Doha, Mar 11: England's David Howell will hope to put the experience of playing with Tiger Woods and Ernie Els last week to good use in the Qatar Masters on Thursday. The 28-year-old, who has won only one of his 230 European Tour events, was two shots better than Els on Saturday and eclipsed Woods by one a day later.

He finished third in the Dubai event and admitted it was a "great confidence boost coming into this week."

Darren Fichardt defends, with Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam also in action.
Howell sank the winning putt for Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup against an American team containing Woods in 1995.

He said: "I had never played with Tiger before and I didn't know whether he would remember I was at the Walker Cup match at Porthcawl. I made an effort to talk to him about it."

But Howell insisted he was inspired, not fazed, by playing with Woods in Dubai.

He said: "I was very focused and played lovely. It's a great boost to my confidence coming into this week. Bureau Report