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OAKMONT, Pa. — Your first round leader at the 107th U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club is the son of a car salesman, the protege of Nick Faldo and a retired flutist. He wears a spiky, Statue of Liberty hairdo, which pokes up around his golf visor; he was once more interested in driving fast cars than driving ranges; and, by his own admission, he might not make the list of the three Brits most likely to win a major. His name is Nick Dougherty, he's 25, and he shot a two-under-par 68 on Thursday.
Get to know him while you can, lads, because if past results indicate future performance, he might not be around much longer.
"I'm playing really well at the moment, my golf is in great shape, but this year it has been disappointing in a lot of ways for me," Dougherty said. "I've led, I think, six tournaments of the 14 I've played, at some stage, a few of them very near to the end, and I haven't finished one of them off, which has been extremely disappointing to me."
Starting strong has become a habit for the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Dougherty, who is originally from Liverpool, Beatles country, but now lives in Richmond, Surrey, England. Of those 14 tournaments this season, he's shot opening rounds in the 60s 10 times, a pair of 70s, a 72 and a 75. If you include his score Thursday, his first-round scoring average is a spiffy 68.93.
He tied for second at the New Zealand Open, his third start this season, but easily would have won were it not for a third-round 79. He went 68-81 at the Johnnie Walker and missed the cut, and he admitted that it was impossible to rule out another dire turn of events at Oakmont.
"The course is barbaric," said Dougherty, who has but a single career victory on the Euro tour, the 2005 Caltex Singapore Masters. "I think that's the funny thing about these events. I doesn't matter how you're playing. You're always a little bit worried that if you have an off day you're going to embarrass yourself."
Argentina's Angel Cabrera got to three under for his first five holes but slipped a bit on the back nine and finished with a one-under 69. Jose Maria Olazabal was also under par for much of the day, but he got hung up in the Brillo-strong left rough on 17 and made bogey to finish at even-par 70 with Bubba Watson. Tiger Woods and the defending champion, Geoff Ogilvy, played in the same threesome and were well within striking distance with matching 71s.
