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THE CELTIC MANOR WALES OPEN

May 31, 2008

Nick Dougherty

NEWPORT, WALES

Q. Six birdies and two bogeys how do you feel about your day's work?
NICK DOUGHERTY: I think I played great today. I got a slow start obviously, bogeyed the first, you know, and then only parred the second, having been up on the green in two so I played a lot of really, really good shots. Didn't hole many putts at all. Most of my birdies were tap-ins to be honest.
Very, very pleased. Keeps me in decent shape. You know, hopefully I have to rely on Scott not pushing too far in front and see what happens tomorrow.

Q. How aware of the lead were you as you were going around?
NICK DOUGHERTY: Not at all. I didn't look at the boards at all today which is a new thing I'm trying. I had a look there on 18. You know, it's tough. It's going to be difficult for him (Scott Strange) tomorrow as it is for everybody who is up there. So have to rely on hopefully them not pushing on too much. I still need to shoot a great score though because I'm going to be quite a few back. The guys are holding up pretty tough at the moment.

Q. Most say it takes a few rounds to unlock the course; is that the case here?
NICK DOUGHERTY: I think the strategy has been pretty similar for the whole week. I haven't really learned anything extra I wouldn't say. I've obviously got used to the speed of the greens a little before month as the week's gone on. Fortunately I went out and played on Tuesday but got pulled off in the Pro-Am but at least I've seen it. I think I know the course well. It's an easy course to get to know. It's one that obviously looks very good to the eye, so makes it easy to go out there and enjoy playing it.

Q. Looks like you might need a low one tomorrow; do you see one out there?
NICK DOUGHERTY: Absolutely. The way I'm playing, it's possible.

Q. 16; annoying?
NICK DOUGHERTY: Yeah, a little. To be fair they are playing quite tough those last three holes. 16 I hit quite a big tee shot and still had 4-iron in. Tugged it a little but it's tricky because it's a bit of a downslope.
You know, 17 is playing really difficult because it's very long today. I'm not sure moving the tee back with the wind direction, not sure they were expecting this wind direction.
I ended up making a good par on 15 after hitting it in the cabbage up the right but I was looking to probably make a birdie there and maybe another one on the way in, so I'd have been looking around 12 or 13 finish.
But 10 is still in good shape and more importantly for me though rather than the whole tournament is just the way I played today, it's been so long since I've played that freely. I really enjoyed it and I played awesome. I didn't play good; I played really, really good today.

Q. Your decision not to look at the leaderboard or someone else's?
NICK DOUGHERTY: Well, I just figure because the truth of the matter is it really doesn't matter what they are doing, does it. I wouldn't try any less if I was by the lead or further back. The only thing I can feel I can do is either tell you, you're close to it, so what do you do, back off a bit? Ideally you keep playing.

Q. And as far as tomorrow?
NICK DOUGHERTY: Yeah, obviously Mike will obviously watch it, and down the stretch it is important. It gets to a certain point in the tournament where sometimes you do need to know. As far as just going out for tomorrow, I mean, I need to chase.

Q. Hard to do it right to the end?
NICK DOUGHERTY: It is difficult. It is difficult, and I don't know how much of that is actually true. Hate to get to the end and get to a par 5 and find out you lost by one for not going for it. It's a great idea to not look at boards, but now and then your bag man has got to say, you know, we need birdie here, or like for this hole, for instance, if you're leading by one playing this and the guy behind you is in the clubhouse, if you decided to pull 3-wood out and have a dig at it, you would be brain dead, wouldn't you. You need to be smart and to know what you need to do, and you need to have someone looking at the board and telling you. I think Mike will do that for me.

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