FORSYTH FEELS HE HAS TURNED THE CORNER ... JOINT THIRD AFTER TWO ROUNDS OF EUROPEAN TOUR Q SCHOOL

Alastair Forsyth in action during his second round at PGA Catalunya. Picture by courtesy of Getty   Images(c)

REPORT FROM EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS
Alastair Forsyth believes he has turned a corner following a spell of disappointing form.
The Scot was speaking after moving a step closer to a European Tour return thanks to a two under par second round 70 at Qualifying School Final Stage.

The two-time European Tour winner endured one of the most 

difficult seasons of his long career in 2013 making just eight 

cuts in 21 appearances on both the Challenge Tour and The 

European Tour, but will enter the third round in Girona just 

three strokes off the lead.

The Glaswegian has not managed to finish inside the top 100 in The 

Race to Dubai since 2008, having risen to prominence in his rookie 

season back in 2000 following victory at the Qualifying School 

Final Stage the previous year.

Forsyth thinks the long hours of work he has done with coach Ian 

Rae have begun to pay dividends though, and is hoping the 

memories of his win at the gruelling Qualifying School 14 years ago 

can help him return to the top tier of European golf, and the kind of 

form which yielded victories at the 2002 Malaysian Open and 2008 

Madeira Islands Open.

“It’s been a terrible three or four seasons for me,” said Forsyth, who 

moved to seven under par heading into day three at PGA Catalunya 

Resort. 

“But I feel as if myself and my coach have got to the bottom of the 

problems so I'm a lot more positive going forward.

“This is a very different week, obviously, a big one. But I am a lot 

more positive I can turn it around now because I feel like we’ve 

worked it out and we just have to get the improvements into my 

swing and get rid of the problems.

“It’s difficult doing that and also being at such a high pressure 

tournament but I've managed to keep it in play this week reasonably 

well.

“There’s no getting away from it, it’s a different kind of 

environment here and a very high pressure tournament. You don’t 

play in any higher pressure than this. It’s not always enjoyable but 

you try to treat it like a normal golf tournament as much as you can.

“I'm not flushing it by any means out there but if I can play a 

bit better out there then I can avoid the kind of situation I had 

at the seventh, where I had to get up and down for a double 

bogey.

“A couple of times this week I've ended up in weird and wonderful 

places on the course without doing a lot wrong and that’s been the 

case in the last few years. I've been in these places too often but the 

better you play the less often those things happen and I think I'm 

working on the right stuff so I’d like to think things can only get 

better.”

John Hahn, meanwhile, is hoping to follow in the footsteps of 

American European Tour trailblazers Peter Uihlein and Brooks 

Koepka after he moved top thanks to a superb six under par 66 in 

Spain.

Having come through the First and Second Qualifying Stages en 

route to this week’s six-round marathon, Hahn fired seven birdies 

on the more testing Stadium Course at PGA Catalunya Resort in 

Girona to go two clear of Sweden’s Jens Dantorp.

+To find out how Alastair Forsyth's nine Scottish colleagues 

and West Linton-based Welshman Gareth Wright fared today, 

scroll down past the following scoreboard

  ALL THE SECOND-ROUND TOTALS

   Par 142 (1x70, 172)

+Stadium Course Par 72, Yardage: 7,333.

+Tour Course Par 70, Yardage: 6,610

132 J Hahn (USA) 66 66

134 J Dantorp (Swe) 66 68

135 A Forsyth (Sco) 65 70; J Fahrbring (Swe) 71 64; L Bjerregaard  (Den) 65 70; R Finch  (Eng) 64 71; B Stone (RSA) 69 66

136 A Gee  (Eng) 66 70; D Brooks (Eng) 65 71; R McGee (Irl) 70 66; O Wilson (Eng) 69 67; M Jonzon (Swe) 64 72; E Goya (Arg) 66 70; F Zanotti (Par) 66 70; E Espana (Fra) 62 74; W Ormsby (Aus) 69 67

137 D Kemmer (USA) 67 70; T Whitehouse  (Eng) 68 69; K Pratt (Aus) 71 66; M Lundberg (Swe) 69 68; O Stark (Swe) 66 71; G Wright  (Wal) 72 65; T Pieters  (Bel) 64 73; C Paisley  (Eng) 67 70; S Wakefield (Eng) 69 68; G Lockerbie  (Eng) 72 65; A Saddier (Fra) 71 66; A Hartø  (Den) 67 70; F Andersson Hed (Swe) 69 68; M Tullo (Chi) 67 70

138 H Leon (Chi) 68 70; P Sjöland (Swe) 66 72; E Kofstad (Nor) 70 68; J Doherty  (Sco) 68 70; J Elson  (Eng) 64 74; W Harrold (Eng) 65 73; C Del Moral (Esp) 67 71; J Barnes (Eng) 66 72; C Shinkwin (am) (Eng) 68 70

139 S Manley (Wal) 68 71; A McArthur  (Sco) 66 73; J Knutzon (USA) 70 69; O Floren  (Swe) 72 67; G Stal  (Fra) 71 68; D McGuigan (Sco) 71 68; J Watts (Eng) 68 71; M Lafeber (Ned) 71 68; A Domingo (Esp) 66 73; J Lagergren (Swe) 65 74; B Dredge (Wal) 68 71; R Pettersson (Swe) 70 69; T Lee (USA) 64 75; A Björk (Swe) 74 65; J Morrison  (Eng) 72 67

140 D Higgins (Irl) 67 73; K Horne (RSA) 72 68; K Phelan (Irl) 73 67; J Huldahl (Den) 72 68; M Lorenzo-Vera  (Fra) 67 73; S Hodgson (Eng) 71 69; L Gagli  (Ita) 74 66; J Heath  (Eng) 69 71; E Dubois (Fra) 75 65; M Korhonen (Fin) 69 71; A Johnston (Eng) 67 73

141 B Henson (USA) 71 70; A Marshall (Eng) 71 70; M Delpodio  (Ita) 70 71; P Price (Wal) 74 67; J Lando Casanova  (Fra) 76 65; T Van Der Walt (RSA) 72 69; C Ortiz  (Mex) 73 68; B Paolini (USA) 70 71; D Dixon (Eng) 73 68; N Lemke (Swe) 66 75; J Guerrier  (Fra) 73 68; M Crespi  (Ita) 71 70; D Gavins (Eng) 69 72; J Lucquin (Fra) 68 73; O Fisher  (Eng) 72 69; W Besseling  (Ned) 68 73

142 J Edfors (Swe) 69 73; N Quintarelli (Ita) 68 74; M Orrin (Eng) 71 71; P Archer (Eng) 72 70; F Fritsch  (Ger) 72 70; P Martin Benavides (Esp) 73 69; A McLardy (RSA) 77 65; A Haig (RSA) 68 74; J Robinson (Eng) 71 71; P Edberg (Swe) 73 69; S Henry  (Sco) 72 70; A Dodt (Aus) 71 71; C Arendell (USA) 72 70; A Garcia-Heredia (Esp) 72 70; M Grönberg (Swe) 75 67; T Nørret (Den) 71 71; D McElroy (am) (Nir) 68 74

143 C Bouniol (Fra) 73 70; M Zions (Aus) 72 71; G Cambis  (Fra) 71 72; V Phillips (Eng) 72 71; C Hanson (Eng) 66 77; D Im (USA) 70 73; R Karlberg  (Swe) 66 77; P Hedblom (Swe) 69 74; T Sluiter  (Ned) 68 75; L Bond (Wal) 69 74

144 R Russell (Sco) 76 68; B An (SKor) 71 73; M Wiegele  (Aut) 71 73; O Lieser (Cze) 74 70; G Murray  (Sco) 67 77

145 C Suneson (Esp) 72 73; N Fenwick (Sco) 72 73; J Timmis (Eng) 67 78; Z Scotland  (Eng) 71 74; A Maestroni  (Ita) 73 72; J Ahlers (RSA) 73 72; K Benz (Sui) 69 76; G Main (USA) 73 72; D Stewart (Sco) 68 77; C Monasterio (Arg) 67 78; M Brier (Aut) 74 71; Y Tsukada (Jpn) 75 70

146 S Drummond (Sco) 75 71; B Åkesson (Swe) 75 71; D Ulrich (Sui) 77 69; N Nissen (Den) 73 73; J Rask (Swe) 77 69; B Ritthammer (Ger) 76 70; S Arnold  (Aus) 75 71; M Hensby (Aus) 69 77; T Linard (Fra) 69 77; J Lara (Esp) 74 72; C Dammert (am) (Ger) 70 76

147 I Garrido (Esp) 72 75; O Henningsson  (Swe) 77 70; R Davies (Wal) 71 76; D Vancsik (Arg) 69 78; N Dougherty  (Eng) 73 74;

148 R Steiner (Aut) 74 74; A Bernadet  (Fra) 74 74; J Fly (USA) 72 76; R McGowan  (Eng) 77 71; B Evans  (Eng) 71 77

149 E Cole (USA) 71 78; L Goddard  (Eng) 75 74; J Granberg  (Fin) 73 76; O Bekker (RSA) 73 76; K Ferrie (Eng) 71 78

150 N Ravano (Ita) 69 81; J Sjöholm (Swe) 77 73

152 A Kaleka  (Fra) 79 73

160 J Bäckström (Swe) 76 84

Retired: D Popovic (Aus) 73 ret.

 

 

EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS