Nick Dougherty

The golf season had barely started and there was Monty, glaring across the fairway, his face as crumpled as an old brussels sprout, his cheeks the colour of cranberry sauce. You didn?t know whether to hug Monty for bringing back so many wonderful memories or shake the hand of Nick Dougherty for so expertly tormenting our favourite grouch.

The immediate cause of Monty?s outrage ? apart from the obvious fault-line running through his personality ? was a free drop that John Paramor, the European Tour?s senior referee, had awarded to Dougherty in the final round of the Singapore Masters. The decision was a no-brainer, as the area where Dougherty?s ball had finished was marked off by a white line. But Monty was convinced the world was against him .

What Monty had conveniently forgotten was that Dougherty had outplayed him for most of the round. He had also forgotten that on the previous hole they had pushed their drives down an identical line, but whereas Dougherty had rolled out into a bunker from where he had to lay up short of the green, Monty had finished four or five yards short of the trap with a perfect lie in the rough to set up a two-putt birdie.

But on this day Monty had been getting increasingly hot and was ready to come to the boil. Monty was expecting the 22-year-old Englishman to go a little crumbly. It wasn?t happening. In the end it wasn?t Dougherty who crumbled, it was Monty.

Such an outcome wasn?t as unexpected as many commentators made out. Dougherty is a winner. He is also not much of a respecter of reputations. At the 2001 Walker Cup Dougherty was an 18-year-old, but he couldn?t resist constantly winding up Gary Wolstenholme, the senior player on the Great Britain and Ireland team. Wolstenholme tried to match Dougherty?s wrangling, but ?Little Nick? was always a step ahead of him.

Dougherty was dubbed ?Little Nick? after Nick Faldo. Both were prodigious young talents. Dougherty won an under-14 competition at the age of six, finished fourth in the Brabazon aged 15 and won the inaugural Faldo Junior Series in the same year. His prize was to play a round of golf with Faldo.

Peter McEvoy captained Dougherty at the 2001 Walker Cup and was also a contemporary of Faldo, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam as they came through amateur golf. He said: ?The industry portrays Faldo as a robot. The Faldo I remember was a shooting star, full of talent and flair. He was always a good companion, amusing and slightly off-beat.?

The victory in Singapore could scarcely have been more impressive.

Dougherty stared down flags and Monty in equal measure. In his moment of victory he pleaded that we didn?t start talking about majors. Fair enough. Faldo?s twenties had just about passed him by when he won his first major. For a while he was even labelled ?Nick Foldo? after falling out of contention at the ?83 Open and ?84 Masters. So we won?t talk about majors. Not in Monty?s earshot. We?ll think about them instead. Just like Nick Dougherty.