The Nick Dougherty story pt 1: How I nearly blew my golfing dreams

Jul 17 2007 by Mike Torpey, Liverpool Echo

Nick Dougherty, Liverpool-born professional golfer _158

‘Dad taught me the values’ “MY dad was very strict and tough with me. Discipline was a big part of it. He used to do things that a lot of people would criticise, like making me run after shots if I hit the ball badly, to teach me values like how important each shot is.

“Because it was quite strict and the punishment for doing something wrong was stern I remembered these things. So he always kept me going forward at an age when most kids might be thinking ‘I don’t want to do this. I want to see my mates’.

“It was hard at times, but he knew exactly what he was doing. I think it was even harder for him because he didn’t enjoy that. But he was so determined that I had the chances to make it. He said: ‘I promise you, you will be a Tour player,’ and he was right.

“Life revolved around coming home from school, putting my spikes on, playing golf until it got dark, home to do my homework, have something to eat and going to bed. That was my life.

“I would go into school and my mates had been going out somewhere, to the water park or baths at the weekend, having a laugh or staying over. I didn’t have any of this.

“I think the fact that dad was so pushy got me to the stage where I could start to see the rewards for myself, where he didn’t need to drive me so hard.

“So, while other kids started to fall away thinking there’s more to life than this, there’s birds and booze, he kept me away from that.

“I’d never even been to a nightclub until I went away with England for the first time.”