Oakmont, Pa. ? Nick Dougherty was young, rich and good-looking, and he took every advantage of it.

He golfed a little and partied a lot, blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cities across Europe. His night-owl antics were so well known he was dubbed “George,” as in George Best, the soccer player whose carousing made him a tabloid staple.

Those days, though, are long gone. Not only has the 25-year-old Englishman cleaned up his act, he’s playing like a phenom again. While the rest of the field staggered through the first round of the U.S. Open on Thursday, Dougherty made it look easy with a 2-under 68. He and Angel Cabrera, who was one stroke back, were the only players to break par.

“I like to think that people who know me as of the last couple of years think of me as one of the most professional players they know. I prepare as well as anyone. I train. I do everything the right way,” said Dougherty, whose other nickname is “Little Nick,” after mentor Nick Faldo. “I strive for perfection, and back in the day that wasn’t the case.

“But, you know, I was a young man, and young men have fun. I don’t regret it. Because now I know the right way to run my life and how to go about my professional career to get the most out of it, because I know what not to do.”

While Britain’s Luke Donald and Justin Rose are well known to American golf fans, Dougherty doesn’t have nearly the same name recognition. But he just might be the best of the bunch.

He was only 6 when he won an under-14 tournament. He caught the eye of Faldo after winning three titles on the Faldo Junior Series, created by the six-time major champion to encourage young European golfers.

He finished 36th on the European tour Order of Merit in 2002 thanks to a pair of top three finishes and was named rookie of the year.

But while Donald, Rose and Paul Casey seemed to make steady progress in their careers, Dougherty was treading water. He dropped to 60th in the Order of Merit the next year, with only one top-10 finish.