Dougherty blown off course
One costly lapse in concentration sent pre-tournament favourite Nick Dougherty tumbling off the leaderboard in the Portuguese Open.
Dougherty had just carded his second birdie in a row to lie one shot off the lead when he fell foul of the daunting 18th.
The 22-year-old drove out of bounds on the 474-yard par four and then hit his second bal into a bush to the left of the fairway.
After taking a penalty drop the Liverpudlian missed the green with his approach and needed three more shots to get down, running up a quadruple bogey eight.
From two under par Dougherty slumped to two over and after another bogey on the fifth, needed to birdie his last two holes to record a one-over-par 72.
That was seven shots behind leader Markus Brier of Austria, who defied the testing cross-winds blowing in off the Atlantic Ocean to card a superb 65.
“It’s disappointing but I played quite nicely apart from that one hole,” said Dougherty, who held off Ryder Cup stars Colin Montgomerie and Thomas Bjorn to win his first tour title in Singapore in January.
“I knew my drive would be in the trees but once we got up there the out of bounds fence was very close to the tree line and one of the TV guys said it had gone out.
“It makes it so much more difficult when the wind blows and it was good to shoot one over. My attitude was very good and I was very calm and relaxed.
“There’s three rounds to go, I’m not in bad shape and I’m obviously playing good enough golf as long as I don’t make mistakes like that anymore I think I will be there or thereabouts.”
Dougherty was one of the early starters who faced the toughest conditions, with only 11 out of 78 players breaking par.
Among them was France’s Jean Van de Velde, who carded an encouraging one under par 70 on his fourth comeback from a serious knee injury.
Van de Velde has undergone two bouts of reconstructive surgery and made three attempts to return to the European Tour on a medical exemption last season, only to miss the cut in eight of his 14 tournaments and was in too much pain to attempt to earn his card at the qualifying school.
As a result the popular Frenchman has to rely on invites to compete on tour, a situation which would have been avoided if he had taken anything less than a triple-bogey seven on the final hole of the Open championship in 1999.
Victory at Carnoustie, which eventually went to Paul Lawrie in a play-off, would have given Van de Velde a 10-year exemption.
“I’m very happy,” said Van de Velde, who recovered from a double bogey on the treacherous 18th to fire five birdies at Oitavos Golf Club.
“Some of it was extremely good, some not so good but overall I’m pleased.
“It was a difficult day but I tried to keep as cool as I could. I can’t believe how tired I am but the knee was perfect, I think it was more due to the emotion of playing competitive golf again.
“The heart was beating a little quicker on the first tee so that was a good sign, I thought.”
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