bunch of good men out here that are legends of the game, and it's kind of an honour to be around them again and play against them.”

As he prepares for the next chapter in his career as a senior, it seems the Wild Thing is now the Mild Thing.