When it comes to finding our next big thing, Scottish golf tends to have more false dawns than an Arctic winter. In the perilous waters of the professional game, you’re never sure who’s going to quickly adapt and stay afloat or sink without trace. Having started his season with a morale-boosting fifth place finish on the European Challenge Tour in Turkey recently, Grant Forrest continues his rookie campaign in this week’s Portuguese Open, which is a dual ranking event with the main European Tour.
With a highly impressive amateur pedigree – Scottish boys and men’s champion and Walker Cup player – Forrest, like many before him, ticked plenty of boxes but then golf is much more than a box ticking exercise. Forrest’s former Craigielaw clubmate, Lloyd Saltman, was tipped for huge things when he turned pro a decade ago on the same day as his friend, Rory McIlroy, but he struggled to scale the heights and continues to muddle around in the foothills of the paid ranks.
Saltman made the leap when he wasn’t playing particularly well and Forrest has used that as a cautionary tale. The 23-year-old was set to make the transition after the Walker Cup at 2015 but delayed his move and had another year in the amateur game.
"Lloyd had a lot of talent but it's hard to put your finger on it,” said Forrest. “You can get on a bad run and lose your way a bit. It can happen very easily. I’ve spoken to Lloyd about it a bit and one thing he did say to me was that he wasn't playing great when he turned pro. He had won four events at the start of 2007 to get into the Walker Cup team that year and felt he had to turn pro but his game had deteriorated a bit by then. He wasn't on a good run when he made that move and he did say that you should really try and do it when you are playing well.
“But I'm more focused on the guys who are doing well to see what they are doing and what they do that makes them successful. It's definitely not down to pure talent, that's for sure. Everyone is on their own path.”
Forrest is making decent strides in his own journey and this week’s affair, featuring the up-and-coming new faces on the Challenge Tour and some hardened veterans of the main circuit, is another step in his development.
Forrest has grown up quickly over the last few years. He lost his dad, Graeme, to cancer just weeks before he won the Scottish Amateur title in 2013 and a sense of perspective continues to be handy club in the bag as continues his progression. “Sometimes when you have a bad day on the course it can feel like the end of the world,” he said. "Things like that (losing his dad) make you think it's nothing more than just a c**p round of golf. You just move on."
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