European Tour Fantasy Golf Predictions – Commercial Bank Qatar Masters

2019 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters Preview

Last week’s Oman Open proved just how important it is to have a win under your belt when contesting for titles.

Various players were vying for the title, including Fabrizio Zanotti, Scott Jamieson, Max Kieffer and Clement Sordet, but none are what we might call ‘prolific’ and all fluffed their lines as the lead flip-flopped in an engrossing final round.

In the end, it was left to Kurt Kitayama – who won the Mauritius Open earlier in the campaign – to get the job done, with the American birdieing two of the last three holes to just take the tape first.

From Oman the Tour heads to Qatar, a similarly desert-style location just along the Gulf coast.

Tom Lewis of England plays his shot from the 13th tee during the…

Tom Lewis of England plays his shot from the 13th tee during the first round of World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec on February 21, 2019 in Mexico City, Mexico. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

The key factor in golf in these parts of the world is the wind, and the early forecast suggests an almighty breeze will blow with speeds of between 18-21 mph predicted for all four days!

That should help to make the Qatar Masters an interesting spectacle, if nothing else, and will test the skills of the players on what would otherwise be a fairly straightforward Doha GC assignment.

Designed by Peter Harradine, who is also responsible for the Abu Dhabi GC which hosts the Abu Dhabi HSBC each year, this is a lengthy 7,400 yard Par 72 track that could play longer in the wind. It is exposed and flat, with a Links look and feel, with artificial lakes proving an obstacle on six of the holes.

Eddie Pepperell won here at a mark of -18 a year ago, and his blueprint was obvious: find lots of fairways. He ranked just 75th for Driving Distance, choosing to keep his driver sheathed for most of his winning effort, but in ranking second for Driving Accuracy clearly he was well placed to approach these large and contoured Bermuda greens.

Jeunghun Wang followed a similar path to glory in 2017, so perhaps this is the route our winner will take this week too.

Otherwise, there’s not much to work with, although form at another surprising correlating course – Dom Pedro Victoria, home of the Portugal Masters, is also worth considering.

With all of the above in mind, here’s our six-man roster for the Qatar Masters.

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This Week’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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This Week’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters Fantasy Picks

Tom Lewis – $10,600 – It’s easy to gloss over Lewis’ chances this week given that he’s had a tough couple of weeks.

Indeed, many will opt for Thomas Pieters – who has obvious claims – but there’s always a whiff of self-destruction about the Belgian, and blowing more than 20% of your salary cap on a player prone to bouts of tempestuousness is a bold move.

Instead, the Englishman strikes us as a sounder bet based upon his form on the Links and in the desert.

You don’t have to look too far back for form, with Lewis finishing solo third at the Saudi International plus top-tens at the Abu Dhabi HSBC (one of our correlations, remember) and the DP World Tour Championship.

Oh, and he won last season in our other correlating event, the Portugal Masters, and banked top-10s in two other Links-based outings in the British Masters and the Alfred Dunhill Links.

Jorge Campillo – $9,800 – With ten finishes of second or third on the European Tour, Jorge Campillo has been knocking on the door of his maiden win for some time.

Clearly, there are issues with finishing the job, and so what we need are the perfect conditions and a weak field for the Spaniard to finally get over the winning line.

Perhaps those will come this week, given that Campillo is a fine Links exponent that is comfortable playing in the wind.

The Spaniard has top-tens in each of the Irish, Scottish and French Opens, and finished T2 at the Oman Open just last week.

The world number 99 ranks seventh on the European Tour for Par 5 Scoring, too.

Zander Lombard – $7,800 – The South African is a mercurial sort, that’s for sure, but he’s clearly got a lot of talent and tends to shine on the Links.

The highlight of his career thus far was being in the mix at the halfway stage of the British Open last summer, and the notion that he’s at his best in a fierce gale is confirmed by top performances in the Rocco Forte Open (T2), the Australia PGA Championship (T4) and the Irish Open (T6).

Lombard should, in theory, enjoy the test at Doha GC, so let’s hope he follows his recent trend of taking plenty of irons off the tee rather than butchering his driver horizontally into the next city.

Andrea Pavan – $7,500 – You might think that Italians are hardly ideal candidates when it comes to Links golf, but lest we forget that Francesco Molinari is the reigning British Open champion, while Andrea Pavan has also shown some form in admittedly lower-class events.

He has a T5 to his name in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, as well as other eye-catching finishes in the Scottish Hydro Challenge (T2), the Wales Open (T9) and the Rocco Forte Sicilian Open (T9).

Finishing T13 here a year ago, Pavan ranked tied fourth for Greens in Regulation; the same ranking he attained for GIR at the Oman Open last week. His closing round of 69 was the joint best of the day, too.

Scott Jamieson – $7,200 – Like Campillo, Scott Jamieson is another we can file under the European Tour nearly men tag.

The Scot has won before but that came back in 2012, and since then there has been nine top-three finishes without the ultimate reward.

He plays much of his best golf in South Africa, but Jamieson is adept in the desert and has bagged decent returns from our two correlating events: T11 in the Abu Dhabi HSBC and T20 in the Portugal Masters, which isn’t in the desert but you know what we mean.

The Scot is one of the best Par 5 protagonists on the Tour, and he should have plenty of fun on the longer holes in Qatar.

Ashley Chesters – $7,100 – When we talk about Links golf in Europe, it’s hard to ignore the claims of Ashley Chesters, who finished T12 in the British Open as an amateur in 2015.

He also won the European Amateur event at St Andrews, so this is a young man unafraid of a stiff breeze.

The Englishman recorded a T9 finish in the Oman Open last week to go with T12 at the Vic Open, and while these thing don’t always pan out you would expect a nice continuation of that form in conditions that should suit.

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