Professional golfer turned Sky Sports presenter Nick Dougherty returns to his home club for its centenary, reflecting on a career shaped by the people and place that supported him from the start
Nick Dougherty played his last game at Chorley’s Shaw Hill Golf Club more than two decades ago. His career as a professional golfer took him all over the world, across Europe, to America, and on to some of the biggest stages in the game, winning three times on the European Tour and breaking into the world’s top 50.
But wherever he went, the club — and its members — found a way of supporting him. ‘I’d see these friendly faces turn up at tournaments all over the globe,’ he says, laughing. ‘They wouldn’t tell me they were coming, they’d just appear and be like, “Alright, Nick!”’
I meet Nick, 43, at the clubhouse at Shaw Hill, where he’s been invited back as a guest of honour for a special dinner and Q&A to celebrate the club’s centenary year. Opened in 1925, the course has long been part of the fabric of golf in this part of Lancashire, and Nick is the club’s standout success story.
Across the room from where we sit is a cabinet filled with a display of his memorabilia, including his Walker Cup bag, an acknowledgement of what one of their own went on to achieve. ‘I love that the club is proud of it,’ he says.
He was just 10 years old when his family moved from Liverpool to the lodge by the entrance to the club. Not for the lifestyle, but for the opportunity. ‘We moved here so I could come home from school, put my spikes on and go straight out to practise,’ he says. ‘That was it.’
His father, Raymond, a self-made man who had worked his way up from humble beginnings, had spotted something early in Nick — not just an interest, but a real ability — and made the decision to back it fully. Golf had become part of his world through business, but with Nick, it became something more. From that point on, the direction was clear. His brother Marcus would go on to build a very different career in law, but for Nick everything centred on the game. ‘I just wanted to play all the time,’ he says. ‘This was where everything happened.’
The routine was simple: he went to Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Blackburn each day, then straight back to the course. Evenings and weekends were spent out on the fairways or the practice ground, often until it was too dark to see properly.
There wasn’t much time for going out, seeing friends or having a normal teenage life, his dad made sure of that. ‘He kept the blinkers on. I didn’t really have that phase where you drift. It was all about the golf,’ says Nick. He smiles, remembering one of the stories that still gets told at the club.
‘Dad likes telling the one about when he made me clean the drive with a toothbrush,’ he says. ‘People were walking past asking what I was doing, and I had to say, “Because I’m not grateful enough for getting to play golf every day”.’
At the time, it probably didn’t feel funny. Now, it does. ‘He taught me lessons,’ he says. ‘And having kids myself now, I realise that wasn’t easy for him to do.’ With his own children, who he shares with ex-wife Di Stewart, he’s taken a slightly different approach. Less rigid, but still with high expectations. ‘If they say they’re going to do something, they have to be all in,’ he explains.
Nick’s progress through the amateur ranks was rapid, representing Lancashire, England and Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup. Along the way, he came under the guidance of his childhood idol, Nick Faldo, who took time to work with him as a young player. From there, he turned professional.
He competed alongside the game’s biggest names through the noughties and into the 2010s, including Tiger Woods – an experience he still describes as one of the defining moments of his career. He retired from professional golf in 2016 and is now a familiar face as a presenter on Sky Sports Golf. These days, he is based in the south, but his connection to the area remains, with his father based nearby in Buckshaw Village.
He recounts the toothbrush story later that evening at the centenary dinner, standing in front of a room filled with familiar faces. ‘I do these sorts of evenings all the time,’ he tells the room. ‘But I’ve never done one here. And I’ve never done one with my dad in the room.’
Nick takes the opportunity to thank his father, the man who made the move, who pushed him, who gave him the opportunity. ‘Everything I’ve had in my life came from that,’ he says. He extends thanks to the members too for supporting him along the way. ‘When I look around the room, I don’t just see faces, I see stories, moments of my life,’ he says. ‘So many of you here have managed to tap into my heart over the years.’
The conversation turns to the sudden loss of his mother, Ennis, shortly after Nick had played in the Masters at Augusta. She had been a familiar presence at the club, part of the journey from the very beginning.
‘My mum passed away the following week,’ he says. ‘At the time, I thought I needed to go and make the Ryder Cup team for her, like that would be the thing she’d want. But I realised later… all she ever wanted was for me to be happy.’
There are lighter moments and more laughs too. He talks about the shift in the modern game, the margins at the top, and the difference between very good players and the very best. ‘The gap is massive,’ he says. ‘People don’t always realise that. You can be a really good professional golfer and still be miles away from the top of the game.’
It’s something he understands better now, looking back, particularly in his role as a broadcaster, where he spends time with players he once competed against.
‘You learn a lot just listening to them,’ he says. ‘And the biggest thing is how simple they keep it. The best players don’t overcomplicate it.’
For all the places the game has taken him, Shaw Hill still feels like home for Nick. Before the evening celebrations, he went back out on the fairway to hit a few balls, just as he had all those years ago, only this time with a slightly larger audience.
‘Going out there today was actually more nerve-wracking than being on TV,’ he admits. But the nerves didn’t take long to fade. Standing there, with his fiancée Selena watching on, the moment clearly meant something. ‘I was saying to Selena, I’m so proud to introduce you to everyone here, because they’ve been such a big part of my life.
‘It’s over 30 years since I first came to the club and so many of the same faces are still here,’ he says. ‘They supported me then and they’re still here supporting me now.’.
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