BlogQatar Masters Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

Have to wonder about this tournament.  Seems to have problems getting really good fields anymore, players like Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy just don’t play here anymore. They couldn’t even get Brendan Grace, who has won it the last two years to defend.  Also Sergio Garcia, who won it in 2014 and has played the event every year since 2007 is a no show.  Another past champion Henrik Stenson said no, he at least had an excuse wanting to spend some time with his wife for their ten year anniversary.  With no American’s and a very weak field have to say that this event has lost a lot of it’s shine.  Of course in most cases when top players don’t show up that means the tournament isn’t paying any “appearance fees” and it seems that Qatar may have a limited budget in paying top stars to show up, one of the reasons for a poor field like this week.

One tournament that won’t get a star player is next week’s Dubai Classic.  Rory McIlroy will miss it due to the stress fracture in a rib, two weeks ago the problem came up in South Africa and after a MRI scan to determine the problem the advice was to take time off.  Doctors have weighed in and said anywhere from four to six weeks is the time, right now McIlroy is suppose to play the Genesis Open in three weeks so we will have to wait and see.

The whole point is the field isn’t that great and some of the luster has gone away on this and the desert swing.

Tournament Information:

The second oldest of the three Desert Swing events, the Qatar Masters debuted in 1998 with Andrew Coltart becoming it’s first champion.  Over the years with the growth of appearance money being given the event gained more prestige with marquee winners like Adam Scott, Retief Goosen, Henrik Stenson, Thomas Bjorn and Sergio Garcia.  One oddity of the three Desert Swing events, it has never been won by an American or even had an American runner-up.

Course Information 

• Played at the Doha Golf Club
• Doha, Qatar – Par:  72 / Yardage: 7,348

Doha Golf Club is the only grass course in Qatar.  Millions of gallons of water are needed to keep the fairways and greens alive.  Course was built and opened 1996, Peter Harradine designed it.  He also built the Abu Dhabi Golf Course were last week’s event was held at.  It measures  7,348 yards, has eight artificial lakes weaving their way along most of the holes but coming into play on six hole. With the addition of a punishing rough made up of desert sand, rocks, trees, shrubs and long grass and cleverly bunkered fairways that twist and turn, the utmost accuracy will be of crucial importance.  To complete the transformation from desert to golf course, 1,300 palm trees, 10,000 trees and 5 000 shrubs were planted together with 65 cacti imported from the Arizona desert.

The key to playing the course is to have windless conditions.  If by chance the area is hit by the Shamal winds it makes the course very tough.  Back in 2012 the event was hit by these winds and the tournament had to be reduced to 54 holes.  The good news, the weather forecast is calling for great weather all four days with no rain and minimal winds.

The Qatar Masters was first staged in 1998, and after being played Wednesday to Saturday has gone back to the traditional Thursday to Sunday schedule.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the CommercialBank Qatar Masters:

Key stat for the winner:

Hitting lot’s of greens is very important.  Of the last eight winners back to 2009 six of the eight were in the top-six in that stat

Here are some more key stats to look to for this week:

• The Qatar Masters has been known as a tournament that produces low scores as the winner has had an average score of 16 under par.  Again watch the winds, that has a lot to do with the scoring.
• You can’t call this course a long hitters paradise.  Yes Alvaro Quiros won in 2009 averaging the best of those in the field but since then the winners have been in the middle in hitting it long.
• Mastering the par 4s is key, five of the last seven winners have lower under totals on 4s than on the par 5s. Last year Branden Grace was 4 under on the par 4s and 10 under on the par 5s.  But the year before he Grace won it by being 12 under on the par 4s and only 5 under on the par 5s.