The Lion City will welcome England’s own young lion, Nick Dougherty, as defending champion when the hunt for the OSIM Singapore Masters title begins at Laguna National Golf and Country Club this week.
Three top tens in his first six events of the 2006 season and a current position of seventh on The European Tour Order of Merit will ensure Dougherty arrives in Singapore in confident mood for the defence of his first European Tour title.
Twelve months ago, Dougherty produced a mature performance beyond his tender years to secure a stunning five shot victory over the then defending champion Colin Montgomerie and Maarten Lafeber of The Netherlands, who came in with a late charge.
“The best night out I’ve had in my life was the Sunday in Singapore,” he said. “It wasn’t a big night, I was just sitting in a bar and everyone was coming up to me. You think, ‘You’ve done it!’ To have the respect of the other players is so satisfying.
“It was picture perfect. To beat Monty on a tough course with a fantastic crowd there and to win by five shots, that is really something special. I can’t wait to return. You can only defend your first victory once and I aim to make the most of it.”
Dougherty heads an impressive field that also sees in-form South African Charl Schwartzel, The European Tour Golfer of the Month for February, return to European Tour action after successfully defending his Sunshine Tour Order of Merit title.
Schwartzel won the season-ending Vodacom Tour Championship to become the first player to win back-to-back Order of Merit titles since John Bland in 1989/90 and 1990/1991.
Niclas Fasth of Sweden, twice a winner last season, and Paul Broadhurst of England, who ended a ten-year victory drought last year when he won in Portugal, will start among the favourites as the two highest ranked players in the field.
The tournament will also feature Asia’s Number One and Two, Thaworn Wiratchant and Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, who will both be looking to secure another European Tour title following their past successes in Indonesia and Malaysia respectively.
The $1 million tournament will again be jointly sanctioned by The European Tour and the Asian Tour, along with the Singapore Professional Golfers’ Association. OSIM International Ltd, one of the world’s market leaders in healthy lifestyle products, has taken over the title sponsorship in this the tournament’s sixth year.
Triple Major Champion Vijay Singh of Fiji won the first event in 2001 at Singapore Island Country Club and the following year Arjun Atwal made history as the first player from India to win on The European Tour when the tournament moved to Laguna National.
Zhang Lian-Wei achieved a similar feat in 2003 when he became the first Chinese golfer to win a European Tour event; Montgomerie emerged victorious in 2004 before Dougherty became the youngest winner of the event at the age of 22.
