TAKING ON THE TIGER

Dougherty looks back on going toe-to-toe with Woods at the 2007 US Open

and dad a hug on the back of the 18th on Sunday and that was the last time I hugged my mum. The next week I was in contention at Harbour Town and she had a heart attack. The next minute we’re there at the bedside turning the machine off and she passes away. It’s something quite ironic for a golfing family to have had this wonderful moment where she got to see a coming together with me and my dad, after all the butting of heads we’d had, on “I just lapped it all up. People always say you’ve got to be careful you don’t get pulled away by the circus and the emotion of it. But actually, I was all in on that. This is what I wanted to play for – to be in contention in the third round of a Major with him. I loved it. When he came on to the 1st tee, the noise was ridiculous, and I was shaking putting my ball on the tee. It wasn’t fear, it was just the energy.

For 14 holes, I hung with him. I made a birdie putt on 14 to get back to level and he was only one-under, but he hadn’t missed any greens or fairways. He was hitting this beautiful little fade off the tee and every flag he’d work it left-to-right to the right flag or right-to-left to the left flag. It was like watching it on a computer. Also, bear in mind the difficulty of Oakmont – five-over won this tournament. I think I got pulled along with ‘this isn’t so bad’ but people were shooting telephone numbers.

I remember getting on the 15th tee and it was the first time I allowed myself to think I could beat him – and I finished bogey, par, double-bogey, bogey to shoot four-over, which was still one of the best rounds of the day. I was disappointed I’d finished like that and it cost me a chance to win the US Open. I would have been in there going into the final round, so I learned a valuable lesson about that cliche of staying in the moment.”