In his own words, Nick Dougherty is a “rejuvenated” golfer this year and the new, improved model certainly lived up to his own expectations when he grabbed the halfway lead in the Caltex Masters, presented by Carlsberg, Singapore 2005, at the Laguna National Golf & Country Club.
The 22 year old Englishman carded a superb second round 67 for a nine under par aggregate of 135 to move one shot clear of Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie who carded a 71 for 136, and three shots ahead of a quartet of players, Denmark’s Thomas Björn, Malaysia’s Danny Chia, Jamie Donaldson of Wales and China’s Liang Wen-Chong, all on 138.
Ironically Dougherty, who started the day three shots adrift of Montgomerie, looked far from leader material when he covered the back nine, having started his round at the tenth hole, in one over par 37 to slip five behind the Scot.
But the protégé of Nick Faldo has put a lot of work in over the past two years in all aspects of his life, his mental approach, his fitness, his golf swing and his overall approach to being a Tour player, and it paid dividends with a scintillating front nine of 30, which could have been 29, had he not three putted the ninth green for bogey five.
“I am very pleased,” he said. “I am playing well and I feel good in myself - I think rejuvenated is a good way to describe it. I have a great team around me and I feel I can relax into my game now.
“Golf is really good fun to play again and it wasn’t last year. I made it more difficult than it was and I am only thankful that I can go out there now and shoot a few good scores.
“It is the changes I have made in my life away from golf that have allowed me to be more relaxed on the golf course as well. I had a lot of hype when I turned professional and the media coverage was fantastic but I didn’t believe myself deep down that I was that good.
“I didn’t have the experience and I was immature in a lot of ways in my golf game and now I have learned a lot, I deserve to shoot these scores, when I play well now I deserve it and so when I get on a run, I know I can hit the next shot great and I don’t worry about it because I have prepared properly.”
Highlight of the sparkling spell of golf which saw him seven under for the seven holes between the first and the seventh, was an eagle three at the latter hole, courtesy of a crunched 288 yard three wood which finished a mere foot from the hole.
A man not so happy with his finish was second placed Montgomerie, who surrendered a share of the lead by not holing out for birdie from four feet at his final hole, the 18th.
While, in his opening round of 65 Montgomerie found every fairway, he admitted it had been his inability to get his irons close and poor reading of the greens which cost him the second round lead.
Of the chasing pack, the most experienced is unquestionably Björn, who finished second in the Volvo China Open and tied fourth in the Omega Hong Kong Open at the end of 2004 and who continued his momentum after a five week rest in Dubai over Christmas with a fine 66.
The 33 year old Dane made his move on the back nine of the Laguna National course, which he played first after starting at the tenth, and which he covered in 30 superb blows, his birdies coming at the tenth, 11th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 18th.
It entailed a flurry of activity around the record books as, suddenly, Nick O’Hern’s eight under par course record 64 – set in 2002 – appeared in danger but, thankfully for the left-handed Australian, Björn’s hot streak cooled on the front nine.
A birdie three on the on the third and a bogey four on the fifth were his only departures from par in a level par stretch of 36 but the Dane still pronounced himself happy with his overall effort.
“I have always said that my mental strength comes from my technique,” he said. “When my technique is good, I know I can go out and play well, so we worked very hard on that and I have good vibes about my golf at this moment in time. But I know I still have a lot of hard work to do because it is very early in the season.
“I am at the stage in my career where I need to press forward, I need to go to those levels where I can consistently perform. We are not out of the month of January and the three best players in the world have already made a million dollars, so everybody has to step up their game to keep up with them.
“We are soon to get into golf tournaments where they are around all the time and then you have to be at your best to play with them. These golf tournaments are about building yourself up to the big events. They are good events in themselves but they are also about building yourself up to the biggest stage.”
Welshman Donaldson carded 68 to join Björn on 138 while the leading Asian players in this joint-sanctioned event with the Asian Tour were Chia and Liang, who carded respective second rounds of 70 and 68.
