Eddie Pepperell is hoping that a happy hunting ground at the Qatar Masters can help his best golf to bloom after an “odd” 12 months for the Englishman.
Since missing a seven-footer for eagle at the 2024 Qualifying School that would have seen him retain his card, he has registered two DP World Tour top tens, walked off the course at the Turkish Airlines Open, had to withdraw from Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge through injury when leading after 54 holes and finished the 2025 Qualifying School with four straight birdies to get back on Tour.
Ever candid, Pepperell has been honest about the highs and lows of both the technical and the mental side of his game, with an encouraging start to the 2026 season showing that finally it may all be coming back together.
When he won at Doha Golf Club in 2018, he followed that victory with another at the British Masters as he became an established figure in the world’s top 50.
He did not defend his Qatar title as he played in the Arnold Palmer Invitational just a week before finishing third at THE PLAYERS Championship.
Pepperell, still just 35, accepts much water has passed under the bridge since those heady days but he does not feel far away from challenging again.
“A lot has happened since then, not just me but the world has been through a lot,” he said.
“The last 12 months have just felt very odd. I don’t feel like I’ve played badly and I feel like I’ve had a number of weeks where I’ve actually played quite well but my results haven’t been that good and I think my standards have just dropped.
“Over the last few months I’ve improved my driving and my putting, which is great, but with me my irons are always the key and if I’m not hitting them well then I’ll struggle to do well.
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“I’ve been searching for a while now to try and unlock the secrets to what I need to do to hit my irons well enough, certainly to a level where I’m happy with, because that's where I get my utmost potential, if they’re on relative to the field.
“Confidence is a funny thing, it can disappear as quickly as it can come back. I think the seeds have been in the ground for a while for me to play some better golf. It's just waiting for it to occur, really."
He added: “I haven’t done a lot over the last week since Dubai so I've utilised the last couple of days quite well, trying to iron out a few things.
“The last time I played in Dubai I drove it quite well and I putted quite well but everything in between was really quite bad so I’m just trying to figure that out and take some of those feels onto the golf course.
“I think we could have some fairly breezy conditions on Thursday so I’m going to need to have my irons under more control than in Dubai if I’m going to do well so that’s my goal.”
There may be few better places for those seeds he has been planting to sprout than Doha Golf Club, where Pepperell has another top ten to go with his win as he makes his tenth appearance this week.
“It’s always nice to come back to Doha golf Club and Qatar in general,” he added. “I haven’t been here every year since I won but for the most part I have and the course has got better and better.
“It’s nice to come back to a venue where you’ve had success in the past: refamiliarise yourself with the tee shots and maybe iron shots that you’re comfortable with. This is a course that historically I’ve felt quite comfortable on so nice to be back.
“The course has just got better, the condition in particular. It’s immaculate out there, as a golf club whatever they’ve done has clearly worked. I’ve played two nine holes this week and everybody is just remarking on how good the condition is.”
