Dougherty grabs first win

Nick Dougherty rode his luck before storming through to an overdue maiden European Tour title with a five-shot victory in the Caltex Singapore Masters at Laguna National on Sunday.

The 22-year-old from Liverpool left his illustrious playing partner Colin Montgomerie and fast-finishing Dutchman Maarten Lafeber in his wake with a closing 67 for an overall 18-under-par total of 270.

The turning point came at the 16th on Sunday when Dougherty was given a free drop from the banks of a fairway bunker after it ran into ground under repair.

From there he conjured a magnificent approach to three feet for a decisive birdie.

DOUGHERTY'S STATS Greens in regulation: 81.9% (position 3rd) Fairways in reg. 66.1% (17th) Driving distance: 293.8 yards (10th) Putts per round: 29

Montgomerie, who had closed to within one shot of Dougherty and was perfectly placed in the middle of the fairway, looked on aghast at his young rival's good fortune and went on to three-putt the same hole to lose his chance for good.

Dougherty's win, however, was not built solely on one piece of good fortune.

He has been showing encouraging form all year which came triumphantly to a head in the sweltering conditions at the beautiful Laguna course.

He drove magnificently all week, ranking 10th in the Reuters Stats driving distance category with a whopping 293.8 yards on average - more than 10 yards further than 41-year-old Monty.

Dougherty also putted better than Montgomerie over the four days to average 29 putts exactly per round, a full shot better than the Scotsman, who was defending the title.

MONTY'S STATS Greens in regulation: 84.7% (position 1st) Fairways in reg. 76.8% (1st) Driving distance: 280 yards

He was accurate from tee to green too, with a Stats ranking of 17th having found 37 fairways out of 56 (66.1%) during the week.

The Englishman single-putted no less than 31 times during the week with a grand total of 21 birdies and just five bogeys over the 72 holes.

Dougherty additionally struck his irons with a precision that would have pleased his boyhood mentor Nick Faldo, finding 59 greens in regulation (81.9%) to rate third in that category.

For Montgomerie, there was plenty of consolation despite missing out on his 29th European Tour victory.

The Stats showed his play tee to green was back to the kind of groove which won him seven consecutive Order of Merits on the Tour during the 1990s.

Montgomerie ranked top in both fairways hit (43 out of 56, 76.8%) and greens found in regulation (61 out of 72, 84.7%).

Those figures easily improve on his returns from 1998 and 1999 when he last topped the European money list.