Golf in this region has come a long way since Dubai unveiled plans to build the first championship course back in 1986, and the success story continues in Doha today. Often overshadowed by its Desert Classic neighbour in Dubai, the Qatar Masters has nevertheless become an important tournament in its own right and a vital part of the Desert Swing, the 2010 version of which got off to a splendid start when Martin Kaymer claimed the Abu Dhabi Championship title in great style on Sunday.
The quality of the field in the UAE capital was impressive, and with seven out of the world's top 14 players teeing off in Doha today it is the strongest line-up yet in the event's 13-year history. Next week Dubai is assured of another world-class field and the players are lapping up the Gulf's winter sunshine during what has become a "must attend" three-week spell in the region for Europe's top golfers, who view it as their favourite run of tournaments in the year.
The courses are in great shape and they provide a near perfect build-up to the first World Golf Championship event of the year: next month's Accenture Matchplay, which is played in similar desert conditions in Arizona. The quality of the events is now unavoidable and the word is spreading, as highlighted by the presence of players like Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas in Abu Dhabi, Kenny Perry in Qatar, and the evergreen Tom Watson in Dubai next week alongside Europe's best.
Doha Golf Club will pose a formidable test over the next four days. The course benefits from frequent variations in elevation, which give it great character and also challenges the players, especially when the wind blows as often as it does. The greens are usually quick and while large undulations add to the degree of difficulty, the superb standard of the putting surfaces means the best putters this week could grab the initiative.
At 7,388 yards in length, and with the desert waiting to punish any wayward shot, it is a course which demands respect and requires top quality shot making. This explains why there have been so many high-pedigree winners in recent years; Ernie Els in 2005 being followed by Henrik Stenson, Retief Goosen, Adam Scott and last year Alvaro Quiros, the longest hitter on the European Tour. There are high hopes in Europe that Quiros will come through this year and challenge the best players in the world. He has a great attitude, almost an old fashioned one, in that he clearly has a lot of fun on the course.
I find this refreshing in an era when the game seems to have largely lost its great characters and is crying out for a new generation of players who have the charisma to go with a great swing. There are few more likeable characters on the PGA Tour than Perry and I am sure the Europeans - not only the ones who play alongside him in the US - will make him feel welcome in Doha. He turns 50 next August but is playing the best golf of his life. The world No 11 has won five PGA Tour titles in the last two years.
In 2008 he fulfilled a dream when he played in the Ryder Cup for the first time, fittingly in Kentucky where he was born, went to university and still lives. The script was perfect, and his family and friends were out in force to watch him help win the trophy back from Europe. Last year he won the Payne Stewart Award which the PGA Tour presents to the player who most respects the traditions of the game. One of golf's genuine good guys, he designed and built a public course in his home town to make golf affordable and donates five per cent of his winnings towards student university scholarships.
With the US Masters looming again, Perry will find it hard to ignore the possibility that he may have blown his best chance of a major triumph last year by letting a two-shot lead slip at Augusta with two holes to play. For the time being, he will be determined to give a good account of himself this week and he has the game to succeed in Qatar; being a long hitter who plays well in the wind. Over the last three years he has been red hot on the greens, although two weeks ago in the SBS Championship in Hawaii the head of his putter fell off and it remains to be seen if he will have the same feel with it following repairs.
Perry would normally be playing this week in one of the bigger events on the PGA Tour's west coast swing at Torrey Pines and it is another sign of the Gulf's growing pull on the game that he is teeing it up in Doha instead. Meanwhile, three weeks in the deserts of the Gulf could have a major influence on what promises to be a very big year for the European No 1 and Race to Dubai winner, Lee Westwood.
The UK's coldest winter for 25 years had left him a little rusty and it showed in Abu Dhabi where he missed the cut. But he will be taking full advantage of the warm weather and facilities in Doha and Dubai over the next two weeks to make sure he gets his game back into top shape and I would not be surprised if he finds his form very quickly. Looking down, though, from the top of the entry list in Doha, he will have seen the names of Stenson, Paul Casey, Perry, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Kaymer, Ross Fisher, Goosen and Villegas, to give him a timely reminder of just how tough it is to win in the Gulf these days.
The former European and US Tour player, Philip Parkin, (www.philparkin.com) is a member of the TV golf commentary team for the BBC in the UK and Golf Channel in the US. @Email:sports@thenational.ae