LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Three weeks ago, Chase Dougherty started working with a sport psychologist.

One week ago, he earned the first premier series win of his career, going 3-for-3 at the PBR Ariat Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, in Tacoma, Washington.

That, he says, is not a coincidence.

“She’s been a game-changer,” Dougherty said. “My personal trainer has had me physically fit and ready to go for a long time now, and I just needed that one little piece that I was missing. And that mental aspect was it.

“I’ve had a call with her once a week for the last three weeks, and within two weeks of doing it, I had my first win. The other day I told her, I said, ‘Where’s your magic ball? I want to see it, because there ain’t no way it works just that easy.’”

Dougherty kept the momentum going this weekend at the PBR Cooper Tires Invitational, presented by Kubota, in Louisville, Kentucky, finishing third in Round 1 thanks to his 87.25-point ride on Stand Off.

“Great bull, decent size, right there around to the right,” Dougherty said. “A guy couldn’t ask for one with better timing, and just enough air and followed up with the right amount of kick.”

Dougherty says he didn’t know anything about Stand Off ahead of time, and in fact didn’t even know which bull he had until he arrived at the arena.

It’s another thing he does for his mental game.

“A lot of these guys, they like to study their bulls, and it works for them, and that’s great,” Dougherty said. “And I’ve tried to do that, and it never has really worked for me. I always end up setting a trap or worrying about stuff I don’t need to be worrying about. So lately, I’ve been not even looking at the draw until I get to the event, and I’ll give myself 15 minutes to go do my research if I want to do any. They’re all bulls. They’ve all got four legs and a hump, and they all go up and down and round and round, so it can only get so complicated.”

Keeping it simple has clearly been working. In the last two weeks, Dougherty has jumped from on the bubble of qualifying for the 2023 PBR World Finals on May 12-21 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, to sitting pretty at No. 24 in the Unleash The Beast standings.

He feels like a new man since notching his first win.

“It’s like the world’s been lifted off my shoulders,” Dougherty said. That was one of my goals this year, and we only had two events left, so it was kind of coming down to the wire to get that goal accomplished. It’s really gratifying.

“Going into that one, I didn’t want to be, but I was anxious, nervous, excited for how things were going to go, and when I come in here today, it was just like I was going to watch the NFL game on Sunday. I was just comfortable, and everything just kind of seemed to click. So it was definitely night and day. Confidence is a big thing in this sport.”

And his confidence couldn’t have come at a better time.

It’s been a rollercoaster of a season for the Oregon native. After a solid 2022 season that saw him finish in the No. 16 spot, he missed almost the entire PBR Team Series for the Arizona Ridge Riders due to a neck injury, going 0-for-3.

That had him starting 2023 on the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour. He wasted no time there, winning his first event – the Denver PBR Chute Out at the National Western Stock Show in early January – to secure a spot back on the premier series.

Dougherty competed in a few more Velocity Tour events in March, securing two more Top-3 finishes. But success has been harder to find for him on the premier series – in 10 events, he placed in only four, his best finish a seventh-place showing in Billings, Montana, earlier this month.

Then came his win in Tacoma, thanks to a few tips and tricks from his sport psychologist.

“Just focusing on the stuff that I can control,” Dougherty said. “In our first talk, she made me realize I was really worried about stuff that was way beyond my control, that I had no power over, and I was just wasting a lot of energy on that kind of stuff. So she helped me re-focus my energy into things that I can control, and it’s really made me feel better, and it’s made me perform better, too.”

It’s made him a viable threat to take home the win in Louisville when things conclude on Sunday (2 p.m. on CBS, 4 p.m. on CBS Sports Network) and a true contender at the World Finals.

“Man, I feel really good,” Dougherty said. “I feel better than I ever have going into a PBR World Finals, so I feel good.”

Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media