BlogQatar Masters Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

My goodness how ugly was the Martin Kaymer’s finish at Abu Dhabi.  Kaymer had the reputation as one of golf’s best front-runners and he proved it last year with his wins at the Players and U.S. Open, both with big leads in the final round.  So when Kaymer stepped on the sixth tee on Sunday with a ten shot lead it was just a matter of getting it to the house.  In a span of eight holes and about 90 minutes Kaymer dropped six shots and with pars on his final five holes it was all over.  Frenchman Gary Stal shot a final round 65, playing the back nine in 3 under to hold on and win by a shot over Rory McIlroy and two over Kaymer.

When he finished he was asked what happened: “A little shocked, surprised,” said Kaymer. “I don’t know how to put it into words.”  It’s very hard to put it into words because this shouldn’t of never happened.  After a bogey at six, he made double bogey on 9 and then a triple=bogey on 13.  On the back nine he did make eight pars, but with a triple on the 13th hole things went down hill.

You have to wonder if this collapse will have any long term problems for Kaymer.  It’s really hard to fight back, just look at Arnold Palmer. Many say he wasn’t the same in his debacle at Olympic Golf Course in the 1966 U.S. Open.  How long will it take to see if any scars are left on this, Kaymer returns next week at Dubai.

Tournament Information:

The second oldest of the three Desert Swing events, the Qatar Masters debuted in 1998 Andrew Coltart became 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 eventsit has never been won by an American or even had an American runner-up.  In recent years this event has moved up past Dubai in being able to draw marquee names.

Course Information :

• Played at the Doha Golf Club
• Doha, Qatar – Par:  72 / Yardage: 7,400

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  7,388 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.  The good news, the weather forecast is calling for great weather all four days with no rain and minimal winds. In looking again, wind could be a factor on Sunday, again hard to look six days in the future so check on the link when the tournament begins.

The Qatar Masters was first staged in 1998, it will be the second year in a row that the contest has a Wednesday start.

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

Key stat for the winner:

Seems that hitting lot’s of greens is very important.  Of the six winners back to 2009 five of the six 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, four of the last five winners have lower under totals on 4s than on the par 5s.
• Henrik Stenson had an excellent run in this event between 2005 and 2009, winning it once and finishing runner-up on three occasions. But with the advent of all his problems, personally, financially and with his game his next four visits to Qatar only produced on top-twenty finish.  So which direction will the winner of the 2013 Race to Dubai go?  He did miss the cut last week in Abu Dhabi so we will see if things get better this week.