Grant Forrest will return to competition next week determined to cement his place into next year’s 150th anniversary Open Championship.
The recent Hero Open winner is continuing to savour his breakthrouh Tour success when he birdied the closing two holes at the Fairmont Resort at St. Andrews.
The win lifted Forrest to 35th on the Race to Dubai rankings and while assured of qualifying among the top-60 and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, it’s next year’s Open he’s also focussed.
It would mean ending his third full Tour year inside the top-30 that would qualify him for St. Andrews.
Scot Grant Forrest now setting one of his goals as qualifying automatically for next year’s 150th Open Championship (Photo – European Tour)
Forrest said: “Any Open is great but to play in next year’s 150th Open would be very special.
“My win has changed my outlook completely as I’m looking looking at the Race to Dubai final and being exempt so I can now plan my schedule around the big events instead of feeling like you have to slave away every week”.
Forrest’s victory in Fife was the first on Scottish soil in nine-years since Paul Lawrie captured the 2012 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
As reported following his victory, the 2012 Johnnie Walker had been where Forrest made his European Tour debut having earned an invitation into the event in capturing the Scottish Amateur championship.
Tragically, Forrest had lost his father in the weeks ahead of winning Scotland’s premier amateur event and with Forrest saying how much he would have loved to have his father, Graeme present not only in winning the Scottish Amateur and also a first Tour event as a pro.
You can be certain Graeme Forrest was toasted many times last Sunday night and into the early hours of Monday morning.
“I celebrated with plenty of champagne on Sunday night”, said Forrest.
“A lot of times players win and you’re in a foreign country but to win and have all my friends and family, it would have felt like I had missed out if I hadn’t been able to celebrate that.
“It was a great celebration with me falling asleep on the couch at half two.
“It was great getting showered with water on the 18th and it was a nice touch by Calum (Hill). He would have been disappointed as he had a chance to win himself coming into the back nine.
“So, to put that behind him and do what he did tells you the kind of guy he is.
“It’s been a mad few days but we’ll get back to the drawing board soon to plan ahead. A couple of months ago I wasn’t happy with how things were going. I was starting to think about just keeping my card. It’s all part of the ups and downs of golf.
“I started playing better the last few weeks and the result in Ireland gave me a boost going into St Andrews”.
