This Feature starts with what Dougherty said about that week in Sweden. It then goes through this Spring and early Summer as we regularly caught up with Nick, part of what was supposed to be a profile of Nick perhaps making that first breakthrough but what soon turned out be following what could have become a sorry tale. It finishes with Nick talking very freely about how his name has been in the media for more than his golf, and how he enjoys working with the kids, some of whom will be challenging him for Tour Honours in the not too distant future. So what happened in Sweden?

‘It was just one week but it was my whole Tour Card. Having made lots of cuts , all in a row, then to get Glandular Fever, it was ….. I had to sort things out. I started with simplifying my swing with Dad (before the Nissan Irish Open) then I did some good work with Pete Cowan.’

‘On the third day, my putter went cold. The final round was tough and making that birdie on the 18th was really nice – I could easily have been back in the pack. I hit close on 14, 16 and 18 but the crucial miss was on 15. I needed to make it and missed from 8ft.’

‘I was concerned when I was at –8. I thought I needed to get to –9 for second. The putter was still a problem - until the 18th.’

Dougherty is still thinking back about winning and where he lost out to Adam Scott, another great young talent who has had an inconsistent year only highlighted with 3rd in the World Championship Matchplay and that win in Sweden. I ask him about the Sunday before, and the final round of the USPGA.

‘I would love to be there. I get my best results on tougher courses, places where you have to shape the ball.’

‘That was a brutal test where if you don’t hit the right shot you make bogies, and you have to credit both guys for being under par. In the end its all about practice and that sort of thing is right up my street. How will I aim to get there? The Top 20 in the Order of Merit is my next goal and once you are in (the fields), you have a good chance of staying around.’

Early Season

May 2003 and Nick Dougherty is home, back in the UK. This is his 11th Tournament this season, from starting out in South Africa in January and playing his way across three continents making every cut. He is still the fresh faced star who was an integral part of the 2001 Walker Cup victory, having never faced the problems of multiple visits to Tour School to gain his card, but there is a problem.

At this moment, Nick Dougherty is coughing for England. He’s been feeling weak for a few weeks and as yet, has no diagnosis for what’s wrong. He’s still playing good golf though. Dougherty’s first two rounds at the De Vere Belfry are good enough to make another cut, plenty of birdies mixed in with mistakes which ‘come in pairs’ – Nick’s own words.

Dougherty’s problems really started when he was just about to sit down for a family meal, in the weeks after his return from his travels, and fainted. He went to bed following the meal and slept … and slept. Since then he has not practised pre tournaments and has been more careful with his lifestyle.

‘You can’t get away with anything this week’, said Dougherty about his week, ‘The rough is really punishing. I’ve felt all right this week and actually played OK. My tee shots have really been why I’ve made bogeys … My swing? Not great. I didn’t have the speed in my body and the old swing comes back on odd occasions.’

Watching Dougherty makes an instant link to why the guy is one of the most popular Tour players, quite apart from the results. There is plenty of expression, good shots and bad shots, and the way Dougherty swings (nothing like the other ‘Nick’) adds to the player personality. The swing ‘swagger’ of Ballesteros (in his pomp) is there – minus any technical problems – and Nick is another pupil of Pete Cowan.

On the 18th on the final day, a now very fearsome hole playing into the wind, Dougherty finds the first of the fairway bunkers from the tee. Some players are hitting woods into the 474 yarder and barely getting over the water. Nick studies what isn’t a great lie then selects a 1 iron and hits an incredible shot which just drifts left into the greenside bunker but a shot which has carried pin high. The bunker is too full of sand and when Dougherty cannot get close, he bogies for a finishing place of 44th. That one dropped shot makes over £1000 of difference in final prize money, something which Nick is watching carefully as he decides on the rest of his season – more later.

The following week, Nick is in Germany, playing in the TPC of Europe alongside someone called Tiger Woods. A disappointing 73 is followed by –9 for the last three rounds and another 44th place is this time rewarded with 15 000 Euros, almost twice his earnings from the previous week at the B&H. Dougherty has announced that he his not working with Team Faldo anymore, that he has slimmed down his help to just three people, and he has also found out that he has Glandular fever.

He returns to the UK and heads to Wentworth for the ‘flagship’ event of the European Tour, the Volvo Masters. Before play starts, there is the small matter of a dinner to go to where Nick receives the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the year trophy from OoM winner Retief Goosen. It’s a gala occasion and Nick is there by right. He may not have won (as did Graham McDowell – another debutante) but 36th on the Money list and so many signs of consistency as well as the ability to shoot low scores added up to an outstanding performance for which Nick receives a suitably impressive trophy covered in famous names. The diagnosis of Glandular fever though means no bread rolls and no alcohol with the dinner.

Four weeks later

At the Volvo PGA, ‘Mr Cut Maker’ doesn’t play 72 holes for the first time in 2003. Six over par is way too high and Dougherty looks tired. With the weekend off, Dougherty can prepare for the Wales Open, not perhaps the most relaxing course to play physically, and he has a new caddie, a certain Pete Coleman.

With Bernard Langer now playing most of his golf in the US, Langer and Coleman have very amicably ‘parted’ company. One of the most famous caddies in the World has agreed to accompany Dougherty for the next few weeks and their start is good – 72, 70, 72 then 69 for 31st place and another 16 000 Euros. He still looks tired.

‘Whilst I can still play, I am going to carry on. Its hard but its what I have decided to do. Because I am tired, my swing is a bit ropey.’

I ask Coleman about Dougherty. He is very positive about his new charge, ‘ He’s good, very good.’

That Saturday, another article had appeared on the ‘Future of English golf’. Its one of a succession of work that lists the same faces – Rose, Casey, Dougherty … - and for one of those named, its an irrelevance.

‘It’s a completely press orientated thing. It doesn’t affect any of us. They just want to find the next Faldo ….’

One good week can make a season. A third place finish for Dougherty at the end of 2002 gave him 150 000 Euros. His card was already secured by then but talking to Nick now (at the Wales Open), you can sense that he wants to continue progressing but at the same time the sooner he can reach the ‘magic’ figure of around 170 000 Euros (to keep his card) the better.

Dougherty has a quandary. If he stops playing, he looses the Tournament ‘hardness’ that is seeing him secure prize money towards keeping his card, with the possibility that another good week would see ‘first mission accomplished’. He hasn’t talked of medical exemptions (which are granted for injury) and (from above) he isn’t talking to the press about winning (as is Paul Casey) to fulfil this search for a new Faldo editorial – yet you just know he has the game to win once a season.

Dougherty has never talked about what he could achieve, not in the purposeful statement way that others do. His record stands for itself and at twenty one years of age, he cannot be labelled (yet) for no wins on his CV. Just now he is playing as often as he can without commiting himself to a stupid schedule, and the problem of the Glandular Fever is taking away some of the enjoyment.

The Lancashire man isn’t ‘tour hardened’, made cynical by years of press questions. I ask him, early on in the year, if there are occasions when he would not like to talk after a round.

‘Its my job. Its something I have to do but that’s not a problem. You can catch me after any round.’

So to the Daily Telegraph Damovo British Masters at the Marriot Forest of Arden. Two rounds of 73 mean just missing out whilst Rose and Poulter are both being star attractions for the week. I catch him for one last time until the August as he trudges away from the Scorer’s Caravan after his second round. He looks pretty tired and hasn’t played well.

‘I’m going to keep on playing. Things are getting better … slowly. Its hard at the moment.’

At the B&H, Dougherty had managed to talk at some length about his round. Now, his job is more about trying to stay patient, needing time off but being pressurised (not just his own youthful invincibility) to keep playing. Whilst the scores are not good enough (at the moment), the look in the eyes is still there and game management so strong. Its only fatigue which is preventing Dougherty from securing his card, then starting on what will be a long career of writing headlines – he just needs a bit of rest.

Back at the Weetabix Golf Foundation Finals, Dougherty moves easily on what it takes to win, and not just a Tour event (on either side of the Atlantic).

‘As good as Thomas (Bjorn) is, for Ben Curtis, Micheels, no one has told them ‘you can’t win a Major’ – no one has said to them ‘how hard it is to win a Major’. They can turn up and do what they have to do – I couldn’t put in the (practice) rounds that Curtis did though and I would get wound up if I was there too long. It takes me no more than two rounds to learn a course and for most places I ‘m someone who can do it in one.’

Nick is also prepared to talk about the comments that splattered the press in Sweden about his attitude and nightclubs, from his Walker Cup team mate and 2003 Amateur Champion Gary Wolstenholme. Did they have any influence on how well he played that week?

‘I don’t feed off comments like that … they weren’t the nicest comments and Gary was misquoted there … but I was a bit jiffed. It doesn’t bother me but I was concerned for my family, my girlfriend, close friends, sponsors …and anyway, I’ve not been in a fit state to go anywhere recently. That was part of my problems, that I could never get away from the hotel, away from golf. I used to go to bed, sleep for 16 hours, get up and play and then go straight back to my room.’

When back home, Nick has become a DVD addict and has just added another 100 to his collection, and having secured his card, he now is only planning to play another 6 events this year so he will have plenty of time to relax and fully recover from what was a debilitating illness. There was little sign of any problems that afternoon as he was looking forward very much to his clinics with the finalists.

‘I was Golf Foundation Player of the Year (I can’t remember which year it was) and I went along to meet Bernard Gallagher. The Junior coaching I received as a kid was so important and its great to put a little back.’

‘It used to be that one a few were getting a real opportunity. Now the game grows and grows and its all because of Associations like the Golf Foundation’

What is very obvious from all the competitors at these finals is how well equipped they are all are, with the latest clubs and fashion. I press him on this, telling him about the lost club that was shown at the prize giving for a major Junior championships – and not claimed because it wasn’t a fashionable make.

‘All the manufacturers are expensive, for their best stuff. Its Nike this or Callway for each individual that but, having said that I can see how it could matter, we (professionals) don’t go and have clubs fitted to the best standards possible ‘just for the crack’ and my pet hate is Juniors with adult clubs, sometimes not even cut down. They are too heavy which then creates posture problems and often much more.’

We are prompted by the day’s organiser that Nick will be starting his first clinic in a few minutes time but Nick is more than happy to continue if I need more. He fits in a TV piece quickly then goes off to warm up before meeting up with the Girl finalists.

They all know of Dougherty and are fans, yet they take a little prompting to try the three basic stretches that Nick demonstrates – few are anything like as flexible as the Professional and if they want to progress, you can sense a few embarrassed smiles. This awe is there for a few more minutes until Dougherty gets unlucky when he picks out a few players to show off their swings and for him to correct any faults. The first two hit great shots, even using Nick’s clubs and he can only have a laugh with the last girls he chooses, who tries to swing in completely the wrong shoes. He goes on to show how much spin he can generate for short shots before saying his goodbyes and going back to wait for the boys. The smile never leaves his face – imagine what he will be like when he makes that first tournament winning putt.