The Desert Swing concludes this week with the Qatar Masters. This used to be the middle tournament of the three out in the desert but a shift in the calendar combined with the addition of the Oman event means it now rounds off the swing.
Unfortunately for the tournament the move has not helped the profile of it. With the first WGC event of the year next week many of Europe’s finest, who were regulars in this competition in the past, are either resting or playing in America so a weak field will take on the wonderful course in Doha.
Recent Winners
2017 – Jeunghun Wang
2016 – Branden Grace
2015 – Branden Grace
2014 – Sergio Garcia
2013 – Chris Wood
2012 – Paul Lawrie
2011 – Thomas Bjorn
2010 – Robert Karlsson
2009 – Alvaro Quiros
2008 – Adam Scott
The Course
It is a trip to the excellent Doha Golf Club for the tournament this week. The course remains a par 72 which measures 7,400 yards but with the dry air and the firmness of the track it doesn’t play as long as that although there are a number of doglegs on the track so it isn’t a course which can be slaughtered through the air easily.
The big characteristic of the course is the exposed nature of it which means that any wind there is this week will have an impact on the tournament. In terms of getting good scores out of it this is one where the fairways and the greens need to be hit. Good scrambling is also required as it is in all the tournaments in this part of the world.
The Field
We can’t get away from the fact that this is one of the weakest fields this tournament has had. A reduced prize fund and the situation of it in the calendar are the chief reasons for that but the event does have Jeunghun Wang attempting to defend the title.
There are some household names in the field. Thorbjorn Olesen is no stranger to winning titles while Chris Wood was runner up last week and we have Andy Sullivan here too. Nicolas Colsaerts and Thomas Detry lead the charge from Belgium while Shubhankar Sharma goes in search of his third win of the season.
Market Leaders
Thorbjorn Olesen has won on wind swept tracks in the past not least the Alfred Dunhill Links so he is probably a worthy 16/1 favourite this week but there has always been an all or nothing element to his game. I’m not sure the playing for position that is necessary off the tee here suits his game either which would be a concern. He’s a standout player in a weak field though.
The defending champion Jeunghun Wang is next in the betting at 20/1 along with the former winner Chris Wood. Wang saw off a much better field than this one to win the title last year so on that basis he has to be a genuine runner here. Wood looked very solid last week but I’m not sure he wins enough for my liking to take at 20/1.
Andy Sullivan continues to attempt to come back to his very best form and he would fit the profile required to go well around here. He has a decent desert record too but he clearly is not in tip top form right now and even in this weakened field there doesn’t appear to be much value in his price.
Julian Suri and George Coetzee are next in the betting at 25/1. Coetzee has a decent record around here without winning the tournament while Suri is the highest ranked player in the field. Coetzee doesn’t win enough and I worry about him in contention while Suri has been jetting all over the place in recent times.
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Main Bets
I’m going to go with three this week in terms of main bets with the first being a man with two top 10s in the desert already this season in Fabrizio Zanotti and in both events – Abu Dhabi and Oman – he was fifth for all around ranking and high up on the tee to green and scrambling statistics. That ticks literally every box I want. We saw at Woburn in the year the British Masters returned that he can play in the wind and at 40/1, in this field he looks a leading bet.
Benjamin Hebert has been very consistent in recent times with just one missed cut in his last 12 tournaments and he arrives here off the back of a top 10 in Oman which only Stephen Gallacher had a better all-around ranking for the week than him. He was in the top 25 in a much stronger field for driving accuracy, greens hit, scrambling and putting. If he can put a repeat of that together he should be capable of bettering a tenth place finish here three years ago.
Richie Ramsay is another I believe has a leading chance in this tournament. Firstly he will be fine should the wind blow but also only five men in the field better him for greens in 2018 but nobody is better than him this season. He will need to find some putts but with him giving himself more chances on the greens than most just a normal percentage of putts holed should have him firmly in the mix to follow up his sixth placed finish in a significantly stronger field than this in Dubai recently.
Outsiders
The bigger prices have given us a run for our money in recent times and there are two of those I like here too. Robert Rock is the first of those. He came to the party in the final round last week and while the last couple of holes got the better of him as he was chasing a score to post the week overall will have been a positive one. He has a win in the desert to his name in Abu Dhabi and copious other top 10s in the Dubai events while he showed he can handle the wind in the Dunhill Links last season among other events. If he can put back to back weeks together there is no reason why he can’t be right there on Sunday again.
My final pick is a horse for a course because Thomas Aiken is in no real form whatsoever for horse and course worked well for me in California last week and I’m hoping for the same here. Aiken has three top 10s around this track in significantly better fields than this one. Even when he isn’t playing well he hits fairways and greens so if being back somewhere with nice memories gets the putter cooperating again he might deliver a return for us.
Tips
Back F.Zanotti to win Qatar Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
Back B.Hebert to win Qatar Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back R.Rock to win Qatar Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
Back T.Aiken to win Qatar Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Betfred (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
Back R.Ramsay to win Qatar Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 61.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-5)
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