Defending champion Justin Harding will lead an exciting South African contingent at this week’s Qatar Masters, writes ANDRE HUISAMEN.
The Education City Golf Club will debut as host for this year’s edition of the competition with the new Education City Stadium, which will be active in the 2022 Fifa World Cup, making for a spectacular skyline backdrop on the course.
With a few big South African names set to compete at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week, the Qatar Masters opens the door for a few of the younger players to have a crack, similar to Harding’s success of last year.
George Coetzee, Zander Lombard, Brandon Stone, Dean Burmester and Haydn Porteous are some of the in-form names from recent European Tour events, who will feature in Doha.
While this is also an exciting opportunity for Justin Walters, Wilco Nienaber, Marthiam Keyser, Darren Fichardt and Hennie du Plessis to compete among Europe’s elite.
Fichardt famously won the competition back in 2003 when he beat countryman James Kingston in a playoff.
Harding, though, is confident of his chances heading into the weekend and is hoping to hit the ground running when play gets under way on Thursday.
Stone, Compleat Golfer‘s playing editor, will also be riding high on some confidence after he came extremely close to winning the Oman Open over the weekend, only narrowly losing out to Sami Valimaki in a playoff.
Burmester has also been fairly consistent on the European Tour so far this year with a number of solid performances in the Middle East, which have moved up to 29th in the Race to Dubai.
Lombard, who is 33rd on the list, will be looking to keep his form ticking over after what has also been quite a good season and year for him on Tour so far.
Coetzee, though, will really fancy his chances this week with the performances he’s been delivering of late.
Twice a runner-up at the Qatar Masters, the 33-year-old will be in a great space heading into the first round after producing good showings in South Africa and Oman in recent weeks.
