Grant

Forrest

The 28-year-old Forrest carded a 6-under 65 to finish at 17-under 276, two strokes out of the playoff won by Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello. “I’m delighted after not getting off to the best of starts. I managed to knuckle down, and I am happy with the result,” said Forrest, who played the final round with world No. 1 Jon Rahm. “That was great,” he said regarding playing with Rahm. “I know Jon from college and playing with the world No. 1 in Spain with the crowds going mental was unbelievable.” Forrest captured his first career European Tour win in August at the Hero Open and has missed just one cut in five starts since. On the season, Forrest has made 15 cuts in 21 starts with one other top 10 – a T-4 at the Irish Open. This week he’ll make his third start in the Andalucia Masters, where he’s made the cut twice and recorded a best finish of T-37 in 2019. “It’s good to be going to Valderrama having put some decent results together,” said Forrest, who stands at No. 155 in the world rankings and 35th in the Race to Dubai. “I feel my game is trending in the right direction, but I’ll need to play a bit better off the tee next week.”

The 28-year-old Forrest finished birdie-birdie to earn his first career title on home soil, finishing at 24-under 264 to beat England’s James Morrison by a shot at the Torrance Course at St. Andrews. The win also made him the first Scotsman to win on home soil since Paul Lawrie at the 2012 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. “There are so many emotions,” said Forrest, the 2010 Scottish Boys and 2012 Scottish Amateur champion. “To do it in front of everyone who has come up to support me -- the last year and a half has been a real challenge on and off the course, so I’m just delighted. …I saw the scoreboard and I knew what I needed to do. Our big thing all day was one shot at a time, let’s just keep hitting shots and I hit a great nine iron into 17 nice and close, and that really helps, and then two great shots into 18. It was a great way to finish.” On the season, Forrest is 11-for-16 and had just one other top 10 – a T-4 last month at the Irish Open. The Scotsman isn’t listed in the field for this week’s Cazoo Classic, but expect to see more of him as Forrest now stands at No. 35 in the Race to Dubai rankings.

The Scot has made an excellent start to the 2020 season, making cuts in all four of his starts and progressing to T4 in the Mauritius Open and T16 in last week’s Dubai Desert Classic. Notably, however, he was hit by the wind on days one and four (when it was at its worst), going 73 and 75 in those laps, in contrast to 68-69 in the middle. “It was brutal out there,” he said after finishing. “It’s one thing having wind, but when it is changing direction every few seconds, it means there’s a lot of luck involved and we didn’t get that today. I hit a lot of good golf shots, but got nothing out of them. It was just one of those days.” That indicates on-going confidence and the forecast this week is for nothing more than breezes. He did, however, miss the cut last year, going 71-77.

The quintet have a one-shot lead over nine others, including Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Thomas Detry. The Scotsman played his first 11 holes in -7 at last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship before a triple bogey limited him to a 4-under 68. There were no car crashed today though and he limited his poor holes to bogeys at 13 and 4. As at Leopard Creek seven days ago, Forrest roared to the turn in 31. That was thanks to a trio of opening birdies from the 10th, eagle-3 at 14 and another red number at 18. It was a quieter second nine but he picked up further shots on the par 5s at 2 and 7 to secure a round one lead at this level for the first time. He slipped to T55 at the Alfred Dunhill so will hope to make a better job of cashing in on this good start.

That’s three swings back from leaders Garrick Porteous, Pablo Larrazabal and Wil Besseling (17). The 26-year-old, who finished 94th on the Race to Dubai in his rookie season, burst from the gates and birdied five of his opening six holes (10, 11, 13, 14 and 15) before adding another at 17. He picked up another shot at 2 and was still at -7 with three to play after a bogey-par-birdie run from Nos. 4-6. But he bogeyed the par-3 7th and then ran up a triple bogey-7 at 8. To his credit, Forrest hit back with a ninth birdie of the round at the 9th although he’ll likely have mixed emotions after his rollercoaster morning.

The Scotsman is a solid 11-for-16 in his rookie campaign but is possibly, assuming he is something of an expert in course design, excited about encountering this week’s course. Why so? Well he has two top 20s this season, the first in Mauritius and the second when T6 at the Trophee Hassan II on Robert Trent Jones Sr.’s Royal Golf Dar Es Salam Red Course. That latter effort is the key for him returning to the top ten because this week’s track is also a RTJ Sr design and also set among cork trees. Against that be warned that Valderrama often favors straight hitters and Forrest ranks outside the top 150 for Driving Accuracy. He’ll have nice memories of the region because last season he was runner-up in the Andalucia Costa Del Sol Matchplay 9.

The Scot endured something of an up and down day, but ultimately he ended it with his eyes on an outside shot at a first European Tour victory. He traded birdies at 1 and 14 with bogeys at 2, 3 and 5 early on before settling down to attack the lead. He ticked 8 and 9 to end the front nine, then added red numbers at 12, 15 and 17, the latter courtesy of a superb up and down from sand on the short par-4. He can now looks at besting his T7 in the Mauritius Open, which is currently his ET career-best. Afterwards he talked about graduating from the CT last year. “I think shooting low scores is what the Challenge Tour sets you up for, but I wouldn’t say it necessarily prepares you fully for courses as tough as this. The CT gets you used to the tour life and I think prepares you for life on the European Tour. My aim? To win. That’s why everyone’s here for, I hope. I think when you’re in that position, obviously you don’t know what’s going to happen but that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Challenge Tour grad Forrest is currently ranked 65th on the Race to Dubai, a solid start to his rookie campaign and the next few weeks offer further chances to build on that as the minnows of the circuit are left to bite at the small pickings ahead of the return of the stars for bigger prizes in the summer. He made his tournament debut 12 months ago and although at first glance he was only T53 he shot a final lap 68 and topped the Total Driving rankings (fourth for Driving Distance, 17th for Driving Accuracy). His mixed bag of a season is typified by the last three events. He was T9 at halfway in the Vic Open, but drifted to T22; shot a wild 74-65-75 in the World Super 6 Perth; then departed Oman with 72-81.

Forrest opened with a 62 when runner-up at the Challenge Tour’s Hainan Open in October and this is now his third 65 since he won promotion. His first came at December’s Mauritius Open which he rode to tied seventh although a second-round 65 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship was compromised by rounds of 72-75 and he fell to T42. At this week’s venue, there’s every opportunity to keep the low scores coming. Forrest now has one round at the Creek Course (where the leader shot -10) before two further laps of the Beach Course this weekend. Today at the Beach he birdied all four par 5s in his eight-birdie set and dropped his only shot of the day at 17.