Grant Forrest back firing on all cylinders as Jon Rahm is left feeling 'angry'
Scot finding his form again after following Trump triumph by missing four straight cuts
Grant Forrest looks to have turned the corner after shaking off a run of four missed cuts following his brilliant Nexo Championship win - and a subsequent phone call from Donald Trump - to rediscover his best form.
The East Lothian-based player handed himself a timely confidence boost by carding sub-par rounds at Carnoustie, Kingbarns and St Andrews last week to finish just outside the top ten in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
That stopped his slide down the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai Rankings in the battle to make the season-ending Play-Offs by being inside the top 70 at the conclusion of the Genesis Championship in Korea later this month.
Forrest has now made a promising start in this week’s Open de Espana presented by Madrid, carding a four-under-par 67 at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid to sit handily-placed.
Starting on the tenth, the 32-year-old followed five straight pars with birdies at the 15th, where he was left with just over 60 yards for his second shot, and 17th, where he made his 2 from eight feet.
He then mixed three birdies with one bogey on the front nine, finishing with his second 2 of the day and this one coming from a similar distance to the first one.
The effort left Forrest sitting five shots ahead of Jon Rahm after the three-time winner came home in three-over 39 after earlier holing out from a greenside bunker for an eagle at par-5 14th.
Jon Rahm blown off course in Madrid by wind
“I’m frustrated. I’m so angry,” declared the Spaniard. “I didn’t feel like my swing was bad, I just struggled with the wind, to be honest. There were a lot of swings that came out the way I wanted them to, but the wind affected them differently than I expected.
“That happened on a lot of holes, but 17 is a clear example. I positioned it right over the pin, and it flew 12 yards over because the wind was way more down than I thought. Same on 11, but the opposite.
“On 15, I was short right on a shot that should have been right-to-left, and it got pushed to the right. On three, I flagged it and it went another ten or 12 long. Just not what I expected.”
Englishman Marco Penge, who missed the cut in this event 12 months ago after a second-round 79, underlined his growing stature in the game as he signed for a 66 that contained an eagle and five birdies.
“I’m a miles better player than I was this time last year,” said Penge, who was in the frame for this year’s Ryder Cup and looks as though he could be pushing even harder for Europe’s hat-trick bid at Adare Manor in two years’ time.
“When I came here last year, I was really struggling. It’s actually quite funny looking at some of the holes now and remembering, ‘oh, I hit it over there, and I hit it there’. I think I’m just an all-round better player, a bit more mature, a bit more experienced. Yeah, it’s just been a great year, and that makes things a little easier.”
Elsewhere, David Law opened with a three-under-par 69 to sit joint-11th in the Hainan Open, the first leg of a HotelPlanner Tour double-header in China.
In the amateur ranks, meanwhile, Scotland sit in a share of 18th spot but 13 shots behind leaders South Africa at the halfway stage in the Eisenhower Trophy in Singapore.
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