The consensus around the course condition of Doha Golf Club this week is one of high regard among players, with one of the men behind that ironically competing at the Qatar Masters.
Andrew Ikstrums is day-to-day the Golf Course Superintendent but last week came through a 36-hole qualifier to earn a debut on the DP World Tour at a venue he calls his office.
Born in Australia, the 32-year-old has worked around the world – including in Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates – but over the last two years has made his home back in Qatar, having previously worked in the country at former DP World Tour venue Education City.
While it came completely out of the blue, the chance to compete on the professional stage in an international field including Major Champions on the course he has helped cultivate is a source of understandable pride.
“Coming to this beautiful golf course, turning it into what it is today, it’s a real honour to be here,” he told the DP World Tour.
“Having the opportunity to be here this week is like a dream come true. It’s an honour to be playing on the DP World Tour and it’s an honour to be playing the course that I work at.”
However you put it, it’s a great achievement. Perhaps even more so when you hear that the 36-hole qualifier went to a play-off – which he won.
“I haven’t been playing a lot of golf," he said. "I was in Germany for Christmas and New Year so I had come back and they said they were having a qualifier and did I want to play. I said, ‘right, let’s tee it up’.
“Since last Wednesday, when I qualified, it’s been a bit of a blur.”
A birdie at the opening hole in Thursday's first round got him off to the perfect start but it got tougher from there, closing with a six-over-par 78 to damage his hopes of realising his pre-event goal of making the cut.
“I’ve only got myself to blame with this one but the rough is quite long, juicy and unpredictable!" he said, with 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed in a share of the clubhouse lead alongside Daniel Hillier.
“Hitting the fairways is a big key. The fairways are pristine. If you are on the fairways it is scoreable, you have got control over the ball into the greens. The greens are true. If you can get the putter rolling you should be able to get a score out there.”
But, forget his on-course performance for a moment.
Chief among the positives is the widespread acclaim the course has received from players, with many saying it’s the best they’ve experienced in the 27-year history of Doha Golf Club hosting this event.
For one, Pádraig Harrington, who is making his 500th DP World Tour start this week and playing at Doha Golf Club for the first time since 2003, described the presentation as “phenomenal”.
“It’s a great achievement, we work hard,” said Ikstrums. “It’s a great honour and I have to thank my team. I have got a team of 57 greenkeepers here and my Assistant Superintendent Luke [Jones].
“I have always looked at this golf course as one of the best in the Middle East, the layout itself.
“The condition hasn’t always been there but now we have had the opportunity to condition it to a world-class standard.
“I think it’s an unbelievable facility and I hope to see some bigger and stronger fields come out and see what it is all about.”
Whether Ikstrums is himself in those fields in future years is perhaps unlikely, but the greenkeeper come scratch golfer admits that the chance to test himself in these surroundings has whetted the appetite.
“Look, it’s always been a goal,” he said when asked if he had aspirations to play golf full-time.
“When I was back in Australia, I was actually planning on going to Q-School. I did the ACL in my left knee, so I was away from golf for a while and then it was time to focus on work.
“Golf got forgotten. [But] it’s always there, been in the back of my mind.”
