This year’s Qatar Masters Golf tournament will feature a strong field of players
The Commercial Bank Qatar Masters Golf Tournament, which will run from February 22 to 25, will feature some of the top players in the world.
Former Open Champions Darren Clarke and Paul Lawrie will head the strong title challenge from Europe. They will be joined by Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjørn and his vice-captain Robert Karlsson, according to The Peninsula.
The 21st edition of the tournament will boast of a brilliant field, featuring a star cast of former winners including 1999 Open Champion Lawrie, who has twice triumphed in the Qatari capital.
The Scot’s first win in Qatar came in the early stages of a season which would define his career, when he soared to a seven-stroke victory in February, 1999, before mounting a late charge to famously defeat Jean van de Velde to the Open Championship later that season.
Clarke, meanwhile, plays the event for the seventh time but for the first time since 2011, when he finished in a share of 12th place.
Captain Bjørn will land in Qatar confident of a strong performance on a course upon which he has played 13 times, and claimed victory in 2011.
The great Dane has made the weekend in ten of those 13 appearances, with two top ten finishes to add to his win seven years ago. A second victory in Qatar will undoubtedly be at the forefront of Bjørn’s mind in Doha.
His close friend and former European Tour Number One Karlsson is the only Vice Captain Bjørn has selected thus far, and the Swede will also be present in Qatar for his 17th appearance in an event which he has also won.
Karlsson emerged victorious in 2010 after finishing two strokes clear of Spain’s Alvaro Quiros, for the tenth of his 11 European Tour titles.
Having made the cut in 15 of his 17 appearances at Doha Golf Club, he will surely be confident of rekindling the kind of form which earned him two Ryder Cup appearances as a player.
