Notorious Championship Course at Doha Golf Club: What champions say about it?
Let’s have an overview of what exactly the players might be dealing with at the lengthy 7,412 yards to a par of 72 Championship Course at Doha Golf Club, venue of the latest Commercialbank Qatar Masters.
The event has kicked off on the scenic desert course, designed by one of the renowned course designers in the world, Peter Harradine.
Harradine has designed a whopping 160 golf courses worldwide. The Championship Course at Doha GC was unveiled in the year 1997 and has since been the host to many of the high profile events both in Middle East as well as for the visiting European Tour events.
The course comprises of eight giant lakes, garnished with 65 huge Cacti and artistic Limestone carvings which provide a unique blend with the sand dunes in the horizon.
What has been more of consideration, however, is the sweeping Shamal Winds, which have been a cause of concern for many of the European and American players who are not used to of such conditions.
Dane Thomas Bjorn will be hoping to retain the title he won last year, amid one of the stronger fields this year. Regarding the windy course he said,
"Last year we had very windy conditions, and it seems that that's going to continue this year. The golf course is quite a bit different this year, there's not as much rough but the greens are a lot firmer than they were last year and maybe a little bit more tricky”.
Top-ranked players on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) excluding the world's number one Luke Donald and number two Rory McIlroy, several top notch players will be pitched in a stiff battle to surge to the top during the weekend.
World number three Lee Westwood is also one of the hopefuls who will be bidding for the top slot despite of being injury-stricken for the moment.
He said, “It’s a really tough test. So you really need to be in the fairway and have control of the golf ball. The greens are always pretty true and quite firm, so you need to make a few putts”.
Players Championship winner K. J. Choi is also starting his season from Doha GC and hopes to land an early title before the major championships in the middle of the season.
Choi insists that it is very important to make it to the fairways in order to control the iron shots later.
2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell shared his fears about the course.
He revealed that the roughs are not as thick as they were the last time, something which may cause problems for the Ulsterman.
He weighed his options of playing defensively for the starting rounds and agreed that, “This golf course is always pretty difficult”.
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