Struggling Nick Dougherty was making impressions long before he ended a run of 22 missed cuts this season at the Omega European Masters.

I recall the first occasion being in the presence of Dougherty and also being suitably impressed. 

Nick Dougherty can finally see the light after ending a run of 22 missed cuts this year. (Photo - Merseyside Golfer)

It was nine years ago and during the 2002 Open Championship at Muirfield. 

Dougherty was the youngest member of the previous year’s winning GB & I Walker Cup side, and the Association of Golf Writers (AGW) had invited to featuring Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell and Michael Hoey to their annual dinner.

The 2001 Walker Cup at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, turned out to be a historic moment for the GB & I side. Never before in the then 79-year history of the biennial competition had GB & I claimed back-to-back victories.

Dougherty spoke on behalf of the team and what struck me was the confidence oozing from the then 20-year old.  To be able to stand up in a room full of golf journalists, leading tour officials and dignitaries, and to speak with such eloquence and composure was something else.

I have been fortunate to be present at his three Tour victories, first in Singapore when he had the encouragement of Thomas Bjorn ringing in his ears, then at the Home of Golf in capturing the Alfred Dunhill Links trophy and then with the emotion of his BMW International Open triumph in Munich.

And as much as he’s been hurting terribly this season, Dougherty has never once, and I will forgive him for his Wentworth outburst, altered or changed his demeanour.

Once you’ve met him he’s a person who’ll forever call you by your first name. 

As well, he could well have walked off the golf course this year recording a 63 as he did yesterday, a 76 or an 82, as he has done so on three occasions this year, but you would never have known the difference.

Of course, one swallow doesn’t make for a summer but all those on the European Tour and all those reporting on golf, and all Nick’s followers trust those demons that have haunted him this season have long flown the coop.   

And for anyone interested in statistics, Dougherty’s made a habit of winning every two years.  He won in Singapore in 2005, Scotland in 2007 and Germany in 2009.