On the Challenge Tour’s hit parade, Scotland had its very own Fab Four this season. Liam, Bob, David and Grant may not generate quite the same kind of swooning, shrieking pandemonium as John, Paul, Ringo and George did but you’ve got to start somewhere.
Along with his aforementioned compatriots, Liam Johnston, Bob MacIntyre and David Law, Grant Forrest will stride out on the European Tour next season as part of an upwardly mobile quartet who sparkled on the second-tier circuit in 2018.
With a trio of seconds and a third during the campaign, Forrest was the best of the Scottish graduates at No 7 on the final rankings and the 25-year-old is confident he can take the step up in his stride.
“I feel I’m ready and there’s nothing to be scared of,” said Forrest after earning promotion to the top table in just his second full season as a professional. “I want to try to win tournaments and that’s always been my outlook at whatever level I’ve competed at.
"I think you have to set the bar higher than simply looking to hold on to your tour card. If that’s all you are trying to do then anything below that means you’re back off the tour.”
The Challenge Tour remains a terrific breeding ground but with its fairly stripped back, no frills cut-and-thrust, it can be as about as glamorous as a hurried toilet break at a busy motorway service station. “I wanted to get off it this year, 100 per cent,” added Forrest of a circuit that certainly forges a hard edge and a winning mentality.
“I played in a couple of main tour events at the start of the year and those make you realise that’s where you want to be. Little things like the courtesy cars, the food you get, the availability of physio trucks; they all add up to making life a bit easier.”
Having sharpened up his short game – “from 150 yards, I was much better and that mean more birdies and more chance of competing” – Forrest prospered in 2018. The one lingering regret is that the former Scottish Amateur champion didn’t pull off a victory.
“But it doesn’t dishearten you,” he said of those close shaves. “It can be hard coming off the green and the player you’ve lost to is getting sprayed with champagne, but if you’re putting yourself in those positions then you are doing something right.”
Forrest, who made his breakthrough as a amateur nearly a decade ago in the Scottish under-16s at Largs, will get his European Tour season cracking with four events before Christmas in Hong Kong, Mauritius and South Africa. It’s not a bad old life.
"I’ve heard Mauritius is a pretty nice spot," he said. "You are week in, week out at tournaments and it’s easy to forget what you’re doing. It is your job but you do pinch yourself and appreciate how lucky we are."
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