Déjà vu. The literal translation from French is ‘already seen’. As is well known, this expression is used to describe the strange sensation of experiencing again, almost frame by frame, a situation or experience already lived. Something like this, projected from different temporal layers, has been experienced today in the first round of the Qatar Masters, the final tournament of this exciting desert swing of the DP World Tour.
A very recent déjà vu is certainly seeing Brandon Robinson Thompson (-6) at the top of the leaderboard, just as it happened a week ago in Bahrain. Okay, it wasn’t the 61 from seven days ago, but after all, the Englishman is still playing top-level golf. Another, without a doubt, is seeing that Laurie Canter‘s (-4) game remains sharp, we’ll see if it’s enough to repeat victory just a week later, which, more than déjà vu, would be magic.
There is another one certainly repeated with insistence at the Doha Golf Club, such as having the very veteran Darren Fichardt (-4), who turns 50 in May, at the top of the leaderboard. This guy won here in 2003 and wasn’t far from doing it again in 2006 and 2021…
We also have Andrea Pavan (-5) very well placed, as last week in Bahrain, positioning himself as a candidate for victory. And there is one last déjà vu somewhat more surprising and very exciting. In another time, it would be no surprise that Álvaro Quirós (-4) was the best Spanish player after the first round of the Qatar Masters. Neither after the first round nor any round, to be more exact. Not in vain, the man from Guadiaro chained a victory and two second places between 2009 and 2011. Today, to be honest, it was more challenging to imagine, because Quirós barely has opportunities to compete in the first division. However, it must be clarified that this déjà vu also has much more to do with the sensation of full control that his game transmitted today, as it used to, rather than with the pure and simple result, which obviously has been very good.
Álvaro started the round with a bogey on the 1st hole, but then he barely gave the course any chances to further tarnish the scorecard. Instead, the Andalusian quickly opened the tap of birdies, playing with a lot of order from the tee and from the fairway, since from that first hole he would only miss one green in regulation during the rest of the round, a fact even more commendable on a certainly windy day (although by no means hurricane-like), as is usually the case in those parts. Quirós had flown to Doha, taking advantage of his past champion category, with the determination to go shot by shot, without any expectations and with the aim of sharpening his game in competition, looking ahead to the Challenge Tour tournaments where he will later be able to enter. Initially, it couldn’t have gone better.
Notable were also the rounds of Nacho Elvira (-2), coming back with a three-under on the back nine, and Alfredo García Heredia (-2), with only one blemish on his scorecard. Pablo Larrazábal (PAR) couldn’t join the déjà vu trend, as he doesn’t seem to be in the hot zone at the moment, like last week, but he fought very well in a round that had become complicated from the start, and even his game deserved more than just a draw. Something similar could be said of Ángel Hidalgo (+1), while Ángel Ayora (-1) was one of the few players who couldn’t finish his round due to lack of light and will still have to play the 9th hole, par 5, the last of his round tomorrow.
