FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida -- John Daly is back. With his booming drives. With his enormous talent. He is back also with a parcel of problems he hopes this time to have securely wrapped and under control.


"Everything is positive. I want to get on with my career, get on with a new life. It feels good," Daly said on Tuesday.


He burst on the scene as a rookie in 1991 and won the PGA. He dropped off the tour late in 1992 to deal with his drinking problem. He was suspended late in 1993 after he withdrew in a pro-am round in Hawaii.


Woven in and around all of that was erratic play and eccentric behavior, including busting up his house in a fight with his wife.


He says it is a different John Daly -- clear-eyed, untroubled and looking at a clean, fresh slate -- who will tee up Thursday at the Honda Classic.


In a way, he said, his comeback is "like '91, my first year on the PGA Tour. It was my rookie year, and it was my best year. I feel like I can do it again."


The biggest difference, he said, is in his reach. Now, in times of stress, he reaches for a guitar. Not a bottle. "I'm very proud to say that I've been sober for more than 14 months now," Daly said.


Daly said the three-month suspension imposed by PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman last fall was "a blessing."


"I needed the time off. I was playing bad and I was just going through the motions. I needed a break. And I wouldn't have taken it if I hadn't been suspended," he said.


Beman suspended Daly after he won the B.C. Open in 1992 pending his successful completion of an alcohol treatment and rehabilitation program.


That was accomplished early last year. And Daly has been sober ever since.


But it hasn't been easy. "I want a drink every day," he said. "It's tough. I see it and I smell it. It's good stuff. I want it. But I know I can't have it. If I do, I'll die."


He won the fight with the bottle. And it was, he said, the most important victory of his career. "I feel like I won a major last year," he said.