Grant Forrest eyeing new heights after ending slump in spectacular style

DAILYMAIL.COM • 2h ago

By PAUL FORSYTH 21:02 12 Oct 2026, updated 21:10 12 Oct 2026

As Grant Forrest will testify, the vagaries of golf are such that there’s no saying when its magic will come and go, even on the DP World Tour.

The 33-year-old Scot could not have anticipated that he would even challenge for the Open de Espana title at the weekend, never mind win it.

He had missed the cut in his four previous events. He had made it to the weekend in only two of his last 11, which included a withdrawal from the British Masters.

All in all, it had been an awful summer for the East Lothian player who could not for the life of him recapture the form that had won him two previous titles as a professional.

And yet, when he teed it up in Madrid last Thursday, he somehow found something from somewhere, and boy did he make the most of it.

Forrest was still not at his best — in his final round, he hit just four of 14 fairways — but he can be mighty proud of how he hung in there to find himself in contention.

After a rough start on Sunday, he birdied the 10th, 13th and 14th holes before winning the tournament with a courageous up-and-down at the last.

That spared him a three-way play-off with playing partner Victor Perez, who parred the 18th, and Spaniard Eugenio Chacarra.

Not only did Forrest’s one-under-par 70 for a 14-under total earn him the trophy and a cheque for £480,000, it won him invites to both The Open and The Masters.

In shock immediately after his success, Forrest was scarcely any calmer yesterday, when he sat down with BBC Scotland to reflect on his achievement.

‘I’m still on cloud nine I think. It’s very surreal what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous on a golf course.

‘In that situation, you’ve got to expect the other guy, Victor, to make it. So you’d have to make it anyway but, when his putt missed, the stage was set for me to try and hole the winning putt. My hands were absolutely shaking. I don’t know how I managed to make it go in but I was delighted when it did obviously.’

It was a huge win for Forrest whose previous successes were in the 2021 Hero Open and the 2025 Nexo Championship. It lifted him from 296th to 140th in the world rankings. And it earned him the right to play in two of next year’s major championships.

He has competed in The Open twice already, at Muirfield and Carnoustie, but doing so at the home of golf will be something else again. ‘Playing a third at St Andrews is going to be incredible,’ he said.

Before that will be his debut at The Masters, a thrilling prospect for the Scot. ‘With the Masters being at Augusta every year, growing up, you get familiar with the course and the holes.

‘I was there as a spectator in 2019 and it’s just an incredibly special place. So to have the opportunity to go there as a player has still not sunk in yet.’

As he flew from Madrid to New Delhi for this week’s DP World India Championship, Forrest admitted that there was ‘validation’ and ‘relief’ after what was his first professional victory outside Scotland.

It comes at an exciting time for Scottish golf with Sandy Scott joining Robert MacIntyre on the PGA Tour. Less than two months ago, Scott Jamieson ended a 14-year drought by winning the Nexo Championship.

Forrest says that the Scots can feed off each other’s success. ‘It gives you positive energy when one guy succeeds. You know they are not much different in terms of ability, it’s just reminding yourself that a win can be round the corner at any point.’

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