Rikuya Hoshino (-14) has won the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters after signing a final card of 68 strokes, with a stroke advantage over the French Ugo Coussaud (-13). That Hoshino has won this week is not a huge surprise, especially considering how extraordinarily well and bravely he has putted on greens as delicate as those of the Doha Golf Club. Another thing, well looked at, is that a Japanese has won…
Hoshino, 27 years old, has played to date only 34 tournaments of the DP World Tour, but he is also only the fourth Japanese player to claim victory in the 52-year history of this circuit. The first was Isao Aoki, in 1983, a legend; then came the era of Hideki Matsuyama, another living and active legend, who won two world championships (WGC) in 2016 and 2017, as well as the Masters in 2021. And here comes the good part: in just six months there have been two more victories, one by Ryo Hisatsune, who won the French Open last September, and this one by Hoshino in Qatar.
Something is moving in the land of the rising sun. And it’s something important. More and more players are coming out, most of them very young, who finally seem more than prepared for great feats, beyond the imposing figure of Matsuyama, who is venerated (almost adored…) in Japan. It is possible, even likely, that Hideki’s triumph in Augusta was the last major trigger. As we said: six Japanese victories in 52 years of history of the DP World Tour and three of them, half, by Matsuyama, the most important ones, but two of those six have fallen in the last months… Hisatsune, 21 years old, already camps with some naturalness in the PGA Tour and Nakajima, 23, who has also played in Qatar this week, is coming on strong, to mention only the best in the world ranking.
Splendid fourth round in Doha, with changing and tricky weather, now it rained, now it didn’t, now the wind blew a lot, now a little less, and numerous alternatives, although in reality Hoshino and Coussaud have always stayed on top, from start to finish. The Scotsman Jamieson (-12) signed a 65 and put a first great result in the clubhouse, and in the last matches the very young Tom McKibbin (-11) also seemed capable of disputing the victory, although in the end it was not so. Behind these four men, Jorge Campillo (-10) got into fifth position, not to miss the custom of Spanish golf, which always ends up boasting of some great performance in these lands. To tell the truth, today no player from the Armada has really been in the fight. It was precisely Campillo who started closer to the head, but a messy start to the round, with early bogeys on holes 1 and 3, already moved him away almost definitively. Then, through the back nine, the matter was made up so as not to offend tradition: a five-under par from the Extremaduran, which could well have been better (what about that ball hanging on the edge of the cup on 14) shot him back up the leaderboard, although almost without margin to really put the goats in the corral to those of the stellar match.
Be that as it may, we must also count on a notable final balance of Nacho Elvira (-7), Alex del Rey (-6) or Pablo Larrazábal (-15), all of them within the top 25. And also highlight the good final record of Manu Elvira (-1), 70 strokes, probably obtained when the worst playing conditions were given.
