NICK DOUGHERTY has shrugged off criticism in recent weeks from a former Walker Cup team-mate and received unsolicited encouragement from one of Britain’s greatest golfers. Determined to prove himself to both, he took command of the Scandic Carlsberg Scandinavian Masters here at Barseback Golf Club yesterday.
“He (Dougherty) has it all, I’d hate to see him wasted,” Gary Wolstenholme, the Amateur champion, said last month. “He had one of the best swings you had ever seen as an amateur, but you don’t see Justin Rose going out to a disco every night and trying to knock off every girl he sees.”
Dougherty, 21, was surprised. “I haven’t really seen Gary since the Walker Cup (in 2001) and I’ve changed a lot since then,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for him, but I don’t know why he threw his twopenn’orth in. It’s not true, so it doesn’t bother me.”
Dougherty insists that he is all business on tour. He certainly made rising at 5.30am well worthwhile by adding a second-round 69 to his 67 on Thursday to finish eight under par, three strokes clear of Mark James, 28 years his senior, and Luke Donald, another member of the victorious Walker Cup team of two years ago.
During a barren spell that has seen him plummet to 115th on the European Tour money list, Dougherty began to find unrelenting failure wearing, but his spirits were bolstered by sage advice from Nick Faldo, who has been a source of friendship and help since Dougherty’s junior days.
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“Nick understands and he’s guided me through this,” Dougherty said. “He told me that you don’t appreciate the good times unless you go through the bad times. The fact that Nick took interest gave me a boost in itself.”