Els back in action at Qatar Masters

South Africa’s Ernie Els, winner in Doha in 2005, makes his first Tour start of the year at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters with one eye on the title and another on the toughest field ever seen in the desert state.

Following his victory at the South African Open in December, the ‘Big Easy’ kicked off his spikes and enjoyed a well-earned spot of jet-setting that saw him holiday in South Africa, Mauritius and England. But Els is back in business in Doha this week and even though he’s again in the world’s top five the South African is wary of the ‘best field ever seen in Qatar’ and a course he describes as ‘tough but fair’.

“It’s great to be back,” smiled Els as many of the 120-man field took to the 7,355-yard Doha Golf Club. “It seems this tournament gets bigger every year, which is great credit to Commercialbank. They have some real quality players this week so this is a very strong field for this early in the year, which is great to see.”

With Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Chris DiMarco, Stuart Appleby, defending champion Henrik Stenson, Darren Clarke, Miguel Angel Jimenez and the red-hot Paul Casey in the field, Els knows this is the strongest in-depth group of players competing in the famed ‘Desert Swing’.

But it’s not only the field that has the Big Easy impressed – the famed, wind-whipped course is also a particular favourite.

“When I won in 2005, it should have been Henrik’s (Stenson) title but he couldn’t make birdies on the last day and I was lucky,” admitted Els.

“But it is a very demanding course, especially in the wind. It’s very exposed – much more so than any of the other desert courses we play. The par fives are not easy to reach in two, which is very different to Dubai where the par fives are shorter. Doha’s a tougher golf course but it’s also very fair.”

Els will get his first real taste of the course in the customary pre-event Pro-Am before the serious business begins in the $2.2 million tournament, sanctioned by both the PGA European Tour and the Asian Tour.

“It’s nice to see a really strong field here and that boosts the event’s ranking points,” he added. “It’s good for the European Tour and for the Asian Tour.”

January 24, 2007

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