Dougherty starts charge in Qatar

England’s Nick Dougherty has made headway on the early leaderboard on the second day of the Commercialbank Qatar Masters in Doha.

If the first-round headlines had been grabbed by one prodigy, Danny Denison, Dougherty made sure he was another making the news by vying with overnight joint leader Henrik Stenson.

The 23-year-old, Nick Faldo’s protégé, moved menacingly to seven under – one behind Swede Stenson, with four birdies and no dropped shots after 14 holes.

Playing with Dougherty, Stenson was in no mood to surrender the advantage his big-hitting game gave him yesterday.

His three birdies by 14 were offset by just one bogey, where he took four on the par-three 17th – leaving him at two under for his round.

Darren Fichardt, of South Africa, was level with Dougherty after 11 – his two birdies moving him on from five under overnight.

Fichardt’s countryman Charl Schwartzel and the other leader after round one, Argentinian Ricardo Gonzalez, were at six under – where they were soon joined by Graeme Storm, the Englishman quietly compiling a tidy round after nine.

Ernie Els made a slow start to his first round, shooting two over par, but looked a little more like his old self today.

Starting on the back nine, the South African world number five dropped a shot at the 15th but birdied four of his next seven holes to move to four under with four holes left.

Els headed a group which also included Dane Thomas Bjorn, France’s Jean Van de Velde – who turned in a far steadier round after his birdie-bogey blitz of yesterday – and 2004 Qatar Masters champion Joakim Haeggman of Sweden.

There were two hole in ones, too – one from Ireland’s Peter Lawrie and the other from Thongchai Jaidee, of Thailand.

Both aced the par-three third but missed out on the prize of a car, which is on offer for the first player to sink a similar shot at the 17th.