DOHA - Justin Rose was trying to get his “head around” the Doha Golf Club as he prepared to make his sixth appearance at the 2.5 million dollar Qatar Masters beginning Wednesday.
Justin Rose of England hits his tee shot on the 12th hole during the final round of the Hero World Challenge at the Isleworth Golf & Country Club on December 7, 2014 in Windermere, Florida
The Englishman finished the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship seven shots off winner Gary Stal but a strong 65 in the final round has added to his confidence heading to Doha for the second leg of the ‘Desert Swing’.
“A bogey-free 65 is something that you can definitely feel a bit of confidence from. Yeah, looking forward to taking that momentum into this week,” Rose said on Tuesday.
The conditions at the Doha Golf Club – with its thick rough, narrow fairways and the possibility of strong winds – will test the golfers, and Rose knows he has to be at his best to put himself in contention for his first win here.
“Yeah, looking forward to trying to get my head around this golf course. It's not one that's been the kindest to me and been figuring it out the last couple of days,” Rose said.
“It's been more so getting my lines hopefully off the tee, and I feel like there's a lot of run‑outs and carries, and really pick good lines on.”
The 34-year-old world number six feels it would be important for golfers to strike the ball well, especially with strong winds predicted.
“I think drive the ball well, the rough is quite thick and you get a lot of wind out here and a lot of crosswind. Like I said there's a lot of angles, dog‑leg holes where you have to really pick a good line off the tee and put the ball into the fairway and from there, you can play any golf course pretty well.
“The greens here, they have some amount of grain in them but I feel like I'm reading and putting the greens pretty well. Hopefully just keep the long game up, and hopefully I can figure it out this year.
“Really good ball‑striking gets rewarded in the wind. If you're a little bit off with your game, you lose one in the wind, you can be in big trouble out here. There's a lot of sort of rocky outcrops that can get involved. There's plenty of rough, too.
“The fairways aren't that wide, so it's a tough course to play out of the rough. Depending where they put the tees, the course is playing quite long, too, so definitely comes down to driving the ball well.
“My goal is to keep the ball out of the wind as much as possible, keep the flight down and yeah, just play a solid first round, like last week, I think you're going to see some good scoring if the wind drops.”
This year’s Qatar Masters features a strong field with big names such as defending champion Sergio Garcia, world number 2 Henrik Stenson, former winners Ernie Els and Thomas Bjorn and 2011 Masters winner Charl Schwartzel.