The Euro Tour will eventually land on home soil but they aren’t rushing things. They stick around in the Middle East for another week as the prep for the Qatar Masters.
This events been running since 1998 and it’s been hosted by Doha Golf Club since the beginning.
Doha is a par 72 that plays around 7,400 yards. It’s a little more than a mile from the coast but still very exposed to the wind most years. That looks to be the case again this week with winds forecasted to really whip for most of the week.
Some call this links-style but there are plenty of trees around the property and overseeded grass which you find on many traditional links layouts. Thorbjorn explained it well in 2016, “It not really a linksy golf course, but breezy. But you need to play a few shots out there, a few low ones in this wind. Every hole has a little bit of a side wind, so you need to control the ball very well.” You can read more about who might like the wind in the Fantasy Golfanac.
Don’t mistake heavy winds for difficulty. This tournament knows the winds are coming and knows the course is exposed. They set the course up to allow for relatively easy scoring conditions. In fact, the field hasn’t averaged over 72 strokes for the week since the 2012 edition.
Let’s dive into some past results to see who might fit the course.
Top Performers on Par 72s (since 2015)
Ross Fisher
Bernd Wiesberger
Alexander Bjork
Victor Dubuisson
Andy Sullivan
Jorge Campillo
Soren Kjeldsen
Thomas Pieters
Pablo Larrazabal
Jordan Smith
Top Performers on Easy Courses (since 2015)
Thomas Pieters
Andy Sullivan
Ross Fisher
Alexander Bjork
Nicolas Colsaerts
Pablo Larrazabal
Thomas Detry
David Horsey
Jorge Campillo
Top Performers in the Middle East (since 2015)
Thomas Pieters
Bernd Wiesberger
Victor Dubuisson
Alexander Bjork
Alejandro Canizares
Jorge Campillo
Maximilian Kieffer
Fabrizio Zanotti
Chris Paisley
David Lipsky
Top Performers on Grainy Greens (since 2015)
Bernd Wiesberger
Thomas Pieters
Ross Fisher
Alexander Bjork
Pablo Larrazabal
Jorge Campillo
Maximilian Kieffer
Jake McLeod
David Lipsky
Victor Dubuisson
Top Performers on Long Courses (since 2015)
Victor Dubuisson
Ross Fisher
Bernd Wiesberger
Jordan Smith
Thomas Pieters
Mike Lorenzo-Vera
Andy Sullivan
Thomas Detry
Jeunghun Wang
Dean Burmester
Golfers that show up on all FIVE lists: Thomas Pieters, Bernd Wiesberger
Golfers that show up on 4-of-5 lists: Alexander Bjork, Victor Dubuisson, Jorge Campillo, Ross Fisher
Golfers that show up on 3-of-5 lists: Pablo Larrazabal, Andy Sullivan
My Top 25 for the 2019 Qatar Masters
1. Jordan Smith
2. Thomas Pieters
3. Mike Lorenzo-Vera
4. Andy Sullivan
5. Tom Lewis
6. Pablo Larrazabal
7. Justin Harding
8. Chris Wood
9. Alexander Bjork
10. Jorge Campillo
11. Fabrizio Zanotti
12. Bradley Dredge
13. Nicolas Colsaerts
14. Thomas Detry
15. Soren Kjeldsen
16. Aaron Rai
17. Ross Fisher
18. George Coetzee
19. Matthias Schwab
20. Scott Jamieson
21. Victor Dubuisson
22. Romain Langasque
23. Mikko Korhonen
24. Adrian Otaegui
25. Paul Waring