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.  On top of that, no top Americans are here so this event has lost a bit of it’s shine of late.

Very strange that Henrik Stenson didn’t play this year.  He 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 six visits to Qatar only produced two top-twenty finish.  Last year he was T-13th but for the first time since 2001 won’t be playing in the event.  Reason why, he was planning on playing but pulled out over the weekend to play if safe with his knee.  He had surgery on the right knee on December 9th and it’s still hurting him.  As he told Sport 360, “it’s been a struggle.  Not so much for the knee.  It’s getting a bit swollen from playing golf and walking but the foot is taking a lot of strain,” Stenson said.  So it’s just a precaution as he hopes to get some rest before playing at Dubai.

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: 7,400

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. 

The Qatar Masters was first staged in 1998, it will be the third 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:

Hitting lot’s of greens is very important.  Of the six winners back to 2009 six of the seven 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 six winners have lower under totals on 4s than on the par 5s. Last year Branden Grace was 12 under on the par 4s and only 5 under on the par 5s.