World No 3 Lee Westwood believes this week\'s tournament in Qatar will probably be the toughest of the three events in the European Tour\'s Middle East swing.
After last week\'s thriller in Abu Dhabi, there are two more events in the Middle East to go before the Tour heads to India - the Commercialbank Qatar Masters starting on Thursday and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic the following week - and Westwood reckons this week\'s event in Doha will offer the sternest challenge of the three.
Left Handed Ping G20 Irons\"Apparently the rough\'s not as long as it was last year, but the weather man says it\'s going to be fairly windy,\" the Englishman told europeantour.com as he prepares for his second tournament of the new season. \"And when it\'s like that around here, it\'s a really tough test.
\"Sometimes you come to a golf course and you remember people shooting low scores - Adam Scott a few years ago shot 62 in the last round to win. And you get it in your head that it\'s a 20 under par winning golf course.
\"But if the wind really pumps this week, it could quite easily be an eight under or nine under par winning golf course. You just have to play every hole and every shot with
Left Handed Ping G20 Ironson its merits and not get too preoccupied with the previous years.\"
Westwood acknowledges he\'s a bit of a slow starter in the new year. His 17th place finish last week was not good enough to prevent Rory McIlroy from overtaking him in the world rankings, but he insists he is raring to go this week, having recovered from the shoulder injury that plagued him in Abu Dhabi.
\"It was a decent start last week,\" he said. \"I had a few issues to negotiate - we\'ve been working a lot on my fitness just recently, and I haven\'t played
Left Handed Ping G20 Irons a lot coming into Abu Dhabi.
\"I didn\'t hole as many putts, I find the greens there a little difficult to read. I think a lot of people do. I heard a lot of people saying that they were struggling to read them, and I had a bit of a shoulder injury the first couple days, which is gone now. It just needed to loosen up a little bit. 17 was a decent result at the end, I think. I\'m looking forward to this week and playing
Left Handed Ping G20 Irons I\'ve done well at in the past.\"
Westwood is paired with Dane Thomas and Australian Jason Day over the first two rounds this week, and believes that Day could well be one of the stars of the 2012 season.
\"I was asked at the end of last week who will have a big year, and the only one I picked out was Jason Day,\" said Westwood.
\"Not because he was the only one who will have a big year, but I think he\'s a talented player and people probably look over him. He gets overlooked quite a bit, and obviously by saying that I put the curse on him and he missed the cut!\"
Qatar to offer stern test
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