Jason Dufner is keen to improve on his ninth place finish at last year’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters when he tees up at Doha Golf Club again this week.
The US PGA Champion has travelled across the Atlantic to contest an event where he finished tied for ninth 12 months ago.
“I had a pretty nice event last year,” said the American World Number 13. “I enjoyed playing the golf course, a good challenge.
“We’ve got a great field again this year. Looking forward to taking some of the things I learned about the course last year and applying them and hopefully challenging for the title.
“It's tough. It's a long golf course - a lot of the par fives are not reachable for me, so I need to be in the fairways. I need to wedge it well on those par fives; the rough is up this year a good bit.
“I haven't really played the golf course in too much of a wind. I heard the winds can get pretty tricky so that can be a challenge. The greens are in much better shape this year than last year, so I think holing putts will be a little bit easier for me. I’m excited about the challenge the course presents.”
Dufner has finished fifth and 29th on his two US PGA Tour starts in 2014 – although an illness affected the 36 year old during the latter.
And golf’s most recent Major Champion hopes to continue his good start to the 2014 campaign in the Middle East.
“I played pretty well at Maui, was feeling pretty good at Sony and then I got sick,” added Dufner. “I actually got bronchitis and pneumonia when I was at Sony, so I've been trying to deal with that and trying to get healthier.
“I didn't do much practicing last week at home; I was trying to get healthy and flew over here. It's the start of the year, feeling things out and seeing where you're at and what you need to get better at.
“For me, I try to use the first three or four events to see where I'm at and get going with it.”
