Forrest Secures Open De Espana & A 161st Tour Title For The Home Of Golf Nation.

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Grant Forrest holed a pressure birdie putt at the last in securing the Open de Espana and in the process secure Scotland a 161st DP World Tour victory title.

Forrest’s victory in Madrid is also a third Tour title for the Scot.

Forrest led or shared the lead over the four days though the 33-year-old looked a little shaky midway through the last round before back-to-back birdies at 13 and 14 got him back into a share of the lead at 13-under.

Three pars followed before Forrest was pin high left with his drive at the final hole ahead of a brilliant chip shot to some five-feet from where Forrest holed the birdie putt in a round of 70 for his 14-under victory tally.

And let’s not forget victory for Forrest earns him a first-ever tee-time into next year’s Masters while he is now also exempt into 155th Open Championship next year at St. Andrews.

It will only a third appearance in golf’s oldest major for Forrest and a first since missing the cut in 2018.

“I’m in shock, honestly, pure shock right now,” he said.

“That’s fairy tale stuff, I’ve played two Opens and to be going to Augusta, I just can’t get my head round it. You can have a great career in this game and never get to go to Augusta, so I cannot believe it.”

The win for the quietly-spoken Forrest comes reamarkable after horror run of having missed the halfway in the past four Tour events.

Forrest is the second Scottish-born on this year’s DP World Tour after Scott Jamieson captured August’s Nexo Chamionship and the tournament that Forrest has won in Aberdeen last year.

As well, Forrest is now the first Scottish-born winner of the Open de Espana since Colin Montgomerie captured the title in 1994 and with Forrest also the fifth Scot to be handed the Spanish trophy since the inaugural event in 1912.

As mentioned above, Forrest had missed his previous four cuts, since retiring from the Husqvarna British Masters and came into the Spanish Open week lying a lowly 118th on the Race to Dubai Rankings.

Forrest said: “It’s been such a tough year. I’ve not played well at all. And yeah, you know, I’ve got good memories of this course, this tournament from previous years and, yeah, to walk away with a win is just unbelievable.”

“It was tough because I wasn’t too sure what other groups were doing and it was just a matter of keeping yourself in it, and I think we did that really well. A couple of nice putts at the right time and, yeah, just dug in there so well, despite a couple of frustrating things.”



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