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Branden Grace to beat George Coetzee - 9 points @ 10-11 (Stan James)

For me this is the matchbet of the season so far and I have Grace much nearer to 8-11 hot favourite rather than 'pick your own'.

Grace was the main runner for the in-running column last week and didn't let us down with that best-of-the-day final round of 65 propelling him from 24th to outright 5th. I am quite a late convert to the 24-year-old but will be following him like a hawk this year as he attempts to add to his four wins last season and with current form being fast-finishing 7th and 5th, he deservedly has a growing fan club.

Never the most accurate off the tee, last weeks effort was all the more praiseworthy around a course that was significantly tightened up, but his play from rough to hole was excellent as always and he will much prefer the wider spaces of Doha where the key is getting it on in regulation and, as always, putting. Grace has from from the front, leading all the way in Scotland, but also has that play-off win at home against Els and Goosen - you don't get much more pressure than that. Given that his will and ability to win is top grade and that he is in flying form there is no wonder that he is looking forward to this week. As last week, ignore 2012 form when he finished well off the pace; the wind was cruel and he was blown off the park on Day One not long after shocking even himself with two quick wins. Grace is a different player now and is expected to challenge strongly even in the highest class.

Compare the level-headed and composed Grace to his good friend and compatriot George Coetzee. Ironically, Coetzee was also a pick last week, but only in the matchup against a much shorter player around a long course. The 26-year old simply does not seem to have the class of his oppo and having won in lower class on the Sunshine Tour, has thrown away countless chances to make a breakthrough on the main European Tour. Form figures look perfectly okay with top-tens in the same event as Grace, but there is no doubt he has a dislike to the heady heights of a leaderboard and is only useful when having an advantage over his betting-odds oppo. Coetzee's length won't mean a great deal this week and his short game suffers massively when under the cosh.

Simply, in just one week Coetzee can go from hero to villain - Grace is expected to comfortably outclass this matchup.

Sergio Garcia to beat Martin Kaymer - 4 points @ 11-10 (BetVictor

Apart from the win in the Nedbank when helped a little by the play of his closest rivals, Martin Kaymer has not looked quite right in recent starts. Admittedly it shows the class of the man when he can finish top-10 in three of his last four starts but even his most ardent fan would admit that he really didn't play well enough to grab 6th last week. Kaymer is giving himself plenty of chances as always but is struggling to convert even some simple putts and his confidence on the greens is suffering as a result. It won't help that his record here is moderate with just one top-10 from five starts and he admits that he doesn't like the Bermuda greens of Doha. Considering the close proximity of the event to his favoured Abu, where his overall record is stunning, the evidence against him here is overwhelming.

Against him, Sergio Garcia probably remains the most talented man never to win a Major, but surely the key to Sergio is all in the head - when he is happy and contended with life (and therefore his game) he can be awesome, as with his easy wins at home track at Castello, and with his most recent outing and win at the Johor Open when he couldn't miss a thing, recording 61 in horrendous conditions and putting up an iron-shot display of pure quality.

It is hard to know how someone like Sergio will act on his first outing of the year but very significantly he says Doha 'feels like home' and was extremely confident in interview claiming,

“I love going back to Doha and competing in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. I’ve been competing there for a long time now and I still remember playing at Doha Golf Club for the first time, when I was just 19.”

“I have a lot of friends in Doha and it somehow feels like coming home, so I’m very happy to start my new season there. The golf club, the Qatar Golf Association and Commercial Bank do a great job organising the tournament, which is why I’m so happy to play there each season and I usually play pretty well.”

With a record of four top-10s from five starts here, some of those in the darkest of periods, he can be expected to take full use of his early tee-off time and produce another sparking event.