When I grow up, mum, I want to have my face emblazoned on a giant promotional banner which is tethered to a lamp post on the B9152 in Aviemore.
It’s possibly not an ambition Grant Forrest harboured as a starry-eyed young ‘un but, as one of the Scottish poster boys here at the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge at Macdonald Spey Valley, that’s exactly what has happened this week.
“It’s a bit scary,” said Forrest with a chuckle. “I thought ‘who’s that ugly fella?’ I saw a couple of wee promotional flyers but I didn’t know something that size was going up. It’s cool to see it though.”
Like the oversized billboard hanging in the highland resort, Forrest has put in a couple of big performances himself on the Challenge Tour this season.
In the fraught cut-and-thrust of competition on the rigorous, proven breeding ground of the second-tier circuit, earning promotion to the main European Tour can be as tough a task as scaling the Cairngorms on a Penny Farthing.
However, a brace of second place finishes, the most recent coming in France last weekend where he lost in a play-off to Welshman Stuart Manley, has put the former Scottish Amateur champion in prime position to achieve that particular goal.
With the top-15 on the rankings at the end of the campaign making the step up, Forrest currently sits in seventh place. There’s plenty of work to do but the Scot, who turned 25 on Tuesday, continues to rise to this particular challenge.
In this neck of the golfing woods, the name ‘Brooks Koepka’ is as much a part of the local scene as mountaineering shops, ski wear and Lochs & Glens bus tours.
Since winning this tournament back in 2013, the American has gone on to claim back-to-back US Open wins and earn global acclaim. As inspiring tales go, it’s a pretty good one for Forrest and company.
“Brooks winning does open your eyes but if you look at any of the guys who have kicked on from the Challenge Tour you can take a lot of confidence from that,” said Forrest as he gave a nod of acknowledgement to the excellent exploits of the former Challenge Tour No 1 Tommy Fleetwood and former Scottish Hydro Challenge champion Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston.
“If you can win out here you know you can succeed at the next level. This event has had some really good champions and that says a lot about the golf course itself. It’s a proper test.”
That test is exacting and Forrest is confident he has the weapons in his armoury to combat the challenges and thrive on home soil. A closing 65 in last year’s event has given the former Walker Cup player plenty of encouragement heading into today’s first round of his 10th event in 11 weeks.
“I’ve had two second place finishes on the tour but you don’t get too down about losing out,” he added. “Any time you have a chance to win out here, you know you are doing something right. That’s the way you have to look at it.
“I played well in this last year but just didn’t putt well, until the last round. If you drive it well there is a good score out there. I switched to a cack-handed grip on my putting last month and my stats have improved. I haven’t looked back since.”
One of Forrest’s second place finishes was to his fellow Scot, Liam Johnston, in the Spanish Matchplay event last month and Johnston joins him in the field this week as part of a strong home contingent.
“I’ve never played here before this week but I played 13 holes on Tuesday with David Law and Craig Lawrie and Paul (Lawrie) walked round with us,” said of a round with a past Open winner peering on. “It was nice to have Paul there and be able to feed off a major champion.”
Bearsden’s Ewen Ferguson, with a trio of top-10s on the tour this season, has missed this event on two previous occasions due to injury.
“I actually played the practice round both times and then had to pull out while I was here,” he said of those painful setbacks.
On his current encouraging form, Ferguson has plenty of reasons to be optimistic about a third time lucky.
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