Sometimes you take existing paths, well-worn and oft trod. Other times you leave trails, going your own way and leaving others to see your footprints. Amanda Doherty has always been the latter.
The surprise early leader of the ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by Aviv Clinics is a 24-year-old from Atlanta who has always carved her own path in life. Doherty followed up her first round 67 at Galgore Castle with another 67 at Massereene Golf Club on Friday to enter the weekend at 11 under, a number that guarantees her a late Saturday start, a first for the 2022 LPGA Tour rookie.
So far this season, Doherty’s best finish has been a tie for 14th at the DIO Implant LA Open that came way back in late April. But on Friday in Northern Ireland she said that we shouldn’t judge her progress solely by the numbers.
“I had been feeling like my game was trending in the right direction, making a few tweaks here and there,” Doherty said. “From the outside looking in you might not see that score-wise, but I've been feeling like it's going the right direction. So it's nice to really kind of confirm that.”
She played well on Sunday at the Evian Championship, posting another 67 which marked her low round of the year prior to arriving in Northern Ireland. After that, Doherty barely missed getting into the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open and then fell short of Monday qualifying for the AIG Women’s Open by just a couple of shots.
So, she hung around and played links golf at nearby Gullane Links – a wonderful complex within walking distance of Muirfield – and she and her mother went to St Andrews, not to play but to drink in the history of the homeplace of golf.
“It's been awesome having my mom here,” Doherty said. “Especially the last few weeks not getting to play. We got to go see some stuff and be tourists for a few days.
“Here this week it's awesome (having her around), because once I'm done, done with my work on the golf course, done for the day, I try to get away and not think about golf and do something else. It definitely helps having my mom here for sure.”
Support from family is ubiquitous among LPGA Tour players. Almost all have a story of parents or siblings sacrificing to make their careers possible. But for Doherty, the key to family isn’t just their support, it is the freedom they have always given her to pursue whatever paths she wanted to make.
Prior to the start of the season, Doherty wrote on LPGA.com, “I played tennis, basketball, softball, and even swam during the summers growing up in Atlanta. My parents wanted me to try all sorts of sports and see which one I liked best. I can’t really pinpoint what eventually drew me to golf, but it was something I got to do with my family, especially my dad — and that was very special to me.”
Her parents never pushed. They allowed Doherty to do her own college outreach – a process that can be brutal on a young person. Amanda cold-called coaches while in high school hoping that someone somewhere would give her a closer look.
That someone turned out to be Amy Bond at Florida State University, the school that also recruited major champion Karen Stupples.
“When I first called her, (Bond) told me, ‘If you're ever passing through Tallahassee, come visit,’” Doherty wrote. “No one accidentally passes through Tallahassee. It’s just south of Thomasville, Georgia and just north of the Apalachicola National Forest, which is not quite the middle of nowhere, but you can see it from there. I thought Coach Bond had written me off.”
Bond hadn’t and Doherty had a successful collegiate career, followed by a great run on the Epson Tour where she put together eight top-10s in 2021 and finished seventh in the Race to the Card, earning her LPGA Tour card for this year.
“The last two years on the Epson Tour were really good learning experiences for me,” Doherty said. “And I think to have put myself in contention so many times last year makes me feel a little bit more comfortable with the position that I'm in now.”
This position is new, but new is nothing different for Doherty. She relishes the challenge of a different path, one she will be forced to walk this weekend.
“(This is) not a position I've really been in before on the LPGA,” she said. “So it's always fun. It's nice to know that I have some good, low rounds in me for sure.”
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