Could John Daly really be turning it around this time?

Drastic times call for drastic measures, and kudos to John Daly, who’s competing on the European PGA Tour right now, for doing something drastic.

The two-time major winner has used a six-month suspension from the PGA Tour to reflect, evaluate and get some good advice.

According to a BBC story, he decided to undergo lap-band surgery earlier this year, and the result has been a loss about 4 stones, down from 20 a few months ago (that’s 56 pounds, down from around 280 pounds, for us Yanks).

“He unveiled his more slim-line shape at this week’s Spanish Open in Girona, showing off in a pair of eye-catching orange, pink and white harlequin-style trousers,” according to the story.

Here’s a guy who couldn’t control any of his excesses, so he had someone else ? a surgeon ? take care of at least one of them for him.

Lap-band surgery severely impedes a person’s ability to eat large or even “normal” quantities of food by severely decreasing the size of the useable stomach. It’s also conceivable that it would make drinking large amounts of alcohol very problematic.

Still, it’ll probably be tough hanging around Hooters (his sponsor) not being able to gorge on chicken wings and beer.

But lap-band can do nothing for some of Daly’s other compulsive behaviors like gambling or women (he’s been married four times) or smoking. He hasn’t quit smoking - that would be too much to give up too soon - but hopefully he got help for his gambling and dysfunctional relationships with women.

On that note, he has a new coach, Michigan’s Rick Smith, who worked with Phil Mickelson for many years. Daly also has been dating former Hooters girl, Anna Cladakis.

According to the BBC report, Daly says it’s “refreshing to have a positive coach along with a girlfriend to keep on motivating me and keeping a positive outlook on life.”