BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: Defending champion and world number six Sergio Garcia could be the player to beat at this week’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, Dubai-based Henrik Stenson said yesterday.
Last year, Garcia edged Finland’s Mikko Ilonen in a play-off to win the event and move into the world top-10 after an intense battle at the picturesque Doha Golf Club (DGC).
“Yeah, it would be hard not to put him in that situation,” Stenson, the 2006 Qatar Masters champion, said ahead of today’s opening action.
“He’s played really well around here and played this tournament a lot of times as well,” the 38-year-old Swede added.
“That (putting Garcia as favourite) takes all the pressure away from me so let’s do that,” the world number two added.
Garcia, 35, will be attempting to become the first player to defend his title at DGC where Stenson will be seeking to re-discover form after missing the cut in Abu Dhabi last week.
Stenson recovered from an opening 76 in Abu Dhabi to shoot a four-under 68 and now hopes he can kick-start his season in Doha, where strong winds are forecast for the opening round.
“At least I played better the second day than the first day,” Stenson said of his miserable show in Abu Dhabi. “Yeah, a little bit of a slow start,” he added.
“I hope to improve on last week’s performance this week here,” the Dubai-based golfer said.
“It’s early in the year and a work‑in‑progress but I felt like I played half decent at least 18 out there. It was slow and fairly hot. Not as bad as it was yesterday, still a bit of wind.
“I don’t know what the forecast is (in Doha), but normally we get our fair share of wind here, which is part of the course defence and makes it play better,” said the Swede who has won 13 titles around the world.
“I feel okay. I certainly have played better than I am doing but I’m sure we can probably find a few times where we played worse, as well,” Stenson added.
Stenson who has one title, three runners‑up and a seventh-place finish over the years, knows the course well and expects to regain lost touch this week.
“It has been (a) good hunting ground, and like you say, the win and the three seconds. I guess I’ve figured out a decent way to play the course, and I’ve done some good scores over the years in windy conditions as well,” the popular Swede said.
“Of course it’s down to how well I can play here this week. The day before the tournament, it’s going to be some final practise and preparations and I’m going to head out there and see what we can do,’ he said.
“ (I) got a strong pairing with Ernie (Els), second week now playing with Ernie, and Sergio is back in action, so we’ll have good fun out there. It’s a good group, so looking forward to it,” added the golfer.
Stenson said despite missing the cut, time spent in Abu Dhabi was a relief.
“Well, I was just practising and working on technical stuff before the (Abu Dhabi) event and I couldn’t really incorporate that and take that on to the course. We’re spending some time trying to make things simpler while still getting the important bits in there,” he said.
“You’ve always got to do the work at some point in the season and normally that happens early on and I just didn’t get it together,” Stenson said.
“It was nothing that was particularly good but I played a decent round, the second round, shot 4‑under in the afternoon which wasn’t a bad score by any means. At least I kept the ball in the fairway and hit most of the greens, unlike what I did the first day,” Stenson added.
THE PENINSULA
