Scotland’s Grant Forrest remains determined to sign off his best season in the pro ranks in style after putting himself into contention heading to the weekend rounds of the Portugal Masters.
Forrest, 28, birdied his second and then buried a long eagle putt at the next in a round of 67 to move to a share of eighth heading to the weekend rounds on the Dom Pedro Victoria course at Vilamoura.
Italian Nino Bertasio continues to show the way despite having his opening four-shot lead cut in half following a day two 69 for a 12-under tally and with four players sharing second at 10-under par.
Forrest broke through last August, and brilliantly on home soil, in capturing the Hero Open at the Fairmont Resort on the outskirts of St. Andrews. The win guaranteed the Craigielaw golfer a two-year Tour exemption and while he’s struggled in five of his six events, with a best of third a month ago in the Mallorca Open, Forrest remains ever-confident.
Grant Forrest determined to end his break through winning season on a high
He said: “My attitude is definitely so much better since winning at the Fairmont while my confidence is much higher than it was compared to the start of the season, so I’ll just keep going about my business and trying to do well.”
Forrest is presently ranked 36th on the Race to Dubai, so he’ll qualify for next fortnight’s top-50 season-ending DP World Tour Championship where a top-10 on the money list would open so many other doors to the Scot.
He said: “If you give yourself chances, there is the reward moving-up a whole lot of places up for grabs and one of those is the huge event at the end of the year, the DP World.
“Though it’s not that easy to make a big jump unless you finish top-10 in that event, so that is why these next few weeks are really chances to achieve that”.
After his birdie at the second, Forrest then played a 5-iron second shot from 230-yards out landing short of the flag but delighted to hole his long eagle putt.
Forrest birdied his sixth hole but then dropped a shot at his ninth ahead of an 11th hole birdie among eight inward half pars.
He said: “I got off to a great start going par, birdie and then eagle, and it’s always nice to do that and really I just played solid golf all the way round. I gave myself plenty of chances and the putts didn’t quite drop on the back nine, all-in-all it was a pretty solid round”.
Bathgate’s Stephen Gallacher added a 68 to move to five-under par and with Richie Ramsay (69) at three-under and Robert MacIntyre (70) a shot further back.
Borders David Drysale was cut from the cut after rounds of 72 and 73 and has now just next week’s AVIV Dubai Championship and his last of the season to retain full Tour membership.
‘Double D’ is projected to drop two spots to 124th on the Race to Dubai and needs to be inside the top-123 to retain his 2022 Tour card.
