Did You Know - Commercial Bank Qatar Masters
• Paul Lawrie will try and create history by becoming the first player to hold onto the Mother of Pearl Trophy. Should he do this he would become the first player to win the title three times, following his triumphs in 1999 and 2012.
• Should the 2012 champion win again, the Scot would be the oldest player to successfully defend a European Tour title, at aged 44 years and 25 days. Jean-Francois Remesy holds the distinction of being the oldest currently at 41 years and 21 days, when he won back-to-back French Open titles in 2004-05.
• Louis Oosthuizen is bidding for his second European Tour title in consecutive appearances having won the Volvo Golf Champions. Should he be successful he would become the first player to win in their opening two European Tour appearances of a calendar year since Charl Schwartzel in 2010 won the Africa Open and Joburg Open.
• The strength of this year’s tournament is highlighted by the fact there are 14 of the top 50 in the World Ranking, eight Major Champions playing and no fewer than 80 European Tour winners competing.
Spain’sIgnacio Garrido will be competing in his 500thofficial EuropeanTour event. He will become the fourth Spanish player to achieve the milestone,following Miguel Angel Jiménez (598), Santiago Luna (594) and Miguel AngelMartin (545). Garrido will be the 23rdplayer to reach 500 officialtournaments.
• The Commerical Bank Qatar Masters holds the European Tour record for the fewest number of shots between the halfway leaders and the cut mark – just five in 2004. The 36 leaders were on 138 (-6), whilst the cut fell at 143 (-1). This five shot gap was matched in 2012 at the Sicilian Open.
