Grace retains Qatar title

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South African golfer Branden Grace looked a class act in tricky windy conditions on Saturday to retain his Qatar Masters title in Doha by two strokes.

Grace fired a three-under 69 to finish two shots ahead of Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Thorbjorn Olesen while round three leader Paul Lawrie of Scotland finished with a 78 to end tied for 13th.

Lawrie led after the third round by two shots and started well matching Grace's birdie on the first hole but thereafter he struggled, dropping shots on holes 2, 5, 9, 13, 14 and 16 to finish six over.

Grace played well in the difficult conditions only dropping a shot on the par-four fifth hole while birdieing the first, sixth, 10th, and 18th holes to finish on top at 14-under for an overall total of 274.  

Denmark’s Olesen holed a long putt on the final green to claim a share of second place with Spain's Cabrera-Bello.

Cabrera-Bello looked out of contention after he double-bogeyed the short eighth but then came storming back as he birdied 16th and 17th then hammered a second to 15 feet at the last but missed the eagle putt to tap-in for a birdie.

Leading Qatar Masters scores:
1     Grace, Branden    -14 (70, 67, 68, 69) – 274
T2     Cabrera-Bello, Rafael -12 (67, 68, 71, 70) – 276
T2     Olesen, Thorbjorn (67,    69, 69,    71) 
T4     Dredge, Bradley -11 (71, 67, 70, 69) – 277
T4     Johnston, Andrew (66, 69, 72, 70)
T4     Slattery, Lee (69, 69, 69, 70)
T7     Bland, Richard    -8 (72, 69, 67, 72) – 280
T7     Coetzee, George (67, 70, 73, 70)
T7     Fleetwood, Tommy (67, 69, 70, 74)
T7     Garcia, Sergio (70, 66, 74, 70, 80)
T7     Gouveia, Ricardo (67, 71, 70, 72)
T7     Oosthuizen, Louis (65, 73, 71, 71)
T13     Bourdy, Gregory -7 (67, 68, 72, 74) – 281
T13     Carlsson, Johan (69, 67, 72, 73)
T13     Ilonen, Mikko (71, 68, 71, 71)
T13     Larrazabal, Pablo (65, 72, 72, 72)
T13     Lawrie, Paul (67, 66, 70, 78)
T13     Luiten, Joost (70, 67, 74, 70)
T13     Wiesberger, Bernd (68, 70, 70, 73)

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