Alistair Docherty is back at TPC Colorado this weekend, where he finished fourth at The Ascendant last year. But after a car accident 1 1/2 months ago, he said he is lucky to be back on a golf course at all.

After taking the lead into the final round at the Korn Ferry Tour stop in Berthoud last July, Docherty slipped a few spots and finished five strokes behind the winner. He eventually just missed out on getting his PGA Tour card by two positions in the final Korn Ferry points standings.

He said the way last season ended stung, but it was nothing compared to what happened at the end of May that forced him to miss a few tournaments.

On the Tuesday before the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open in Knoxville, Tenn., the last weekend of May, Docherty was leaving a practice round and got T-boned at an intersection by a woman who ran a red light.

His vehicle was totaled, but he had no broken bones or bad injuries after an eight-plus hour stay in the hospital.

“I was lucky to be alive,” Docherty said. “The car was completely smashed in. Luckily nobody else was in the car. Otherwise, they’d be dead. I spent about eight, nine hours in the hospital. Luckily nothing was broken. I wasn’t diagnosed with a concussion, but I had a lot of concussion symptoms.

“I tried to push myself, ‘Oh, if I just take a small dosage of Aleve or Advil or whatever, and try and just get through it and power through it.’ I tried to do that the next few weeks. I was actually doing a little more damage to my body than I thought I was.”

Docherty had qualified for the PGA’s U.S. Open, and he wasn’t missing that. He shot a 158 over two rounds at the Oakmont Country Club on June 12-13 and missed the cut. He also played three Korn Ferry events in June but said his body was taking a beating.

He went back home to Scottsdale, Ariz., where he found out his injuries were worse than he thought.

“I went back home and had a couple of MRIs, found out there were a few things wrong with the C5, C6, C7 vertebrae in the neck and a lot of damage under my right shoulder, not a fully torn labrum, but some tendonitis and some stuff going on with my rotator cuff, bicep and tricep. So, my whole right side and my lower neck have been pretty compressed and damaged.”

Docherty has spent the past two weeks doing nothing but physical therapy multiple times a day. From cardio to seeing physical and massage therapists to taking ice baths, he did all he could to get his body ready to play again.

He was cleared to get back on the golf course Friday. He wasn’t going to miss The Ascendant, he said. So, he flew out to Colorado on Monday.

He admits he is exhausted, but he believes he is ready to get out and compete again.

“People don’t realize how much stamina you really need to be walking these golf courses, especially at this altitude,” Docherty said. “Even though I did have those two weeks of rest and recovery, it was a lot of work on my part. I was more able to rest my mind more than anything else. I’m just trying to make sure that I’m able to keep going after this, so taking care of my body every day, getting rest is a very key thing.”

Docherty will tee off Thursday morning to begin what he hopes is another solid tournament at TPC Colorado. The 63 he shot in the third round last year tied for the lowest round in the short history of The Ascendant, and the TPC Colorado Championship before the tournament changed names in 2022.

He even had a putt for a 62 but missed it.

“I played a pretty solid round,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you shot by shot, but I know that I had a putt for 62. That’s about all I really remember. I just felt like I hit a lot of fairways, and I was hitting my spots on the greens. It was just if the putts were going to drop or not, and I definitely hit it a lot closer on that Saturday. And then I got a couple to drop in my favor.”

Docherty feels like a weather delay hurt him during last year’s final round, when he shot a 69 to eventually finish fourth.

He said The Ascendant and the TPC Colorado course has been one he has had circled since last year. After coming up just short, he feels like it is a tournament he can win.

“It’s a golf course that I really like, and no matter how I’m feeling, I feel like I do have a chance,” he said.