Niall Lyons is 80+ points up this season - he picks out four tips for the Qatar Masters at Doha Golf Club.
Qatar Masters
The Commercia Bank Qatar Masters will be held at Doha Golf Club, Qatar.
In 2020 and 201 this event moved from it's longtime home of Doha Club but this course has held every renewal of the event bar those two dating back to the late 1990s.
Sami Valimaki in 2023 was the latest player who is well versed in wind play to win at this venue and he joined a long list of Champions who have form in similar conditions and in particular links golf. Paul Lawrie, Ernie Els and Henrik Stenson are three Open Champions who have won at this venue. Garcia, Bjorn and Scott are three champions here who all blew great chances to win the Open also.
Last years winner Haotong Li has two top 4 finishes in Open Championships in five appearances. Pepperell, Grace and Wood make up another trio who have some fine links records and in conclusion we are looking to these types of players who are well equipped to score in tricky conditions.
In terms of the statistics it's difficult to pinpoint something concrete, but a solid tee to green display mainly through iron play and work around the greens tend to be the most important aspects to scoring well around here.
Qatar Masters Past Winners
- 2025 - Haotong Li (-16)
- 2024 - R.Hoshino (-14)
- 2023 - S.Valimaki (-18)
- 2022 - Ewen Ferguson (-7)
- 2021 - A.Rozner (-8) *Education City Course
- 2020 - J.Campillo (-13) *Education City Course
- 2019 - J.Harding (-13)
Qatar Masters Winner Stats
Qatar Masters Tips
- 3pts WIN M.Wallace 23/1 Spreadex, SportingIndex
- 1.75pts each-way M.Armitage 35/1 (1/5 6) General
- 1.5pts each-way M.Couvra 50/1 (1/5 6) General
- 1pt each-way J.Kruyswijk 90/1 (1/5 6) General
Matt Wallace at 23/1 (WIN)
Patrick Reed warrants plenty of respect at the top of the market, as does Jayden Schaper and the two of them combined may prove a tough not to crack this week. However, preference is for Matt Wallace who looks a half decent price in this field.
Wallace went off a general 28/1 shot a few weeks ago in the Dubai Invitational, a field which included McIlroy, Fleetwood, Lowry, Puig and Neergaard Peteresen. He finished 7th there with a second round of 73 costing him the chance of a victory.
He will play across both tours with conditional status on the PGA Tour this year and a trip to the Californian Desert after Dubai resulted in a missed cut but two under par on the Stadium Course is certainly no disaster.
7th and 2nd have been two of his last three finishes on this tour and frankly this is where his big chances lie.
He has won the Dubai Desert Classic and twice been runner up at the Earth Course so this type of golf is certainly within reach for the Englishman.
He will have dusted himself off after missing out on the Ryder Cup once again and if he is to make it finally in 2027 performances on this tour are crucial.
Despite Hillier's form I'm surprised Wallace isn't third favourite here and I'm rather happy about getting 20/1+.
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Marcus Artmitage at 35/1 (Six Places)
Marcus Artmitage is playing this game far too good to ignore and he could be on the cusp of something special in 2026.
Currently ranking 15th on the Race to Dubai the 38 year old will be starting to dream of a PGA Tour card at the end of this year and given the golf he is playing it may not be too far fetched to suggest he may get it.
Two 7th placed finishes have kicked off 2026 in fields much stronger than this and with all departments of his game in fine working order he should take a huge amount of confidence to Qatar.
Quite simply his iron play has been spectacular over the last six or seven months and he can consider himself a shade unlucky not to have gotten a bit more out of it. Controlling iron shots is a huge component of the task in Qatar and he holds a big advantage over the rest in that department.
His last five tournaments where stats have been compiled he has ranked 13-10-9-7-6 in strokes gained approach. His putter is performing well so far this year also so everything bodes well.
A runner up at the Dunhill Links and 5th here back in 2022 all points towards a big performance this week.
Martin Couvra at 50/1 (Six Places)
Niklas Lemke could spring a little surprise here given he has an excellent record across Doha and Education City.
Winless in a long career to date though it takes a leap to get involved. It is difficult to ignore the chances of Martin Couvra this week and the Frenchman makes it into the staking plan. This is only his second season on the main stage and he has already landed a victory by winning the Turkish Airlines Open last year. He finished off in 2025 impressively enough with a 7th placed finish in Johannesburg and has since landed another top 10 in January finishing 10th in the Dubai Desert in a much deeper field than the one on display this week.
Four under par rounds last week in Bahrain for a top 25 finish was a fair effort with driving and putting being his main positives to take from those four days. 5th on his debut here last year means he has a small bank of desert form built already in only just over a year on tour.
He should be brimming with confidence after the last month or so and I expect another decent performance here in Qatar.
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Jacques Kruyswijk at 90/1 (Six Places)
Hennie Du Plessis could go really well in suitable conditions this week but I can't quite pull the trigger on somebody who has only won one event on the Sunshine Tour and hasn't managed a victory on either the DPWT or the Challenge Tour.
Another South African who has though and looks to be really trending is Jacques Kruyswijk. Kruyswijk won in February of last year when he won at Muthaiga and even though his strengths may lie on a tighter golf course I'm happy to give hm a go this week.
In his last four events he has managed to finish inside the top 5 in strokes gained approach in three of them.
Having won before at altitude in Kenya and a top 5 finish at the Barracuda at similar levels this spells to us that he can control his yardages really well.
That is a huge advantage in Qatar where the wind blows an awful lot. His putter has heated up this year also in his two top 20 finishes in Dubai in January so he has plenty going for him on a golf course where he has made the cut in four of his five appearances.
