Scot still can’t come to terms with securing his Masters debut through Open de Espana success
Grant Forrest struggled to sleep on a 13-hour overnight journey involving two flights from Madrid to India due to having Georgia on his mind after a turnaround in fortune he described as “bonkers”.
The new Open de Espana champion has also opened up on his wife, Christy, being a “rock” as a poor run of form this year “started to affect me off the course a bit”.
Forrest’s third DP World Tour win in the Spanish capital on Sunday almost felt like hitting the jackpot due to the fact it earned him spots in both The Masters and The Open next year.
“I didn't really sleep a wink, to be honest,” he admitted to The Scotsman of his flight halfway across the world, having moved on to Delhi for this week’s DP World India Championship. “Yeah, just so much adrenaline going through me. Yeah, just still in a bit of shock at what happened. Maybe not at what's happened, but a few of the extra things that have come along with it.”
The Masters spot in particular is what kept Forrest awake, with the Open de Espana and some other national Opens on the DP World Tour schedule having become avenues for players to earn a coveted invitation to play in the season’s opening major at Augusta National.
“Yeah, I think it's great,” he added. “Obviously on our tour now, to get into the top 50 is really difficult. And that used to be the way you should qualify for the Masters and the other majors. So, yeah, I think it’s great to have a couple of extra chances throughout the year now that you might not otherwise get, it's great. And then obviously to be on the receiving end is really special.”
In joining Bernard Gallacher, Brian Barnes, Sam Torrance and Colin Montgomerie in winning the Open de Espana, Forrest shook off a torrid run of form. “Yeah, I mean, it's just bonkers,” he admitted. “I've made one cut since May, and it was like a 60th place in Aberdeen (in his defence of the Nexo Championship in August).
“If you look at the results, there's no signs of any form, but I've been feeling in my game the last three or four weeks, I've played some much better golf and really just put myself in a couple of tournaments with the first- round scores. So I knew kind of better things were on the way, but just maybe not this good this soon. So, yeah, the timing couldn't have been better, really.”
In landing his third DP World Tour win, the East Lothian-based player jumped from 296th to 140th in the Official World Golf Ranking while he is also up from 118th to 27th in the Race to Dubai Ranking.
“I'm really proud of the way I handled myself on Sunday,” he admitted, having shared the lead at the start of the final round before having to play catch up on the back nine and then finishing with a flourish, including a title-winning birdie at the 18th hole at Club de Campo.
“It wasn't a straightforward day. You know, none of us in the group really got anything going, so it was a bit flat for the first sort of ten holes. But, you know, we just kept telling ourselves, like, we're still in it, we're still in it, and, you know, on days like that, that's all you're really trying to do. You know, it's not very often, you know, anyone sort of has a win like I did in Aberdeen last year where, you know, you've got a big lead with a few holes to go.
“It usually does go down to the wire, so I'm just really happy with how I dealt with it. And, you know, after the tee shots on 18, obviously I think Victor [Perez] and I both knew it was up to us whether it was, you know, going to be 14 under or 13 under, it was in a play-off.
“I said to Shane [O’Connell, his caddie] walking up the hole, ‘this is so cool, you know, it's a great finishing hole to have a drivable par 4’. Those are the kind of moments that you play professional golf for.”
When he won the Nexo Championship at Trump International Golf Links last year, Christy and the couple’s son, Spencer, were there to celebrate with him. Though back home on this occasion, he admitted that Christy had played a huge part in this title triumph.
“I can't even put it into words,” confessed Forrest. “You know, Christy's been a rock recently because it hasn't been easy on the course and then it started to effect me off the course a bit. Yeah, it's just the ups and downs, it all can be so high and so low and, yeah, just to get a week like last week was just, yeah, couldn't have come at a better time.”
Heading into this week’s $4 million event at Delhi Golf Club, where three of this year’s major winners - Rory McIlroy, Aaron Rai and Ryan Fox are in the field - Forrest has put himself in with a chance of securing one of the ten 2027 PGA Tour cards up for grabs through the Race to Dubai points list.
“Even more to play for now,” he admitted, having been in a fortynate position that he wasn’t worrying about trying to hang on to his DP World Tour card due to being exempt until the end of next year but now having secured his spot in both the season-ending Play-Offs - the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship and DP World Tour Championship.
“It was nice to not be under the pressure of having to keep a card because that would have been a lot more stressful with where I was going into last week. We knew there was kind of nothing to lose this year with three (regular events left heading into the Open de Espana) and, obviously, if I didn't have a big week, then Korea (next week’s Genesis Championship)would have been the final event for me. So, yeah, I’ve just quickly had to re-evaluate things and set some new goals for the rest of the season.
“Yeah, I'm obviously playing India this week and then I was planning to go to Korea, but I'm not 100 per cent sure what I'm going to do yet with that because this is my sixth week in a row, as it is, so it's been a busy stretch but, yeah, so much to play for.”
In every event he tees up in, though, between now and April, he’s still going to have Georgia on his mind and understandably so. “Yeah, I'd like as much of the family as possible there,” he said, with his mum Audrey and sister Alisa almost certainly making the trip. “I think everyone's in disbelief that we're going to Augusta. Good, fantastic. Yeah, we'll be making the most of it anyway!”