Golf Events / Tareq Quiroz / 23 January 2008 / Leave a Comment

He got it spot-on last week, can TQ do it again?

It's part two of the Middle East swing, Doha GC in Qatar is the host and we have a fabulous field assembled for the occasion.

Against all the odds it seems the European Tour just gets better every year. The money on offer on the PGA Tour is so vast that you would think that the quality of field on the European Tour would deteriorate as time went by. This is not the case and if anything it is now attracting better and better players from around the world.

The Qatar Masters is now an established part of the tour and a regular event on the top players' early season schedule. In its ten previous runnings three major winners and other top players such as Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson have won it. You can expect a big showing from the market leaders this week and it would be no surprise to see one of them hoisting the trophy aloft come Sunday afternoon.

But as much as I like the top few in the market I feel that the winner lies elsewhere. My main fancy this week is a man who has a tendency to play well at this time of year and when in contention is very tough to beat. That man is Niclas Fasth, he is a tremendous competitor who seems to lift his game in the big events. He missed the cut last week but don't let that faze you as he is a notoriously hot and cold player. His terrific iron play suits the set-up of this course and you can expect him to be right in the mix down the final stretch of the tournament. Get on at his current price of [46.0] and you will not be disappointed.

If the wind blows at Doha then scoring can become tricky but essentially the course sets up nicely for those players who like to go low. I fancy Fasth fits the bill but I also recommend a nice saver on Steve Webster at around [90.0]. Both his Tour wins have come on birdie courses and I am sure that Webster will love this track in his current form. He is more than capable of putting some good numbers together and simply cannot be ignored this week.

Scrolling a little further down the market there are a few that catch the eye as potential big priced contenders. The one I couldn't get away from is the flamboyant Swede, Johan Edfors. He burst onto the scene in 2006 with an amazing three wins but by those standards had a mediocre 2007. This is often the case when players make the breakthrough and I am sure he will come back stronger this season. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get back on the winner's rostrum this season and how can you not have a small saver on him this week at odds of around [300.0]. You never know, this week might be the week Edfors bites back.

All three of the players mentioned will be desperate for a Tour win and they will not be alone in thinking that if they can secure an early season victory then qualifying for the Ryder Cup team is a real possibility.

It is often said that it is harder to win tournaments in a Ryder Cup year, but surely this is just a myth? I don't doubt there is more at stake in a Ryder Cup year but I don't go in for the whole harder to win thing. Do the top players really turn it on earlier and more often in such years? I for one don't subscribe to that theory, do you?

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